•‘Why Tinubu must abandon World Bank’s disastrous economic policies’
Elder statesman, Prof Usman Yusuf, has urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to be very careful in pushing Nigerians to swallow the World Bank’s bitter prescription of N750 per litre for petrol.
In an interview with VINCENT KALU, Professor of Haematology-Oncology and a former Chief Executive of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), expressed concern that Nigeria’s journey to a one-party state is real and dangerous to the nation’s fragile democracy.
He also spoke on other issues.
What is your view on the state of the nation?
Our leaders should be very, very worried by the complete silence in the country in spite of the excruciating difficulties people are going through. Millions of Nigerians cannot feed themselves and their families, commute, pay their children’s school fees or afford basic necessities of life. It does not seem like our leaders care about the pains they have inflicted on the citizenry these six months this government has been in power.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s policy of fuel subsidy removal has been nothing but a cocktail of impulsiveness, chaos, hubris, and incompetence which has negatively impacted the lives of all Nigerians. The immediate and debilitating rise in the cost of living resulting from the removal of fuel subsidy debunked the official propaganda that only a few Nigerians and citizens of countries neighbouring Nigeria benefited from the subsidy.
In a country with 65 per cent (133 million) of its population in multidimensional poverty, fuel subsidy removal has in one fell swoop added millions more into this bracket. Healthcare is now more unaffordable and inaccessible than ever before, millions more children have been added to the 20 million children already out of school. Most importantly, there is real hunger in the land especially in the north, where insecurity has prevented farmers from cultivating their farms or harvesting their crops. A bag of maize, the most common food staple in the north, now sells at N60,000 (at N1,300 per Mudu) which is way out of the reach of the average citizen. In many of our villages, no one can give you a change for N1,000. This is how poor our people are.
How more insensitive and disconnected from the sufferings of the people can our politicians be, I wonder aloud. At a time when millions are groaning under excruciating economic hardships, the National Assembly allocated to themselves N40 billion for buying 465 exotic and bulletproof cars for their members and principal officials, and N70 billion as ‘palliatives’ for new members.
The National Security Adviser, Mr. Nuhu Ribadu recently lamented that President Tinubu inherited a bankrupt nation from Buhari. Former President Buhari also cried out about inheriting a dead economy from the PDP when he assumed office in 2015. What’s your view?
I have been asked this question on several English and Hausa language fora. My first response is that this statement should not be coming from the NSA, but from either the Presidency, or the minister of Information or anti graft agencies like the EFCC or the ICPC. Secondly, what did he want Nigerians to do knowing full well that what they inherited is the mess created by their own party APC? Thirdly, the perpetrators of this heist are well known to the NSA. They should go after them and recover our commonwealth.
Also, why did President Tinubu order the arrest and detention without trial of the then EFCC Chairman, Abdulrasheed Bawa, who was investigating those alleged to have partaken in this criminality and why did he appoint some of these people into his cabinet? So, the NSA’s lamentations just raised more questions than answers. My advice is that he should stay away from politics and concentrate on advising the president on how to tackle Nigeria’s many existential security challenges.
President Tinubu has asked the people to make sacrifices to make Nigeria great, but elected and other government functionaries are living in flamboyance. How do you reconcile this?
The math just doesn’t add up especially with the NSA’s lamentations that President Tinubu inherited an empty treasury from his predecessor, former President Buhari. They seem to be helping themselves to whatever was left and what is accruing regardless of the state of the nation’s economy or the wellbeing of its citizens. How else can one explain the insensitivity of what was allocated for the comfort of the president, his family, his office, the animals in the zoo at the Presidential Villa, the vice president and his office and members of the National Assembly all to the detriment of the citizens?
After the fuel subsidy removal, the government in August told the citizens that it was saving one trillion naira every month from the removal. But the government has been on a borrowing spree, with Nigeria’s debts piling. What do you say to this?
Citizens now have so much distrust of the government and the whole political class with very good reasons too. The lack of transparency in the way this government is running the nation and the opulent lifestyle of the political class in the midst of penury of the citizens has widened the chasm between the government and the people. The culture of impunity where the government doesn’t think it owes the people the right of explanation, is continuing on steroids. A situation where a nation is borrowing to pay salaries and over 90 per cent of what it earns goes to servicing debt is unsustainable. The National Assembly that the citizens elected to ask questions and oversight the executive branch, is missing in action because it is partaking in the sumptuous buffet offered by the government.
The World Bank has suggested to the government to increase the pump price of petrol to N750. What is your take on this?
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu needs to be very careful in pushing Nigeria to swallow the World Bank’s bitter prescription. It was very obvious from the outset that his chaotic fuel subsidy removal policy was a prescription handed to him by the World Bank which has been pushing for this type of shock therapy to Nigeria’s economy without regards to the consequences on its citizens.
My suspicion was confirmed by the presence of the bank’s representative in Nigeria sitting next to the chairman of the newly created fiscal and tax policy committee at its maiden press conference given at no less a venue than the Presidential Villa. The World Bank’s representative was effusive in praising President Tinubu’s economic policy, describing it as being bold and timely. I have no doubt that increasing the pump price of petrol to N750 per litre will further increase people’s suffering and worsen rather than tame inflation or improve the economy.
What should this government do to get the country out of this economic quagmire?
No one doubted that the fraudulent fuel “subsidy” regime under the two previous governments was unsustainable, but the rushed and poorly thought through way it was removed was wrong. No country, no matter how strong its economy, can withstand the shock of a combination of sudden removal of fuel subsidy, drastic currency devaluation, increase in energy prices, excruciating debt burden, astronomical rise in inflation, very high interest rates and increase in the cost of living.
Other resultant shocks are massive layoff of workers due to shutting down of businesses, hunger in the land, hopelessness and the real possibility of citizens’ unrest in a country beset with multiple existential security challenges. One doesn’t have to be an economist to see that all is not well and that the status quo is not sustainable.
My advice to President Tinubu and his team is to please govern with a milk of human kindness by abandoning this disastrous World Bank prescribed economic policy and come up with policies that will alleviate the sufferings of our people by taming inflation, shoring up the Naira, reducing the cost of governance, improvinge security, addressing food insecurity and hunger among many other measures.
What is your reaction to the political crisis in Rivers State?
I can’t claim to know anything about the unique political culture in Rivers State. Those that know will tell you that what is playing out publicly now was totally predictable. It is totally unacceptable, in my opinion, for the former governor to refuse to let go of the levers of power in the state. The claims and counterclaims are essentially that Governor Fubara is refusing to be a “good boy.”
Don’t you think the crisis in the oil rich state may escalate the security challenges in the volatile Niger Delta Region?
Absolutely. The current political tussle in Rivers State has serious national security and economic implications to the nation that is why all political gladiators in the state should be called to order by the president to prevent any flare up of new violence in the Niger Delta Region.
Some political analysts are of the opinion that judging from the way the court is giving the APC more states that by 2027, Nigeria may be heading towards a one party state. What’s your position on this?
This concern is real and dangerous to Nigeria’s fragile democracy. Respect for the rule of law, particularly electoral law is what gives any government legitimacy in the eyes of its citizens and the rest of the world. Violation of these laws is one of the most important reasons for the undemocratic changes in governments we are currently witnessing in the coup belt of Africa. The election cycle of 2023 has not been the proudest moment for the Nigerian judiciary. Any country whose citizens are losing faith in its judiciary is dangerously on the edge of the abyss. We are already there.
Do you entertain any fears for the country? If any, what’s it?
Yes, there is an increasing feeling of hopelessness, poverty, hunger, mass youth unemployment, pervasive insecurity and a ruling class that doesn’t seem to care about the daily realities of our people. Anarchy is what I fear if the government does not take urgent measures to alleviate the sufferings of citizens. A stitch in time saves nine.