In a spirited but unconvincing attempt to justify Nigeria’s recent rather bizarre donation of the sum of N1.4 billion to the neighbouring Republic of Niger for the procurement of 10 Toyota Land Cruiser vehicles purportedly for security purposes, the Minister of Finance, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, insinuated that the gesture was ultimately in our own national interest and, in any case, a decision well within the rights of President Muhammadu Buhari to take. According to the Minister, “This was not the first time the country is providing such interventions to her neighbours. Let me just say that over time, Nigeria has had to support its neighbours, to enhance their capacity to secure their countries as it relates to us. This is not the first time that Nigeria had assisted Niger Republic, Cameroun or Chad. The President makes an assessment as to what is required based on the request of their Presidents. Such requests are approved and interventions are provided. It is to enhance their capacity to protect their security and also to Nigeria”.
It is true that in more prosperous times when a thriving oil boom made Nigeria a veritable medium economic power, the country acted as big brother and a bounteous Father Christmas, not just to her neighbours but far beyond Africa. That was a prodigal era when a former Head of State enthused that Nigeria’s problem was not money but what to do with it. But that boisterous, optimistic era has given way to today’s sobering and harsh economic realities and the kind of perverse altruism exhibited towards Niger in this instance suggests a government living in inexplicable denial.
The Federal Government ought to demonstrate a greater sensitivity to the fact that millions of Nigerians are today confronted by adverse and painful existential conditions. From a projected 82.1 million people living in poverty in 2018/2019, the estimated figure of impoverished Nigerians has risen to 95.1 million in 2022. This is a function of defective and inappropriate fiscal and monetary policies by successive governments, ineffective implementation, even of otherwise sound policies, continuing large-scale corruption and waste as well as external factors beyond our control such as the crash in global oil prices, the Coronavirus pandemic or the ongoing Russian-Ukraine war. But to continue to approve needless expenditures like the one on Niger Republic in these grim times is inexcusable.
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According to data from the Debt Management Office (DMO), the country’s debt profile increased from N35.556 trillion in December, 2021, to N41 trillion as at March, 2022, and it continues to spiral. Experts estimate that Nigeria spent about N2.8 trillion on debt servicing in the first quarter of this year. During this period, the fiscal performance report showed that N1.94 trillion was expended on debt service, N1.26 trillion for personnel costs and pensions, leaving only N773.63 billion for capital expenditure. What rational basis thus explains this largesse to Niger? In any case, in what concrete way will what are essentially luxury vehicles promote security in that country? Was the input of the relevant security agencies sought in arriving at a decision to incur this expenditure? True, the security of neighbouring countries is integral to that of any sovereign jurisdiction but what we have in Nigeria today is a near descent to anarchy within, and only expenditures that directly address this challenge and help restore normalcy must be our highest priority now.
We agree with the finance minister that the President has the right to assess what is in the best interest of the country and exercise his responsibility to take decisions in that light, albeit without prejudice to the right of Nigerians to subject such decisions to scrutiny. However, it is also assumed in a democracy that due process and constitutionality would be followed in the exercise of the powers of elected leaders at all levels. In that regard, was this expenditure duly appropriated and authorised by the legislature? How come that it became public knowledge not through a direct communication to the public by government but only after the transaction was leaked in the social media? This surely raises questions of propriety and transparency.
It is unfortunate that taking decisions without rigorously weighing what ought to be the country’s right priorities is becoming a pattern with this administration. For instance, the country is currently constructing the 284-km railway line from Kano in Nigeria to Maradi in Niger at a cost of $1.9 billion when scores of perhaps even more critical rail and road infrastructure linking different zones within the country have either been neglected or progressing at a snail’s speed due to paucity of funds. This project has been justified partly on the basis that it will enable landlocked West African countries currently exporting through Benin Republic, Togo, Ghana and Ivory Coast to begin to do so through Nigeria. But ports facilities within Nigeria are grossly underdeveloped and dysfunctional, implying that it would have been more logical to deploy funds to address this problem as the first priority.
Again, earlier in the year, it was only after the Secretary-General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation(OIC), Hussein Brahim, issued a statement commending Nigeria for donating $1 million to the Humanitarian Trust Fund for Afghanistan, that Nigerians knew that their government had made such a commitment. Again, such a gesture, which in itself is quite noble and altruistic, is difficult to understand against the background of millions of displaced persons in different parts of Nigeria in dire need of humanitarian care. As the country’s debt mounts astronomically, it is absurd for the government to continue to indulge in paradoxical generosity of negligible benefit to Nigerians.