By Lateef Adewole
If there is anything I needed so desperately, it’s a break from all these troubles overshadowing the country. But how is that even possible for any concerned citizen who “carries Naija matter on his head” like me? All my life, I have tried to live in aloofness of what happens in the polity and governance of the country without success.
Ordinarily, I might have related that to how the current situation is impacting my life today as a business owner but it was the same feeling I have always had while I was in paid employment for a few decades. The only difference between now and then is the latitude I now have to ventilate my feelings publicly about the (mis)governance that we experience in the country.
Since I started my weekly article; “The Insight”, I have been able to express my opinions on multitude of issues as they affect the Nigerian citizens, of which I am one and the country. It has also given me the benefits of reaching the massive number of readers that would have been impossible if not through the writings. It also afforded me many opportunities to learn from vast and diverse demographics, from the numerous reactions, commentaries and responses I get, and interactions I do have with many known and unknown readers globally.
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It has been a fulfilling and relieving experience. The positive energy, the criticisms; positive and negative, the commendations, have kept me going. I see it as my little contribution to my country, my society and humanity. “K’ale so nipa temi wipe, mo sewon ti mo lese” (so it will be said of me that I stood up to be counted).
As a family man who has to make provisions for the upkeep of his dependants, I have watched my purchasing power gradually ebbed away in the past five years. Whenever I recollect how much I had to spend in the past to meet up with basic obligations and how much it costs to maintain the same now, I often heave a heavy sigh. I wondered what went wrong. This was not what we bargained for years ago when President Buhari was elected.
If many Nigerians were told that today will come and be as we have it now, they won’t believe such soothsayer. It feels like so long ago, even when it’s just a little over five years. The country was full of excitement and bubbling with enthusiasm after the win. The citizens were in jubilant mood and the peoples’ celebratory moods went overdrive. Many people would never have envisaged today, in their wildest imaginations. Not ever. Not under a Buhari presidency!
Like the Yorubas will say, “when a woman has not tested two husbands in marriages, she would never know the difference”. Now, Nigerians have known the difference. “The difference is clear”, like that Seven-up advert of yesteryears. When I sit down and reminisce over past years, I ask myself if we deserve this.
Even the greatest supporters of this administration would not deny the obvious. Afterall, we all buy from the same market, pay the same amount for fuel, transportation, go to the same stores, pay the same electricity rates, pay for medicals, schools, travel on the same roads, and so on. Well, there is the likelihood that I might not be completely correct “sha”.
Why do I say this? Because, there are those who don’t do all these that I listed as I do by virtue of their positions in government or their relationships with people in government. They live on our common patrimony. They don’t pay for all I stated with their hard-earned money. So, “oku o mo iye won n ta ago” (a masquerade doesn’t know what it costs to robe him). Such people could afford to be reckless and insensitive in their commentaries concerning the state of affairs in Nigeria today.
They are fed by the government. Their healthcare is paid for from public purse. They don’t buy fuel with their money. Their children don’t go to school in Nigeria and are paid for by government. They fly when travelling, so, they have no fear of been kidnapped, maimed or killed on the roads. They live in a different world from ours (technically), even when we live in the same country.
On our road to 2015 general elections, the prospects held so much hope and promises that many were already living in the dreamland of a new Nigeria. A “saved” country that was to be revamped by our “saviour”, General Muhammadu Buhari (Rtd.). A country where citizens would live in peace and harmony, secured, devoid of the cancerous corruption and in economic boom.
I remember watching a campaign where Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, in his characteristic political oratory, told the mammoth crowd in Teslim Balogun Stadium, Lagos, how we needed our own “General” to come to our rescue to save Nigeria from distress. He cited few other former world leaders who were once in the military, who came to the rescue of their countries at the time their countries were also in distress. These leaders were also old at the time they vied for office. Ronald Reagan (73) of America, Wiston Churchill (73) of Britain and Nelson Mandela (74) of South Africa (freedom fighter but was not in the military). General Buhari was 72 at the time too.
His rhetorics was followed by thunderous applause. People were full of so much hope. Sincerely, I know too many people personally who have been seriously let down by the president and his government. These were die-hard “Buharists” in 2015 till few years into the administration. They must have been shocked by what is happening now.
For me, by the nature of my work, it requires travelling a lot, across the length and breadth of the country. Now imagine the news that emanates concerning insecurity on the roads on a daily basis, what will anyone expect from me? To be dancing? I have had to shelve many journeys that involved road trips. That means loss of businesses sometimes. It is when there is life that one can do business.
Those who were kidnapped and or killed along the roads never bargained for it. Like I have written many times, many of these roads, travelling on which have now become a “suicide mission”, were roads I have travelled countless times. Most of those times in those years, I personally drove myself and alone in the car. I have driven myself from Kano to Lagos alone. Likewise across many states in the country, without fear. But not now.
As a business owner now, I felt more how different economic indices impact lives. Many segments of our businesses involve importation. Many needed items are not locally manufactured but imported, either wholly or in parts to be assembled here. With exchange rates through the roof, the consequences of that is obvious. This has affected businesses. It affected the capital required which has ballooned, with attendant higher cost of fund.
It shot prices of goods and services up, makes them less affordable to clients and customers. This led to lower patronage and decrease in bottom-line in an effort to manage these costs vis-à-vis affordability. A lower return on investment due to lower profit margin can result in plans to reduce overheads, chief of which is recurrent expenditures. Salaries take a chunk of this. What is possible way out, cost-cutting by right-sizing and downsizing, fancy words for “sacking employees”. That is job losses. Why look far for the cause of increasing unemployment? This is contrary to the promise of employment in 2015.
The same factor impacted the purchasing power of the citizens. How much were we buying things like food items, consumables and many other basic needs before now? Many peoples’ incomes have remained stagnant in these five years. With the devaluation of Naira and Dollar being nearly twice its 2015 rate now, that’s about half the purchasing power, compared to 2015.
Yes, there was an increase in the national minimum wage. But 18,000 naira is 90 dollars (at 200 naira per dollar in 2015) while 30,000 naira now is about 67 dollars (at 450 naira per dollar). So, in real terms, there was actually no increase but an effort to catch up with the current financial reality facing employees. They were badly hit already before the increase. Worse still, many state governments are still dilly-dallying in paying till date.
What about its twin; inflation? A single digit was maintained till 2015. It hovered around 7-9%. What is the inflation rate now? Double digits in the past five years. Currently at about 15.75%. Food inflation is at 19.56%.
As someone in the oil and gas sector, it sounded ludicrous to me when some of the president’s supporters, while in the opposition, said we were supposed to be buying the Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) popularly called petrol at less than 40 naira per litre as against 87 naira per litre sold in 2015 before the coming of this government. I remember Alh. Lai Muhammed, as the spokesman for the opposition party APC, called the reduction of 10 naira from 97 to 87 by Jonathan administration in 2015, “a tokenism which was too little too late”. He said fuel should not be sold more than 65 per litre.
That claim of 40 naira per litre as being the appropriate price was championed by the late Professor Tam David-West, a bossom friend of President Buhari and his former appointee in his first coming as a military head of state (1983-85). Many took that as part of APC manifestos and went to town with it during the campaigns. Sadly, after winning the election, that promise, like many others, were outrightly denied. Or were they cancelled?
In no time, same people who claimed that we were being short-changed at 87 naira per litre for petrol jacked the price to 145 naira per litre, just about ten months after taking over. That was a huge 58 naira increase (67%). No “pim” was heard from Professor Tam David-West till he died. I actually waited anxiously for his reaction to that but it never came. Ironically, Alhaji Lai Muhammed had the “honour” of having to defend that action, as the Minister of Information. The price is currently hovering between 160 and 165 naira per litre. A rumour of a further increase towards 200 per litre is already in the offing.
Let no one tell me that subsidy is not paid now. The subsidy was paid for few years despite the increase. Only that in this era, it was done opaquely. It is shrouded in secrecy, unlike before, when the fraud in it could easily be exposed since many importers were involved. Only NNPC has been importing over 95% of PMS in the past few years. And the subsidies were not appropriated for by the National Assembly. They were extrabudgetary spendings, coined in another term as “under-recovery”, which is deducted directly from the source, before remitting generated revenues to the federation account by the NNPC. That’s unconstitutional. But, aren’t we in “Naija” again? Governors have complained of “under-remittances” from the NNPC.
One thing that I have praised this administration for is the continuation of the rail projects from where the last administration left them. They have massively invested in it. Many previously abandoned lines have been revived. There is massive patronage on the Abuja-Kaduna route now, not with the devious bandits on the expressway. Many of these “big men and women” in Abuja now travel in train.
Lagos-Abeokuta-Ibadan started operation last year ending. Ajaokuta-Itakpe-Warri is running. It was reported that Apapa port has been linked by rail and cargoes will soon be evacuated through that. Other routes are in the working. Kano-Katsina-Daura-Marandi (Niger Republic) is one of them. President Buhari deserves commendations for this, as well as the Minister of Transport, Hon. Chibuike Amaechi, who has remained focused to bring the projects to fruition as early as feasible.
Although, their cost implications and operational performances, business-wise, have remained sources of concern. With the level of debts that Nigeria has been plunged into in just five years, this is the only major infrastructure development that could be pointed at. It then begged the question about the whereabouts of the borrowed money.
Nigeria’s total debt profile was over 32 trillion naira as at Q3, 2020. As at Q2 in 2015 when this government was inaugurated, Nigeria’s total debts was about 12 trillion naira. The difference is an humongous 20 trillion naira. That is 166.7% increase! To service that debt requires 3.32 trillion naira. That is 24% of the entire 2021 budget. That’s crazy. More borrowings are in plan to finance the 5.71 trillion naira deficit in the 2021 budget.
It is better late than never. Government, under the leadership of President Buhari can still try to salvage the situation if they are sincere and have the political will. A stern directive by the president to truly deal with killer herdsmen would make a difference. Mismanagement of public funds by public officials should be dealt with, irrespective of who is involved. Culprits should be punished to serve as a deterrent to others. There is a need for economic policy consistency to help the private sector in their business planning. Multiple exchange rates regime needs to be addressed.
Rather than continuously borrowing, the cost of governance needs to be cut drastically. We can’t be borrowing money to pay salaries or use almost half of the budget for recurrent expenditures which is 5.64 trillion naira in 2021 budget. That’s irresponsibility. The president must re-tune the entire workings of the system. Things are not working as expected. Many propositions by the people like restructuring, should be looked into. We cannot continue to pretend that all is well.
God Bless Nigeria.
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