It is this column’s view that Chief Obafemi Awolowo‘s clearly incomparable standing as one of the most accomplished, results-oriented and productive public administrators in the annals of Nigeria, as demonstrated particularly during his tenure as Premier of Western Nigeria in the First Republic, derives essentially from the ideological clarity and philosophical vision that informed his policy choices as well as the focus as well as programmatic platform of the political parties he founded in the First and Second Republics.
Noteworthy in this regard is the fact that Awolowo’s scathing criticism of the ruling National Party of Nigeria (NPN) in the Second Republic was that, unlike his own party, the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), “the NPN has no ideological direction, and Alhaji Shagari, for his part, and from his recent utterances, appears to have chosen to tread that accursed path which in yesteryears led to a calamitous end”.
The starting point for Awolowo’s postulation of ‘democratic socialism’ as the ideological guiding light of the Action Group (AG) in the First Republic and later the UPN between 1979 and 1983 was his pithy and terse submission that ‘Man is the sole creative and purposive dynamic in nature: everything else by comparison is inert”. Expounding on this philosophical postulation, the great sage writes, “In all the spheres of production, distribution, exchange and consumption, man is the only active agent: all else is passive. He is the initiator and accelerator of every form of human progress: he is the generator of every initial impulse in human evolution. Any so-called plan for progress which, therefore, places man in a secondary place is basically in error, antithetical to the natural order of human endeavors, and is bound to fail, as well as be a bane rather than a blessing to the people”.
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This then is the philosophical basis for the adoption by the AG and UPN, respectively, of free education at all levels, free medical care for all, integrated rural development and the attainment of full employment for every Nigerian as the prime purpose of any progressive government and political party. By making education as well as qualitative health care available to the vast majority of the people as well as guaranteeing them full employment and uplifting the living standards of people in the rural areas is, therefore, he argues, not doing the citizenry a favor for which they ought to be grateful.
Rather, these are fundamental human rights to which they are entitled. Furthermore, by investing, first and foremost, in the maximum development of the human potential of every member of human society irrespective of socio-economic class, gender, creed, or ethnic origin, society is enhancing the capability of as many of its members as possible to contribute optimally to promoting the collective good of the polity.
It would appear to me to be irrefutable that in its responses to the hardships engendered by its two key policies of fuel subsidy removal as well as exchange rate realignment, the Tinubu administration is toeing the path of progressive ideological policy orientation. The vast majority of the people are the target of its poverty alleviation interventions. Its latest initiative in this regard is the allocation of N180 billion as a combination of grants and loans to the 36 states of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, to enable the sub-national units of government to relieve the hardships of their peoples through palliative interventions in cash and kind. Earlier in a national broadcast, President Tinubu had articulated specific policy initiatives designed to offer succor to the majority of Nigerians who are the most hard hit, especially by the inflationary implications of the new administration’s economic policy imperatives.
Some of these policy outlines include the provision of Infrastructure Support Fund to states to improve rural access roads to ease evacuation of farm produce to markets; investment of N100 billion to acquire 3000 units of 20-seater Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) buses for distribution to states to aid more affordable transportation costs; investment of N100 billion for the cultivation of 150,000 hectares of rice and maize and 100,000 hectares of wheat and cassava, respectively; the release of 200,000 metric tonnes of grains from the strategic reserve for distribution to households across the 36 states and the FCT as well as the provision of 225,000 metric tonnes of fertilizer, seedlings and other inputs to farmers towards the realization of the government’s food security agenda.
In the national broadcast, President Tinubu outlined other palliative measures being implemented to include empowering 75 manufacturing enterprises with N75 billion between now and March 2024 to enable each of the firms access N1 billion credit each at 9% per annum with maximum of 60 months repayment for long term loans and 12, months for working capital; funding 100,000 micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME’s) with N75 billion with each enterprise to get between N500,000 and N1 million at 9% interest per annum and a repayment period of 36 months; energizing MSMEs and the informal sector with N125 billion between now and March next year; offering a conditional Grant of N50 billion to one million nano businesses between now and March next year; and the provision of N50,000 each to 1,300 nano business owners in each of the 774 Local Government Areas across the country.
A frontline Marxist activist and public intellectual, Mr. Femi Aborisade, posited in an outline post that these policies indicate a President who is more concerned about the interest of business than the welfare of the masses. This is ideologically doctrinaire. The interventions in business will stimulate the economy, provide a buffer for the enterprises against the harsh economic climate thus mitigating the need for mass layoff of workers among other benefits.
There are others who have expressed a lack of confidence and trust in state governors through whom the federal government intends to get its palliatives across to the people at the grassroots. But the sub-national units of government are best placed to reach the people as the levels of government closest to the grassroots. The onus then lies on Civil Society groups, Non-Governmental Organizations, Community Development Associations, respected opinion, and religious leaders to be vigilant and keep pressure on the state governments to be transparent, accountable, and equitable in the distribution of the palliatives.
Given his sterling antecedents as an economist, accomplished banker, and effective Commissioner for Finance in Lagos State for eight years, there are high hopes among stakeholders that Mr. Wale Edun, Minister for Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy will deepen and accelerate the pace of reforms with positive effects for the economy as he settles down in office.
However, as I pointed out in the conclusion to the first part of this piece published in this newspaper last Sunday, there are, apart from the technical issues of inflation, exchange rate, interest rate, and other macro-economic management challenges, other essentially non-economic factors that are critical to the country’s quest for rapid economic recovery and sustainable development. Chief Obafemi Awolowo provided a sterling example of this in his management of the country’s finances during the civil war (1967-1970). His emphasis was on the highest level of discipline in the management of scarce financial resources within the context of pressing countervailing wants and needs.
Incidentally, the country faces today the three-pronged challenges which confronted her during the civil war and Awolowo itemized these as “To economize our financial resources; to raise additional revenue and to save our foreign exchange reserve from being run down to a dangerous level, thereby avoiding balance of payments difficulties and preserving the strength of the Nigerian pound”.
According to Awolowo still on his reflections as regards economic management in a period of severe crises, “In any situation similar to the one in which we found ourselves, where recurrent revenue trails behind fleet-footed expenditure, the obvious first line of attack is to economize and maximize available resources. Unless this was done, and done with Draconic firmness, it would be futile to raise additional revenue; and any claim to prudent financial management would be illusory”.
Stressing the critical imperative of rigorous self-discipline in any bid to maximally tap the country’s developmental potentials, Awolowo, while speaking on his party’s promised four-point agenda as he campaigned for the country’s presidency in October 1978, averred that “It can be seen at once that the kind of planning I have in mind calls for extraordinary industry, and severe and strict self-discipline on the part of the planners and executants. There are far too many acts of indiscipline and self-indulgence on the part of the generality of our people in all the strata of our society. These acts of indiscipline and self-indulgence have had and continue to have, among other things, disastrous deleterious effects on our finances”.
Continuing, Awolowo wondered, “What else on earth, for instance, could have made our public servants at the Federal level alone feel at ease with the expenditure in 1977-78 of over N97 million on Local Transport and Traveling, over N28 million on Vehicles, Maintenance and Running Costs, and over N7 million on Overseas Travel?”. The level of waste in the management of public resources has escalated astronomically in this dispensation. Cutting down drastically on this waste, recovering as much as possible the humongous amounts looted from the public treasury in this dispensation, and substantially cutting down on the costs of governance by the legislature, the executive, and the public service bureaucracy, in particular, must be as much Mr. Edun’s concern as the more technical economic management issues he has to deal with.
