To anyone in the business of public comment, one uncomfortable burden must be the duty to constantly answer to the question of whether Nigeria is headed in the right direction at every turn. Like the cliché goes – as it was in the past, so it was yesterday, so it would be tomorrow – and evermore. Like the proverbial bad coin that keep showing up at intervals, the question of the nation’s destination would again pop up at the occasion of its 52th independence anniversary.
Let me state that ritual of self-score that keeps producing what most Nigerians have come to regard as spurious verdicts – which suggest that the nation is finally getting things right – is nothing unusual. As uncomfortable as that ritual of outlandish self-assessment is, and which successive administrations have entertained themselves to at the expense of the long-suffering citizens, it does serves one important function of letting citizen into the mind of the leader – if only to allow them measure how far detached the leadership is from their reality.
Take yesterday’s address by President Goodluck Jonathan with its beautiful presentation of the economy as one finally revving in full throttle: an economy which in the last two years has maintained a sustained path of growth with the real Gross Domestic Product averaging 7.1 percent.
Until yesterday, I actually thought that we had gone beyond such meaningless statistics. After the spurious growth of the last decade that neither delivered jobs nor spread prosperity, I thought the adumbrations ought to have been tempered by the frightening reality of joblessness and rising poverty in the land. In vain did I search for recognition for the troubling, but long recognised fact.
Now, I understand: the path would point in the direction of an underachieving presidency!
From the power situation, to the economy; from job creation to security, the President insisted that he has his hands firmly on the handle. Unfortunately, the citizens who have borne the brunt of the failed policies of the administration couldn’t be sure.
It seems not too long ago that the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) drew our attention to the yawning disconnect between the growth and the incidence of poverty. I recall the bureau summarising the trend this way in February: “In 2004, Nigeria’s relative poverty measurement stood at 54.4 per cent but increased to 69 per cent or 112.518 million Nigerians in 2010″.
The statistician would observe in summary that “It remains a paradox… that despite the fact that the Nigerian economy is growing, the proportion of Nigerians living in poverty is increasing every year.”
Did the President offer proof to show that the trend has changed? He didn’t. He needn’t. Nigerians know that things have grown worse, not better!
Let’s move swiftly to the President’s claim of performance in the real sector. In the President’s own words: “we have improved on our investment environment; more corporate bodies are investing in the Nigerian economy. Our Investment Climate Reform Programme has helped to attract over N6.8 trillion local and foreign direct investment commitments”.
Was it entirely surprising that the President would not see his score-card as complete without touting Nigeria’s emerging status as the preferred destination for investment in the continent? Hear the President: “the nation’s share of total FDI flows into the continent is in excess of 20 per cent”. Really? Where?
There are of course the add-ons which he threw in; the registration of close to 7, 000 companies within the second quarter of the year alone; the 249-odd new members enrolled in the manufacturers’ club – the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) as at July this year. All these – the President seems to have reasoned – were proof enough of the economy in full flight.
If Nigerians expected the administration to be forthcoming on the specifics of jobs created through the trillion-naira FDI, they got none. Rather, it was sufficient for the President to claim that millions of job opportunities are being created for the youth and the general population – in public works, in the local content initiative in the oil and Gas sector and the agricultural transformation programme of his administration!
Now, there must be something extraordinary in the federal government’s professed love for FDI at a time when no finger is being lifted to help the few indigenous companies. The result is that many of them have bitten since the dust. Does the love of FDI reflect our typical preference for dispensing our charities abroad?
Now, FDI is good. Often touted as a measure of international confidence in the national economy, it is admittedly a sign that some things are being done right. The problem however is the fetish being made of the so-called FDIs.
Coincidentally, as this is being written, I have a report quoting the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA) as stating that no fewer than 800 indigenous companies closed shop between 2009 and 2011 due to harsh operating business environment. While it seems unlikely that those in the list would be among the 249 which the President’s hyperactive MAN recently enrolled on their membership register, the President did no more than gloss over the issue of the harsh operating environment which has rendered manufacturing business a nightmare.
For instance, nowhere did I hear the President address the question of easier access to credit; the unconscionably steep interest rates; the poor transportation infrastructure all of which constitute significant cost elements in manufacturing, but which with proper attention from government would keep the economy roaring.
Not while there was something to boast about in the modest improvement in the power supply situation, the arrival of the Presidential cassava bread, the Presidential rice which promises to keep Thailand rice permanently outside our shores. Oh; I nearly forgot the dozen-plus contracts to revive the railways!
Finally, does it count for anything that the Presidential Change of Guards –part of the independence ceremonies – was again held within the fortresses of the Villa?
Does it equally matter that the place of the once bright and colourful Eagle Square as host to national events have since faded into distant memories?
Talk about the dread of the Boko Haram being the beginning of Presidential wisdom.
Here is to Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
At a forum in Awka, the Anambra State capital sometime in August 2011, you spoke of the plan by the Goodluck Jonathan administration to overhaul the mortgage system. Then, you rightly identified the absence of the mortgage institution as one of the key drivers of corruption in the public service. I thought the idea was spot on.
It seems easy to imagine that a good number of the public servants under pressure to steal public funds in order to be able to put a roof over their heads would be less pressured to do if they access to relatively affordable mortgage.
Well, it’s been more than a year since you let us into the plan. Do we need to wait till 2020 for the plan to materialise?
