BY: IFEANYI IZEZE<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last
\nis to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant\u201d- Max de
\nPree.<\/p>\n
But under the current dispensation in the country, the first
\nresponsibility of our President is to blame every other person that was
\nin government before him for failures of his government to register a
\nsingle significant impact on the socio-economic lives of the ordinary
\nNigerians since 2015. The last, as he displays daily, is to remain deaf
\nand dumb. In between, he is there as lord over all.<\/p>\n
Just few days ago the United Nations reawakened Nigerians to the brutal
\nreality of how poorly the Gen. Mohamadu Buhari administration has
\nmanaged the nation\u2019s economy with a damning verdict that 98 million
\nNigerians live in multi-dimensional poverty.<\/p>\n
Like it\u2019s typical of the head of State and his handlers, they didn\u2019t
\nmake any comment about the scary statistics coming from the United
\nNations Development Programme (UNDP). Perhaps, one reason they didn\u2019t
\nmind to comment on the report is because it is factual – Nigerians in
\nthe past four years indeed live in multi-dimensional poverty.<\/p>\n
False pretences of knowledge about complicated economic indices have
\nbecome all too common defining characteristics of this government. Who
\nare the ordinary Nigerians going to believe, government or the evidence
\nof their own eyes? If what the government says has little or no relation
\nto what people feel or can see all around them, why won\u2019t they believe
\nthe UNDP report?<\/p>\n
Under Buhari, Nigeria has grown its debt portfolio by N9.61tn;
\nstatistics available from the Debt Management Office (DMO) have shown.
\nIn essence, the nation\u2019s debt is about where it was in 2005-06, just
\nbefore Nigeria benefited from massive debt relief as part of a program
\ncoordinated by the Paris Club, IMF, World Bank and the African
\nDevelopment Bank under the Obasanjo administration. To have squandered
\nthe debt reduction in just four years and have no tangible economic
\nprogress to show for it is beyond disappointing to say the least.<\/p>\n
Only recently, the United Nations declared that 43 percent of our
\nnation\u2019s Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) has taken flight to other
\ncountries. Unemployment has gone out of proportion and there is no hope
\nin sight.<\/p>\n
But typical of a team that lacks capacity for anticipatory actions, the
\nFederal Government has been running from pillar to post in a vain bid to
\nstabilize the economy. Unfortunately, all conceived palliatives applied
\nto save the nation\u2019s declining economic indicators have merely
\nscratched the surface of the problems leaving the mass of Nigerians
\ndesperate, confused and hungrier.<\/p>\n
Without doubt, Nigerians would unanimously agree that the Federal
\nGovernment\u2019s casual response to the nation\u2019s rising economic
\nchallenges depicts gross insincerity and\/or incompetence on the part of
\nthose that administer the economy.<\/p>\n
With external debt standing at more than $10 billion and our internal
\ndebts at more than $15.4 billion, it should bother every concerned
\nNigerian that Buhari is driving the country into economic wilderness.
\nThis should be a cause for concern for all well meaning Nigerians, more
\nso when the Federal Government responses to these rising economic
\nchallenges have, at best, been casual and at worst deceptive.<\/p>\n
As said by Ike Brannon, a Senior Fellow at the Jack Kemp Foundation and
\nPresident of Capital Policy Analytics, a consulting firm in Washington
\nDC, \u201cNigeria\u2019s biggest economic problem, though \u2013 and the issue
\nthat requires real political acceptance from Buhari\u2019s new government
\n\u2013 is the country\u2019s growing public debt. Since assuming office in
\n2015 President Buhari\u2019s governments have added considerably to the
\nnation\u2019s debt, which now exceeds $85 billion.<\/p>\n
\u201cCompounding Nigeria\u2019s debt problem is the nation\u2019s significant
\ncontingent liabilities. Recent arbitration awards have exposed the
\ngovernment to billions of dollars of liability \u2013 most prominently a
\ncase involving a private contractor, Process & Industrial Developments
\n(P&ID), whose gas processing project collapsed after the Nigerian
\ngovernment failed to carry out its contractual commitments. The P&ID
\ntribunal award alone represents over $9 billion, and it owes another
\ncompany another $2.3 billion over a failed hydro-power project.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is some evidence that Nigeria\u2019s high debt servicing costs,
\nalong with concerns over the rule of law, is causing investors to become
\nconcerned with investments in Nigerian debt.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a mystery why these contingent liabilities and the concomitant
\ndecline in investor confidence and divestment in the country\u2019s most
\ncritical sector are not taken more seriously in Abuja.\u201d<\/p>\n
Can you imagine that the federal government is proposing to spend N2.14
\ntrillion for debt servicing with 80percent of this amount set aside for
\nservicing its domestic debt component?<\/p>\n
Emblematic of this casual, non profound approach to the management of
\nthe national economy is the Central Bank\u2019s now traditional monthly or
\nbi-monthly dole of hundreds of millions of dollars to cronies of the
\npowers that be under the pretence of stabilising the disabled economy.
\nThis has only created a bunch of sit-home overnight mega billionaires
\nwhose only job is to sweep every dollar coming in and divert same to the
\nparallel market.<\/p>\n
The amount of money being borrowed and supposedly pumped into the
\neconomy is being aggressively removed by agents of the CBN and people on
\nthe corridors of power in Abuja. So we are just wasting money making
\nvery few government-people superrich without addressing any of the
\nobvious problems nakedly staring at the nation.<\/p>\n
Now, the 2019 budget was anchored around revenue projections of N6.97
\ntrillion for the 2019 fiscal year. From the oil sector, the federal
\ngovernment is expecting revenue of about N3.73 trillion which is about
\n50 percent, while N710 billion will come from the proceeds of government
\nequity in Joint Ventures.<\/p>\n
This figure was derived from two presumptions: oil price benchmark of
\nUS$60 per barrel; and daily oil production target of 2.3 million barrels
\nper day minus condensates. In all, both presumptions are at best clearly
\nover-ambitious and near unachievable.<\/p>\n
Since the beginning of this year, oil price has oscillated between $61
\nto $66 per barrel, showing that the benchmark price of $60 was on the
\nedge leaving almost nothing to add to the Excess Crude Account, now
\nalmost completely ravished by the gang in government.<\/p>\n
Serious issues with the daily production quota cap of 2.3 million
\nbarrels per day used by the federal government in the fiscal plan have
\nalso been raised by oil experts who believe the assumption was
\noutrightly over-optimistic and it remains to be seen what actually gave
\nthe government such morale.<\/p>\n
As we were told by the government officials, Nigeria currently produces
\nabout 1.8million barrels per day, which according to some experts in the
\noil sector, is believed to be a more realistic production estimate. So
\nin all, the oil revenue projections are at best overly optimistic which
\nmeans, to be able to fund the budget, we must again borrow either from
\noutside or from within.<\/p>\n
Despite all these, in its propaganda style administration, the
\ngovernment claimed it had been spending more on infrastructure than
\nother administrations in the past. They said they invested in
\ninfrastructure. The question is: which infrastructure? The power supply
\nsituation has remained disgraceful, the roads are near-impassable, the
\neducation sector at all levels is yearning for serious attention in
\nfunding. How many can one count! Is there any sector of our economy that
\nis doing well?<\/p>\n
You borrowed all these money and there are no meaningful investments for
\nthem; we are still importing fuel, importing food, no jobs and no
\nelectricity, the roads are still terrible. So where is all the monies
\nbeing borrowed going to? Where do you look in this government that you
\ndon\u2019t see gloom and distress?<\/p>\n
Without an honest and frank government acceptance of the situation,
\nNigeria\u2019s chances of escaping its self-inflicted debt trap are
\nvanishingly small. It is clear there is no hope for this country under
\nthe current administration\u2019s management of our resources as all they
\nhave shown us they know seems to borrow, borrow and borrow! How long can
\nwe survive this as a country? God bless Nigeria!<\/p>\n