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From: Jerome-Mario Chijioke Utomi
Public Forum
Going by media reports, the Federal Government of Nigeria has concluded plans to make a digital transfer of N8,000 to over 12 million low-income earners in Nigeria to help cushion the effects of subsidy removal, which has seen prices of commodities triple in recent weeks. It was gathered that, when completed, the exercise would have a multiplier effect on about 60 million individuals.
Essentially, the purpose of this piece is not to illogically criticize the policy but to objectively understand the basic reason(s) responsible for the policy and what made it seem attractive to the Federal Government; and possibly challenge those ‘fundamental’ assumptions.
Without doubt, the decision looks good peripherally -particularly with Mr. President’s claim that, for credibility, the money will be transferred to the households digitally.
Beyond this pedestrian attribute, there is everything wrong with the current move by the current administration in the country.
Aside from the fact that Nigerians with development mindset have in the past expressed concern that it is not right for state and federal governments of Nigeria to create agencies or come up with policies that ‘dole’ out money of any kind or sum to Nigerians with the aim of eradicating poverty, as such huge resources do not have economic value, the current raise by thr President Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led Federal Government to distribute N8,000 to poor Nigerians perfectly aligns with the time-honoured adage “robbing Peter to Pay Paul.”
For reasons that will be explained in subsequent paragraphs, the decision, more than anything else, supports the belief that, as a nation, we are poor not because of our geographical location or as a result of lack of mineral resources but predominantly because our leaders make policies that engineer poverty and promote powerlessness among citizens.
The facts are there and speak for it.
Why is the Nigerian government reputed for borrowing to fund consumption that is neither productive nor sustainable? Are we unmindful as a nation that no society, state or country becomes great by living on borrowed funds? Is the Federal Government ignorant that “killing the strong cannot make the weak strong”? Instead of borrowing to fund the poor, why can’t the Federal Government introspect and discover the major flaw in the nation’s economy and other fundamental challenges that keep Nigerians poor and have such challenges solved?
Who are these 12 million low-income Nigerians? Where are their addresses? How were they selected? Who generated or stored their personal data/information?
Without waiting for answers to the above questions, the truth is that, today, if there is anything that Nigerians wish the Federal Government to accomplish quickly, it is not disbursement of a paltry N8,000 that cannot pay rent for the urban poor or school fees for the children of the poor fishermen in the riverine communities in the Niger Delta region. Rather, what Nigeria and Nigerians need is for government to restart the economy, get the refineries functioning optimally, as well as make the NNPCL more accountable to the people.
As an incentive to this demand, Tinubu could recall and attest to the fact that one of the popular demands during the fuel subsidy removal protest in January, 2012, under President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan’s administration, was that the Federal Government should take measures to strengthen corporate governance in the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, as well as in the oil and gas sector as a whole. This is because of the belief that weak structures made it possible for the endemic corruption in the management of both the downstream and upstream sectors of the oil and gas industry.
Eleven years after such demands were made and Jonathan gone, the three government-owned refineries in the country have not been able to function at full capacity as promised by the present administration for a myriad of reasons that revolve around corruption. In fact, it is so bad that if the failures recorded by NNPCL under Jonathan were a challenge, what is going on now is a crisis.
Again, considering the slow growing economy but scary unemployment levels in the country, instead of paying the paltry N8,000 to the poor for a very short period of six months, the Federal Government would be better appreciated by Nigerians if such an amount is invested in agriculture or used in building industries and factories of production to create employment opportunity for these poor and vulnerable Nigerians. Is the current administration unaware that it will be difficult accelerating the economic life cycle of the nation until they contemplate industrialization, or productive collaboration with private organizations that have surplus capital to create employment?
Even as this piece believes that in many ways the Tinubu administration may have a sincere desire to move poor Nigeria out of the harsh socioeconomic basement, a critical analysis of the present action by the Federal Government, regrettably, postures it as a plan embarked on without adequate feasibility study.
To catalyze the process, this piece holds the opinion that the Federal Government must abandon this unclear process of empowering people and in its place come up with more people-focused policies that connect the poor with good means of livelihood: food, jobs and security. The masses will also appreciate the President and his handlers developing/implementing plans and policies that will lead to price stability, high employment, effective regulation, trade and availability of finance for business.
This is the only possible description of what Nigerians currently need.
Thus, if the process/policy is allowed, it will translate to a palliative that cures the effect of a sickness while leaving the root cause to thrive.
•Utomi writes via [email protected]
