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Apparently, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu expects Nigerians to clap for him for some of his voodoo economic policies. I thought he has serious economic agenda for the country. But from what he has pushed out so far, it is becoming clear that we are in for a long haul as far as poverty and hunger are concerned.
On the day of his inauguration as President, Tinubu announced the removal of fuel subsidy. Many Nigerians criticized him for not following up with palliative measures. Now, the palliatives are here. To implement them, he first got approval of the National Assembly (NASS) to collect $800 million loan from the World Bank. He also has in his kitty, N819 billion supplementary budget. In a move that tends to pander more to populism than reality, he has earmarked N500 billion for palliatives to cushion the effect of subsidy removal on poor Nigerians. He also earmarked N70 billion to support the working conditions of the new members of NASS. The National Judicial Council (NJC) is to smile home with N35 billion.
A critical look at Tinubu’s magic wand shows that he may be playing to the gallery. Pray, what will N8,000 a month do for each of the 12 million poor families that will benefit from the N500 billion? How will these poor families be selected? As has been observed by the Special Assistant to Atiku Abubakar on Public Communications, Phrank Shaibu, this money amounts to N53 a day or N1,600 per month for each individual in a household. What and what can N53 buy in today’s Nigeria?
The immediate past administration of Muhammadu Buhari did a similar thing. It called it conditional cash transfer (CCT). It was part of the National Social Investment Programme (NSIP) of that government, established in 2016 to tackle hunger and poverty in Nigeria. The programmes under the NSIP are N-Power programme, the CCT programme, Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP) and the National Home Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP). Earlier this year, the erstwhile Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajiya Sadiya Umar Farouk, said her ministry invested over N1.358 trillion in various programmes under this NSIP between 2016 and 2022. She claimed over 15 million lives were impacted. Even if this is true, what is 15 million compared to over 133 million Nigerians living in multidimensional poverty?
What they did under the CCT programme was to give N5,000 cash to some selected people in the lowest poverty bracket. I don’t know the criteria used for this selection. What I know is that the action was a drop in the ocean. And contrary to the claims by Ms Farouk that the number of Nigerians below the poverty line dropped under Buhari, many more Nigerians fell deeper into the pit of penury.
Former First Lady, Mrs Aisha Buhari, did not mince words when she described the NSIP as a failed project in most parts of northern Nigeria. In May 2019, she alleged that the National Social Investment Office reportedly spent $16 million in buying mosquito nets which did not get to her village in Adamawa. The National Assembly was more unsparing. It described the programme as a scam as it queried the N12 billion the government claimed to be spending monthly on the scheme.
This same scenario may happen again with Tinubu’s palliatives. The real poor people who need this money may not get it. The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) may use it to curry favour with certain Nigerians. Nobody is sure where the pendulum will swing with regard to petitions at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT). If the court orders for a rerun, the cash transfer may translate into cash for votes. I wish I’m proved wrong here. To clear doubts in the minds of people, government should publish details about the programme and how it is run. Let it not be like the shoddy sharing of COVID-19 palliatives in 2020. Millions of poor households that should have benefitted from the exercise were left out.
The current palliative measures could be an attempt to consolidate the hold of this government on the mandate it has been accused of stealing. Or, how do you explain the N35 billion to the judiciary and the N70 billion to the legislature? These are two major arms of government. The other arm, the executive, is already in the pockets of the ruling cabal. The game plan could be to consolidate the occupation of Aso Rock with the full capturing of the judiciary and the legislature.
It is insulting to the sensibilities of sane Nigerians to allocate extra N70 billion to the already overfed lawmakers when critical sectors like education and health are yet to breathe good air of government funding. These same lawmakers are even demanding an upward review of their salaries and allowances to offset the impact of the removal of fuel subsidy. Imagine! Currently, many universities have jacked up their fees by over 200 per cent. With the removal of fuel subsidy, many secondary schools will likely jack up their fees as well. Truth be told, many parents like me are in for a rough ride. Is it this N8,000 a month that will help these poor families to survive this?
With these so-called palliatives, a window has been opened for fat cats in government to siphon more money. There is no guarantee for a fraud-proof process. Nothing stops those implementing the programme from listing their relatives and cronies who will help them divert the money. The programme stops after six months. What happens afterwards? Will the poor families come out of poverty and stand on their own? There are more questions than answers in this questionable policy.
The current APC government should know that it has serious legitimacy issues hanging on its neck. Over the years, unfulfilled promises and insincere actions of the people in power have propelled Nigerians to lose trust in their government. It will be in the best interest of this administration to come clean and tell Nigerians its real intentions.
If I may suggest, Nigerians need to be taught more of how to catch fish than receiving fish too miserly to quench their appetite for sea food. They need efficient transport system that will not take much of their meagre resources. They need constant electricity that will boost their business and minimize their purchase of fuel for generators. They need subsidized health and education sectors so that they won’t spend fortunes to acquire basic education or treat small sickness. Above all, over 80 per cent of Nigerian families need this palliative. And any empowerment programme that will exclude the substantial number of these poor Nigerians is dead on arrival.
Re: JAMB lessons for INEC
Your objective analysis of the ongoing Jamb/Mmesoma saga has struck a chord in me. You have remained unsparing, and have not hidden your displeasure against the ominous signals exhibited by Mmesoma and the ultimate opprobrium that she has brought to her state and the country generally. Your submission is on the same plank with Sam Omatseye’s ‘’Fraud one nine’’ as well as ‘’A crown of nails’’ by Kayode Robert Idowu. But The Nation’s Lawal Ogienagbon’s ‘’If a finger brings oil’’ exhibited a jaundiced mind which wandered too much into revving up tribal prejudices and other irrelevances exhibited a jaundiced mind which wandered too much into revving up tribal prejudices and other unwarranted matters, even at the background of weightier issues of his backyard. Thank God, the same Lawal had ‘mistakenly’ allowed us to know that the real JAMB highest scorer or best candidate – Kamsiyochukwu Nkechinyere Umeh – still hails from Anambra state, the very state that also owns Mmesoma who attempted to gain ascendancy by default.
•Edet Essien Esq. Cal. South, +234 810 809 5633
Casmir, the progress of every society is very much dependent on the quality of leadership. A society that trusts its leadership to dubious leaders will definitely reap the fruit of such leadership. A society that honours criminals, kidnappers, election riggers, ritualists, corruption, nepotism, mediocrity, religious victimization will be left in tatters. BVAS malfunctioned when presidential election results were to be determined while it functioned when national election was announced because of corruption. A healthy leadership begets a healthy and vibrant society.
•Pharmacist Okwuchukwu Njike, +234 803 885 4922
I appreciate your column: Jamb lessons for INEC. Truly, we need to sanitize our institutions if we must get it right as a nation.
•Chinemerem, Abuja, +234 708 781 4684
Dear Casy, I do not think that the JAMB registrar, Prof Ishaq Oloyede, will do much better than the current INEC chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, if he superintends the electoral commission as its chairman. As the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ilorin, I am quite sure that Prof. Oloyede must have served as a returning officer in past presidential elections. How did he perform? There should be no comparison at all between the humongous duties of INEC and the examination task of JAMB. Prof. Oloyede may have performed commendably well since he took over JAMB but I am very wary of recommending him as the next INEC chairman. Can he be unbiased, just, fair and transparent in any presidential or gubernatorial election that involves candidates practising other faiths judging by his scholarship in Islamic studies? If Nigerians want credible elections, former Akwa Ibom’s REC, Mike Igini, fits the bill.
•Ifeanyi, Owerri, +234 806 156 2735
Dear Casy, in the days of yore, Professors were looked upon as greatest repository and disseminators of knowledge acquired via western education and, as such, were treated with highest respect. But today, we, unfortunately, have some species of Profs whose social values are on the wane, with great velocity, to wit: (1) Profs of sex for marks. Profs in this mould hang out with their female students, some of whom are of the age, if not much lower than their own daughters, who donate their bodies in return for higher marks in exams. (2) Profs of ‘money for hand, back for ground’. Profs in this mould become easy prey for cash! Even when they transit beyond the four walls of university into the wider world on national or international assignments, this light-fingered habit remains on their trail! However, we have: (3) Profs of integrity. Profs in this mould do not get enticed by sexual or monetary inducements. What matters to them is their integrity! Casy, may we, therefore, stand up with loud ovation for the likes of Profs Ishaq Oloyede of JAMB, Nnenna Oti, the 2023 Governorship Returning Officer for Abia State, and the late Dora Akunyili. Give them INEC and Nigeria shall have peace.
•Steve Okoye, Awka, 08036630731.
Casmir, that was another masterpiece from your desk! Let me add the course code and course title. Course code: JMB 101. Course title: the honourable vessel vs the dishonourable vessel; integrity as a lasting virtue. The story of JAMB & INEC – two highly important public institutions – is a paradox of a sort! While the JAMB episode ended in a manner that was contrary to naysayers/cynics expectations, that of INEC was an anticlimax! INEC, whom much was expected, covered itself in shame rather than in glory! Building strong institutions entails having men of integrity and ‘mighty men of valour’ at the helm of affairs. Integrity is their byword. Men of valour like Prof. Oloyede don’t get nominated for the post of INEC chairman because politicians know he won’t ‘play ball’.
•Mike, Mushin, Lagos, +234 816 111 4572
