Enyeribe Ejiogu, Olakunle Olafioye, Henry Okonkwo and James Ojo Adakole
Nigerians from all walks of life are brimming with high hopes and expectations of huge relief in the coming year. Many say the preceding years have been anything, but comfortable for the citizens of the country, and such they can only anticipate better days in 2020 if the citizens’ patience, resilience and perseverance are not to be further stretched to a breaking point.
While views are divergent on whether there are enough reasons for such expectations in the New Year, Nigerians seem to be unanimous on measures and areas the government needs to look into, in order to usher in the much anticipated better times for the citizenry.
Prominent among their expectations include the need for the government to show more respect to rule of law; creating enabling environment for economic prosperity, sincerity and transparency in the war against corruption, more drastic actions against unemployment and insecurity in the country; concerted efforts to reposition the nation’s power, health and education sectors, priority attention to decaying infrastructure, among others.
Leading the pack is an experienced entrepreneur and consultant on the establishment of small and medium enterprises, Mrs Fayo Williams, who wants the Federal Government to tackle the problem of unemployment in the country with a renewed determination, using the available resources in the country.
“I believe that the problem of unemployment needs to be tackled very seriously. Study by the National Bureau of Statistics put the unemployment rate in the last quarter at 23.1 per cent, which is very high. In fact, youth unemployment is as high as 60 per cent. This is a dangerous trend, which I believe must be tackled squarely by the Federal Government.
“My suggestions are that just as we have primary healthcare centres in every local government, which was the vision of the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency, we should also have vocational training centres in every local government. And these vocational training centres should guide the youths and the unemployed, particularly women, on how to use the resources available in each of these LGAs to create wealth. We also need a centralized job portal that can be accessed by anyone. We have had successful databases being built on the national identity card management system. So, I believe that Nigeria is ripe enough to create a relational database for job requests such that the employers can post their job requests and the unemployed can also search for the existing jobs around them,” she said.
Williams, a former vice president, NECA Network of Entrepreneurial Women, commended the Federal Government over certain steps taken so far to help grow local businesses in the country.
These, according to her, include the tax reform, the proposal excluding small businesses with turnover of less than N20 million from paying tax and the AGSIMIES fund, a development finance fund from the Central Bank disbursed to qualified SMEs through NIRSAL Microfinance Bank branches all over Nigeria.
Also, the Executive Director, Civil Liberties Organisation, Comrade Ibuchukwu Ezike, would like to see a government that shows more respect to the rule of law and human rights in the New Year.
He described as lamentable situations where Nigerians granted bails by courts were denied their freedom by the government.
“We have seen situations where Nigerians were given bail by the courts and the government would sit on it, infringing on the right of the citizens. So in 2020, we want to have a society where human rights are respected, where rule of law is respected, where due process is respected and where you match words with action. These are what we want in 2020, a proud Nigerian society,” he said.
The CLO boss also wants the government to address the problems of hunger and unemployment in the country and show more transparency in the fight against corruption.
“Nigerians are hungry and they will like to have enough food to sustain themselves in 2020. There are no jobs for the people, so our people will like to have jobs. Our roads have terribly failed and now constitute death traps. Nigerians will like to have them fixed. The corruption that the government is claiming to be fighting is escalating, so Nigerians will like to see a more transparent government that will match its words with action, not just a government that is shouting to be fighting corruption. There should be enough corresponding action to show that they are really fighting corruption. Getting people imprisoned is not enough to fight corruption. You must be able to show us how much you have recovered from the fight and how you have ploughed the money recovered into serving the people,” he stated.
In the view of the Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Association of Financial Analysts of Nigeria (AFAN), Dr Abdullahi Ya’u, significant changes are due to feature in 2020 mainly because of the unique issues that arose this year.
“First, we will expect stricter financial reforms from the Federal Government looking at how it moves towards open treasury system, thereby signaling higher expectations on transparency and prudence from the government and the citizenry. This means that more controls may feature in several areas of financial transactions, contract awards, etc,” he said. Dr Ya’u disclosed that the early passage of the federal budget has further heightened expectations of Nigerians on budget performance than ever before in the history of the country.
“Cash in circulation may significantly improve and reach a four-year high, especially looking at the possibility of injecting additional $30 billion debt cash into the economy. This, on the other hand, may badly affect the economy by translating into higher inflation if the Central Bank of Nigeria does not plan well ahead of time,” he said.
With 20 years experience garnered in the financial sector, Ya’u hinted that 2020 would be a remarkable year in terms of the structure of Nigeria’s financial market place.
“As the new West African currency is likely to be launched, trade will be strengthened between Nigeria and the neighbouring countries, which adopt ‘ECO,’ the new currency for the ECOWAS sub-region. The ease of cash dealings will promote close and long-distance trades, especially going by the fact that most West African inter-country traders are mainly involved in direct currency transactions rather than using sophisticated financial vehicles. As the currency becomes common, the rise may be experienced in cross-border loans and future contracts.
“The continuous rise in agricultural production and emergence of commodity markets and exchanges coupled with continuous government campaigns motivating investors to invest in the agricultural sector will colour 2020 with more jobs created in the sector than at any other time over the last six years.
“Among major players in this sector will be large-scale rice mills and the introduction of other processing factories focusing on Nigeria’s abundant agricultural produce such as yam, cassava, wheat, etc.
“Also, there will be relatively low political risks in 2020 as no major elections are on board. This means businesses and the government will enjoy the peace to plan and execute with little interference. Thus, businesses can use the opportunity to build up their capacity, roll up new targets and study the government’s body language so as to make investment decisions in such favourable directions,” he said.
He then advised Nigerians to make good plans for the change that is coming in 2020, stating that it would trickle down to 2022, hence repositioning to face the possible inflation, which he said, is key.
His words: “One way to actualise that positively is for individuals to create source of extra cash flow so as to nullify the possible inflation factor. Consider a second line of business, providing services or even investing extra-earnings in agriculture or investment funds certified by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).”
Another Nigerian with high expectations for 2020 is Mrs Chinelo Ugwu, a postgraduate scholar at the National Open University of Nigeria, Enugu State.
Ugwu foresees a year of Nigerians returning fully to agriculture considering the discouraging interest rates on fixed deposits. “Thus, if this happens,” Ugwu said, “the harsh effects of the 2019 policies may be cushioned and our struggling economy may be stabilised.”
She, therefore, advised the Federal Government to take education and awareness programmes seriously.
“There should be effective communication to enable the populace to support the seemingly good policies. But all in all, we pray for a country Nigerians can be proud to call their own. Again, I expect the Nigerian citizenry to take ownership of the problems in this country, and be active about finding solutions. It is not all about our leaders. There are little things we can do about our immediate spaces,” she said.
With several economic policies like the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) ready to take off next year, small-scale manufacturers disclosed that they expect the government to relax its tough stance on border closure.
This view was from Prince Iche, the National President of the Association of Micro Entrepreneurs of Nigeria (AMEN), who said: “My first expectation is for the government to finally open the borders. Because it has created very harsh challenges for us small scale industrialists. Then I expect the government to focus more on micro-entrepreneurs. I want them to discard the business as usual mentality, and make funds easy to be accessed by the real entrepreneurs, and not the fictitious loans they claim to have disbursed to faceless and unknown business people in the media. Our president should please declare a state of emergency on the power sector, to speed up efforts towards improved power supply, which would then reduce the cost of production for small scale manufacturers in Nigeria.”
Public Affairs Analyst, Mr. Ambrose Igboke, opined that in 2020, Nigerians should agitate for the enactment of certain fundamental laws that would make it compulsory for the wards of lawmakers and other public officeholders, to attend public schools and use public facilities.
“If that is done, there would be increase in standard and quality of the schools and facilities. It is time for Nigerians to agitate for good governance, because their leaders will not give good governance. Until we change our mindset, things will continue to go worse,” Igboke said.
In the same vein, a social commentator, Sunday Elom, said: “I don’t expect any positive reform but the worst monstrous display by the leaders in 2020. And I believe you won’t blame me for being honest. Nigerians expected and dived into the mirage ‘Change’ pool in 2015 only to surface in the body-tearing, shark-infested ocean of poverty and acute suffering. However, if there must be any form of reform, I would rather say I expect Nigerians to reform themselves (their brains, mindsets, orientation, attitudes and lifestyles).
The International Director of Programs and Project Management, Young African Network for Global Goals (YANGG), a non-governmental organization, Ndieze Kelechi, urged that more attention should be given to technical schools, teachers training|, trainers training, which incorporates technology into the learning exchange programmes in school. He also urged the government to improve the library system coupled with general improvement in the quality of education.
Activist and public commentator, Izuchukwu Ochenwari Eze, described the outgoing year witnessed the highest display of human rights violations, abuse of power, intimidation of protesters, rape of legal justice and disobedience to court orders.
On his expectations from the government, he said: “Come 2020, we expect that government of the day learns to play low on party affiliation to enable it be more efficient and effective in the discharge and delivery of democracy to the good people of Nigeria, knowing that when the government disobeys court orders, disregards the Constitution and promotes desecration of the judiciary or makes an attempt to cage the judicature, patriotism shall call on every national to pick up resistance as a necessary evil against such anti-democratic government.”