2017: Time is running out, Buhari
As a New Year begins, gloom
pervades the Nigerian space. The populace is reeling from economic
adversity, the greed of the thoroughly corrupt political class,
prevalent insecurity and dismay over hiccups in the assault on
corruption. Hopes of a better experience kindled by the offer of
electoral change to the irredeemable past administration have, for many,
crashed on the rocks of economic anguish, sectionalism and negative
continuity. On President Muhammadu Buhari’s shoulders lies the blame as
well as the responsibility for a positive reboot. This year presents him
with a last chance to save his legacy and re-balance the country.
To be fair, not all the
criticisms directed at Buhari for today’s parlous state of affairs are
on target. Recession, low reserves and fiscal buffers, broken
infrastructure and insecurity are the inevitable results of the
incompetence, corruption and lack of vision of past governments. The
immediate past administration, especially, vandalised the treasury,
broke all records of corruption and crowned its infamy by bequeathing to
us a fraudulent power assets privatisation and rampaging terrorism. To
Buhari’s credit, he has restored the fighting spirit of the military and
retaken territory captured by the Boko Haram terrorists. Similar
refuelling of the anti-corruption machinery has checkmated the looting
spree that flourished under Goodluck Jonathan, while vigorous efforts
have been made to plug the leakages in public finances. The Treasury
Single Account platform, over which previous administrations dithered,
had enabled the government to bring in N2.26 trillion by December 2,
according to the Central Bank of Nigeria. Despite the vigorous push-back
from entrenched interests and a compromised judiciary, the war on graft
has made progress such that recoveries of looted funds are planned to
part-fund the 2017 budget to the tune of N565.1 billion. Though hampered
by low funds, several dilapidated important highways and rail lines are
being rehabilitated. But things would have been way better. The downsides are palpable.
Predictions by the National Bureau of Statistics and the International
Monetary Fund that the economy will shrink by 1.3 per cent and 1.7 per
cent respectively capture the gloom. Three successive quarters of
recession gave way to stagflation by October, said the CBN, which also
announced foreign reserves at a low $25.04 billion mid-December.
Manufacturing has been contracting too, with a reported 1,500 factories
witnessing partial or full shut-down between 2015 and April 2016. The
crisis is more pronounced in the foreign exchange market where the naira
exchanged at N498 to $1 on Thursday, N192.75 above the official CBN
rate of N305.25.
The economy, security,
corruption and inclusiveness are the four major (though not exclusive)
areas Buhari should give priority as time is running out. These are
increasingly urgent problems. First, we re-present our recommendation
that he should cast his net wide and bring in knowledgeable stakeholders
to tackle the economy. It is an emergency. We need to knock strict
order into the forex market and eliminate the current bedlam of multiple
exchange rates that has denied genuine businesses of timely, affordable
forex and created a vibrant rent-taking cabal. For businesses to stay
afloat, they must have access to forex for raw materials and machinery.
All policies should have the
single-minded triple objectives of creating jobs, transforming into an
export-driven economy and achieving self-sufficiency in food and basic
medicines. There can be no success without urgently restarting the privatization programme and liberalizing the operating environment.
These are critical to attracting the massive infusion of Foreign Direct
Investment of a minimum $20 billion per year for a decade recommended by
the United Nations Development Programme.
Spending and well-structured
borrowing should go to the SMEs, construction, mining, agriculture and
start-ups. The N15 billion earmarked in the budget for development banks
is too meagre and should be raised and well-managed. A stimulus plan,
accompanied by tax reforms to capture more eligible payers, ending the
waste and reforming the bureaucracy, is also crucial.
Nigeria is becoming too
insecure. Military success against Boko-Haram should be followed up by
effective intelligence and police operations. Buhari should shake up the
police and other security agencies to crush kidnapping, armed robbery
and sectarian violence. The vigour deployed against Boko-Haram should be
replicated against the criminals posing as agitators in the Niger Delta
region and against the marauding Fulani herdsmen, whose murderous
rampage across the country has propelled them to the No.4 spot on the
Global Terrorism Index of world’s most deadly terrorist groups.
We do not doubt Buhari’s
sincerity in rooting out corruption. But it needs a robust strategy and
the right personnel. He should quickly clear the uncertainty over the
EFCC acting head, recharge the comatose Independent Corrupt Practices
and Other Related Offences Commission and appoint a fierce,
incorruptible anti-corruption crusader whom he would vest with the full
presidential backing to coordinate the war. He needs to purge his inner
circle first and end the in-fighting and intrigues in the Presidency
that are impacting negatively on the war on graft. Not all his trusted
aides share his hatred for corruption.
Above all, this year, Buhari
must live up to his inauguration day promise of being for everybody; a
father and the president of all Nigerians. His pledge sounds very hollow
today in the light of his perceived unabashed sectionalism and seeming
disdain for some sections of the polity. He needs to do more to reassure
Southerners and Northern minorities that he indeed belongs to all
Nigerians, irrespective of ethnic nationality, region, religion or
political persuasion. He should run an all-inclusive government.
Nigeria, a complex amalgam of ethnicity, faith and cultures, is his constituency. To win the
multiple wars to recover the economy, root out corruption, enthrone
security and make Nigeria great, Buhari should reinvent himself as a
father-figure, recruit all stakeholders and drop outdated ideas and
insularity, while he and his ministers imbibe a sense of urgency. This
should be his task in 2017 as 2019, election year, is just round the
corner.
Source: Smyleworld Info-Tech
07037370963
Source: Smyleworld Info-Tech
07037370963
