Good People, Nigeria’s former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, is getting more exciting. He has been churning out economic articles with ease these days. Whether you like him or not, the former #2 is serving his nation. He is among the few in the opposition who are providing constructive criticisms to help reshape the government.
Sure, some will say this guy named “Ndubuisi” must be supporting PDP and Atiku. But note one thing: where I come from in Abia state (Ovim) remains the most politically independent village in Nigeria. When the communities concluded that Nigeria was failing their sons and daughters, they decided that all ruling parties must be voted out of office. Yes, Ovim voted against PDP (Governorship), APC (President), PDP (Senate), and House (PDP). In these four cases, they voted against the ruling parties.
So, when I “praise” Atiku, see me from that angle. I don’t really care about the party, I want Nigeria to move forward. APC represents me in the Senate and House today, from the depth of the Igbo Nation. Of course, the village was cornered as one of the politicians switched parties, to get the same job from another party!
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On the strength of his economic/business thesis, usually on Facebook, I recommend for the University of Abuja to offer Atiku Abubakar the Dean of the Business School. He has many things he can share with our students.
The latest piece from Atiku…below
Nigeria Cannot Afford Luxuries During an Austerity.
It is to my consternation that despite the crash in the price of oil, and the inability of Nigeria to expand our revenue base through the non-oil sector, the Federal Government of Nigeria has only seen fit to slash our budget by a mere 0.6%, from ?10.594 trillion to ? 10.523 trillion. This represents a reduction of only ?71 billion.
Putting politics aside, this is grossly insufficient and betrays the fact we have lost touch with the current realities in the global political economy.
For the avoidance of doubt, when this budget was presented to the National Assembly on Tuesday, October 8, 2019, it was predicated on a projection that our nation would generate crude oil production of 2.18 million barrels a day, at an expected oil price of $57 per barrel.
Today that is no longer the case. Both our production, and the price of oil have been severely affected by the coronavirus pandemic, to the extent that we have unsold vessels, and our income has tanked by more than 50%.
Given that this is the case, how can anyone justify a reduction in expenditure of just 0.6%? We cannot be the only nation bucking the trend?
Saudi Arabia, a nation with a much stronger production capacity than ours and with a larger global market share, as well as a foreign reserve that is 12 times ours, has slashed her budget by almost 30%. Ditto for other oil economies.
Nigeria cannot make up for the loss of expected revenue by taking out more loans and issuing out more bonds. Debt will be the death of our economy, and bonds will put our people in bondage.
The best way out of this economic quagmire is to reduce our expenditure. And a 0.6% reduction is no reduction. It is only window dressing.
My counsel to the Federal Government of Nigeria is this: put Nigerians first and cut your coat, not according to your size, but according to your cloth.
Realistically slash the budget. Every pork barrel has to go. The billions budgeted for the travels and feeding of the President and Vice President has to be reduced. The ?27 billion budget for the renovation of the National Assembly has to go. The massive budgets to run both the Presidency and the Legislature has to be downsized. The budget for purchasing luxury cars for the President, his vice, and other political office holders must be abandoned. Leave the salaries of civil servants alone, but reduce the salaries of political appointees. Sell 8 or 9 of the jets in the Presidential Air Fleet.
Any budget slash that is less than 25% will not be in the interest of Nigeria. And beyond a budget slash, Nigeria needs a budget realignment, to redirect expenditure away from running a massive bureaucracy, into social development sectors like education, infrastructure, and above all, healthcare. We must invest in the goose that lays the golden egg – the Nigerian people.
These are the types of sacrifices that we need in a time of crisis. We do not need empty gestures that will lead to empty treasuries.
In times of austerity, no nation, not the least a mono-product economy, such as ours, should be living in luxury at a leadership level.
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Atiku’s position isn’t really different from mine in any of the things he had highlighted, I have basically argued same, so seeing him as partisan is disingenuous; any average thinking being here isn’t likely to differ from him.
The problem with an average Nigerian is that the hatred runs deep, once they put you in their black book, it doesn’t matter how sensible or meaningful your opinion is, you will be dismissed, chastised and condemned. They will ask you what you did when you were there, as if we elect people to reinforce and validate the failures of those that came before them.
I have questioned the revised budget and its workability, and I used an analogy of a son of former wealthy, who went about living his life like before, even when his dad had filed for bankruptcy long time ago. We cannot be living large and still claim that there’s no money, it’s laughable at best.
People always crave for viable and constructive opposition, and Atiku has performed excellently well there, despite the uninspiring statements his own party – the PDP puts out from time to time.
Yes, the man Atiku is not untainted, neither can you say that his excellence of soul is top notch, but in terms of awareness and foresight, give it to him!
Spoken my mind Prof, recall also that businesses are still waiting for NIRSAL covid-19 fund application to be processed after more than 3 months since we submitted online and there seems to be no guarantee on the process being transparent.
There ought to be an independent monitoring committee that will ensure that only genuining businesses access this money, otherwise political exposed portfolio businesses will hijack the whole thing