Buhari on data

Gabriel Amalu

Despite some unforced errors, President Muhammadu Buhari can still help Nigeria make progression the part of sustainable growth, if he sticks to his new interest in data. At the inauguration of the Presidential Economic Advisory Council recently, the President asked the distinguished group to generate reliable data that can be used to address the numerous challenges facing the country. If he commits to the strict use of such data, then there is hope for a new beginning.

The President also referred to the data churned out byinternational agencies with respect to their expenses on the internally displaced persons and compared it with the information available to the federal government agencies on costs they have incurred while managing the internally displaced persons across the country. The President alluding to comparative data, queried the international agencies’ claim of spending humongous costs to run the IDPs, when there is nothing on ground to match such costs. Regardless of who has a more reliable data, the important thing for this column, is that the President is now talking data.

When the telecommunications companies advertise that data is life, they are right. Because access to information is key in a fast changing world. If you don’t have access to the right information, then you are groping in the dark. With all sense of responsibility, Nigeria has substantially been groping in the dark for decades, and the result is there for everyone to see. For instance, the country is in darkness because it didn’t rely on data to plan the quantum of electricity she need to generate to meet her increasing population.

Those who were managing the old NEPA, didn’t rely on data. They preferred to give contracts for the importation of equipment they didn’t need, just to fleece the organisation. They failed to plan for new generation plants and subs-stations for decades, but were content in terrorising their customers, by cutting their supply. The same thing happened to NITEL. They shut their eyes to data, and they died. I recall the iyanga by the former NITEL staff when the ladder with which they cut or reconnect customers lines became the most prized assert of the organization.

Instead of collecting and analysing data on the needs of their customers and the emerging technologies, the NITEL staff were more interested in counting their immediate gain from exploiting their customers who had become their ATM machine. While they were snoozing, their equipment were rendered obsolete by new technology, and as they say, the rest is history.

So, when the President starts talking data, there is the possibility that we are entering a new era under his presidency. Regrettably, it was the neglect of data that made the country’s leaders abandon the palm oil and cocoa plantations, the groundnut pyramids and a host of other sustaining sources of livelihood for the people, while concentrating energy on unsustainable hydrocarbon resources. As the President is boasting that Nigeria is now self-sustaining in rice production, I hope he is relying on data, and not emotions about what ought to be.

One other sign that President Buhari may be seeing the importance of data, is his apology to one of the abandoned oil bearing communities in the Niger Delta. The president profusely apologised that while the community had been exploited for decades, there are no infrastructure to show for all the resources extracted from their backyards. The President’s connection to such incongruity is fundamental in appreciating the plight of the people of Niger Delta. Instead of playing the ostrich and talking down on the community, like some of his predecessors, the president was apologising for the criminal neglect of the community by the governments.

If the president directs the federal government agencies to immediately start a makeup program to lift the community, the right message would have been passed to other communities.Also, it is important that the President rely on data to help Nigeria learn the right lessons; that oil would cease to be the black gold, few decades from now. Or will our governments behave like the former staff of the failed NITEL, who concentrated on feeding on their customers, instead of using emerging data to plan ahead?

Talking of the post-oil era, the president should critically look at the data provided in the Second Schedule, Part 1 of the 1999 constitution (as amended); otherwise known as the Exclusive Legislative List. The President should rise up to the occasion as a data using leader, and critically examine how the padding of the exclusive legislative list to the detriment of the federating unites has failed Nigeria. A quick comparison of how Nigeria fared while the regions were engaged in serious economic activities, and the present situation of over dependence on the federation account should help him determine which way to go.

In making that decision the President should ask how the federal government has fared with being in exclusive control of all the minerals lying waste in the states, some of whom ironically are considered as poor as the church rats.Using data, the President should also examine how a centralized policing system has worked. He can ask for a brief on how the police have been relying on resources from state governments to survive, since the federal government cannot sustain the financial requirements of a centralized police.

The President can rely on data, to know that crime rates are presently too high, especially amongst the youths, and appreciate that unless something is done differently as quickly as possible, the country may pay dearly for it. Again, when custom officials ask the President’s permission to use powers donated by the state to terrorise citizens in the name of enforcing custom duties, he should ask for statistical data on how those cars entered the country while they were on duty.

If they tell him that many cars came into the country without paying duties or underpaid duties, he should ask how many officers have been sanctioned, or are those saying so, openly confirming they were sleeping on duty while the cars came into the country? Finally, President Buhari should ensure that the ultimate data for national planning is generated while he is in power. No doubt, the national census is long overdue, and with advancement in technology, Nigeria under the President can conduct a reliable census.

Meanwhile, the Presidential Economic Advisory Council should ensure they gather the data the president requested for, as quickly as possible. Using their previleged position, the Council should help the President break down the data, and also suggest ways and means to put the data to effective use, in the interest of a new Nigeria. Nigerians can’t wait.