Political Briefs
SOME economists and financial experts have urged the incoming President, Sen. Bola Tinubu, to implement policies that would rapidly grow the Nigerian economy and win back the people’s confidence.
The experts gave the advice in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Lagos, ahead of the May 29 inauguration and assessment of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
They said that Nigeria’s economy, which was dwindling, was characterised by high inflation, ravaging problems of insecurity, widespread poverty, unemployment, among others.
According to them, all these need quick attention.
Uche Uwaleke, Professor of Capital Market, Nasarawa State University, Keffi, advised the incoming president to create jobs, reduce poverty, address issues of unemployment and underemployment, electricity and fuel scarcity, among others.
Uwaleke said thst once these issues were addressed, the economy would automatically grow.
“There are areas that the present administration has yet to address and that the new administration should take up.
“A major area where this administration did not make meaningful impact is job creation and poverty reduction.
“The conditional cash transfer and other social intervention schemes of this government do not seem to have made any significant impact.
“You are aware of the latest disturbing numbers by the National Bureau of Statistics on multi-dimensional poverty level involving over 130 million Nigerians,’’ he said.
Uwaleke said unemployment and underemployment rates are quite high and the challenge in the power sector still posed big problem.
“Regrettably, inadequate electricity and scarcity of refined petroleum products which are key dependencies for any meaningful development have remained largely unaddressed.
“The inability of the government to truly diversify the export base of the economy away from oil which accounts for a significant proportion of forex earnings leaves a red ink on the scorecard,’’ Uwaleke said.
The economist, therefore, based Buhari’s assessment on three pillars which include security, anti-corruption and the economy, on which the present administration anchored its policies and programmes.
On security, Uwaleke said some effort had been made in dealing with insurgent attacks.
He noted that while Boko Haram might have been weakened, other forms of insecurity emerged, including attacks on communities by bandits, kidnappings and the seemingly intractable farmer-herders clashes.
Regarding corruption, he said that there was no doubt that the Treasury Single Account (TSA), had gone a long way in curbing sharp practices in the public sector.
He noted that a number of high-profile cases were being handled by the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), adding that a lot still needed to be done in this regard.
In the area of the economy, Uwaleke said, “any objective assessment must take into consideration the 2016 economic recession occasioned by a sharp drop in crude oil prices.
“The unprecedented negative impact of COVID-19 on the economy was also a major problem.
“Prior to the pandemic, the economy was witnessing relative macro stability especially with respect to inflation rate and exchange rate.
“There’s no denying the fact that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), under the present administration, has done a lot in stabilising the economy and even stimulating growth through its interventions, especially in agriculture.
“The bank’s Anchor Borrower Programme which has ensured near self-sufficiency in rice production readily comes to mind.
“There is also noticeable improvement in roads and rail infrastructure.
“Overall, the non-oil sector got some traction in terms of revenue generation and dethroned the oil sector as the major economic growth driver,’’ he said.
In the same vein, Prof. Hassan Oaikhenan, Economics and Statistics Department, University of Benin, advised the incoming administration to address key indicators of the economy which the present administration failed to address.
Oaikhenan said this was the only way to win the confidence of the people and achieve economic growth.
“These include the ravaging problem of insecurity, a collapsed economy, characterised by high inflation rate, widespread poverty, with over 133 million Nigerians adjudged to be multidimensionally poor, according to National Bureau of Statistics data,’’ he said.
Oiakhenan urged the incoming president to, therefore, articulate and implement policy measures, to reverse the dwindling fortunes of the economy by way of reversing the high inflationary situation.
He said that the policy measures should be such that the government would be able to halt the rapidly depreciating exchange rate, create jobs and arrest the hydra-headed problems of insecurity and corruption, among others.
Mr Oluseun Onigbinde, Co-founder of BudgIT, urged the incoming administration to ensure that CBN was totally independent from the Federal Government and be allowed to conduct monetary policy in accordance with its set mandates.
BudgIT is a civic organisation focused on strengthening civic engagement and institutional accountability.
Onigbinde frowned at the manner the apex bank had been lending to the Federal Government against its laws, which stipulates that the government was not supposed to borrow more than five.
“In fact, the CBN breached this rule by lending up to 91.27 per cent of the Federal Government’s 2021 revenues in 2022, throwing such fiscal guardrail into the dust,’’ he said.
This process, he said, was breached serially, and the current securitisation was the validation of the illegality.
He said, “Nigeria’s upper legislature has approved N23.7 trillion to be securitised, a move that raises Nigeria’s aggregate debt from N46 trillion to N70 trillion.
“Nigeria’s Debt-to-GDP has now risen from 23.2 per cent to 35.1 per cent, meaning it might need to raise its 40 per cent debt limit in the nearest future.
“Nigeria’s ‘Ways and Means’ (pejoratively known as ‘money printing’) grew from N790 billion in May 2015 to N23.7 trillion in 2022.’’
He also said the current government suspended rules of fiscal prudence and leaned on the CBN beyond acceptable limits.
This, he said, had broken the independence of the central Bank and made price stability its undesired target, as inflation galloped to 22 per cent and gradually eased the national currency from being an assured store of value.
Onigbinde advised the incoming administration to check the overwhelming presence of the monetary institution; else, we might continue on this irrecoverable slope where the apex bank is fully degraded to a mere federal government parastatal.(NAN)
T.S
Tags: President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration. Professor of Capital Market Sen. Bola Tinubu Uche Uwaleke
