WEDNESDAY COLUMN BY USSIJU MEDANER
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It is a common knowledge that our world and our country is in chaos – brewing over time – across finance, economic, sociocultural and security spheres. No nation is spared; some may have found a way to cleverly hide their realities from global view and scrutiny, but so many others including Nigeria, by virtue of many concerning factors, are incapable of hiding what is now being seen by all as our reality; which however presents itself as both a challenge and opportunity.
As I write this piece, the United States of America’s households are carrying a record amount of credit card debt, according to a new Federal Reserve Bank of New York report released about seven days ago. According to the bank, financial distress is on the rise, particularly among younger and lower-income Americans. It indicated that total household debt grew by $212 billion, rising to $17.5 trillion in the fourth quarter of 2023. Why the rising debts among the critical population? It is further reported that inflation and higher interest rates are the major contributor to rising credit card debt, which has resulted in more of their citizens struggling to pay down their credit card balances.
Yet, we still envy the Americans; and want to be in their shoes, despite their shares of the global economic meltdown. So, the questions to ask right now are, one, what is wrong with our system in Nigeria that we cannot offer support to our citizens to ease the full weight of the load of the prevailing common problems. Secondly, where does all the laid down support, in the name of palliatives, go, to the point that the impacts are untraceable within the national system?
When the present Administration came on board last year and announced the final removal of fuel subsidy, the President rolled out palliatives through the state governments to the tune of N5 billion per each of the 36 states of the Federation and FCT. Where does the money go? What were the palliatives? We heard promises of rolling out CNG-driven buses across the states by governors; where are the buses eight months later? And, again, where is the money? Where also has the monthly allocations from FAAC to the states going? What are they doing with the states’ IGRs?
December 2023, the President approved for each serving Senator and Member of the House of Representatives a sum of N200 million and N100 million respectively, amounting to N57.8 billion as rice palliative, to return back to their constituencies and reach out to their people. Can we ask, what was done with the money? The same way the governors took the money and literally pocketed it was the way the legislators were careless about the plight of Nigerians. I only heard of one member of the House of Representatives from Edo State, who bought three trailer loads of rice and distributed it to the people in his constituency; I don’t think however, that there is any other among their number, in the National Assembly, who went to their constituencies to do something remarkable as such with the money.
Interestingly, the administration of the 774 local government councils across the country, with each collecting as much as four hundred million naira from the Federation account every month and still generate as much from IGR on the average on a monthly basis, yet, the local governments across the country are seeing no meaningful development. The roads are bad and deteriorating, no meaningful and sustaining job creation at the local government level, no meaningful youths and women empowerment and no appreciable contribution to the fight against insecurity. It thus appears that the job of the local government chairmen is to collect allocations, pay salaries and pocketed the balance for themselves and their cronies.
Unfortunately, as citizens, we share a perverse understanding of who to hold responsible for our many woes. Yes, Mr. President is the leader of the country, but this is a federated country, the state taking 26.72 % of the national monthly income share by FAAC, and the local government 20.60%. These tiers of government are as culpable as the federal government in this regard, but we have freed them by not paying attention to what they do and to continue taking the public incomes to their personal banks without anyone bothering to check their performances or ask questions about their stewardships. No wonder, we hear of sacrilegious amounts misappropriated by these people after they leave offices.
At this point, we would be deceiving ourselves thinking some miracle would fall from the centre to correct the underdevelopment and hunger at the local government areas across the country; without any meaningful involvement of the government that is the closest to the people. Along with all other responses to the current national challenges, it is high time we set up a structured and effective system to enforce role responsibilities and performance by the state and local government administrations. Right now, the states should be conveying delegations to organise state resources to ameliorate the suffering of their people.
Up till now, we have overtly concentrate on the naira-dollar impasse; of course, the continued weakening of the naira against other currencies is bad for our economy, but we have also successfully created another problem from the fixation: Nigerians now taking advantage of dollar cost to arbitrarily inflate prices of food items that are cultivated locally. And the National outrage and cries are now becoming more audible because there are visible and unbearable hunger everywhere.
I consider solving the national food insecurity problem as the most pressing challenge before us right now; and regardless of what other policies we are projecting to revamp concerning sectors of the economy, the one that will speak solutions fastest, is food security. It is possible to separate our drive towards food security from the overblown naira depreciation and weakness. I think the President would have to declare a national state of emergency on food production.
Food markets must be flooded with staples; induced scarcity and organised price inflation must be stopped. Governments at all the levels must pump in funds into food production; and embarking on mass importation of select food produce at zero or minimal import duties to normalise market price must have to be done. Our borders may have to be opened to food inflow, until we are capable of local supply at regulated prices.
We should begin to see the state and local government administrations embarking on large scale food production via coordinated food crops farming; and enforcing controlled pricing modules that are of mutual benefits to all concerned parties. If we have every state, producing nearly enough to feed the state population, the cries at the centre of national food insecurity would no longer be an issue with us as a nation. States that are deficient in the capacity of self-sufficiency in food production would easily be able to liaise with other states, most especially, from the north central and far north, for organised purchases.
We cannot survive allowing farming to remain uncoordinated in the country. This is as much as we cannot continue to depend on the rainy season farming system alone for our food production at this point. Not only in the northern states, but across the country, we must extensively go the way of mass dry season farming, engaging irrigation to consecutively cultivate select food crops. The state and local government administrations must consider this a priority to restore sanity to our national system.
Also, there is the need for the government to reach out to food production stakeholders like major food farmers, organised smallholder farmers and food manufacturers to negotiate on how to make produce available and at affordable prices. If they need concessions, waivers and moratorium, and the likes, they should be granted to increase what the people need. This is the hallmark of progress governance. To ensure prices remain affordable, the government has to set up price control measures and the enforcement mechanism to ensure critical produce are sold at regulated prices. The government cannot go the extra mile to negotiate with food producers and then allow hijackers to hoard and sell produce at unregulated exorbitant prices. Never!
But then, there is another big challenge; how can we successfully cultivate food for the population when the bandits are still roaming freely to hijack produce and victimise farmers? The government effort at resolving the national food insecurity would be ineffectual without corresponding effort to end banditry and all other related criminality.
I suggest a direct mobilisation of traditional rulers to secure their respective domains in collaboration with all the existing security outfits. Giving a marching order and incorporating the traditional system with regard to rooting out insecurity would provide a much more effective result than all military efforts that mostly continue to see the culprits moving in and out of villages at will. Security is everybody’s business; and if efforts at securing Nigeria must be successful, then, the communities must be involved in protecting themselves and the responsibility of organising the community-based responses must be totally given to traditional rulers and community heads.
Maybe, beginning with mass return to agricultural and associated businesses will jostle our senses back to reality; a reality that we are not a productive nation at present, and a reality that we depend too much on others for our existence and pleasures. We depend too much to the extent that every adversity in other nations and systems poses serious threats to our national survival. Even now, in the midst of the current calamities, our best choices are still American made, UK specs and Chinese products. According to reliable data, We, the black race, occupy an enclave that boasts of $1.3 trillion in income, but spend $23 billion on clothes, $11 billion on furniture, $3.2 billion on cell phones, $46 billion on drugs, and a whopping $32 billion on healthcare. We spend a fortune organising parties, jamborees and impressing others, but near to nothing on productive ventures – but unrestrained on consumption. It is time this changed.
No nation can go forward with this mentality. We must become productive intentionally; we must engage our abundant resources to our advantage. We must begin to build true wealth for ourselves and our nations. These are desperate times, and the need for desperate measures is upon us, so desperately.
Two other considerations to address the twin primary concerns, insecurity and food under-production are firstly, the need to take data gathering of real farmers seriously. This is to minimise, if not, eliminate resource leakages associated with past government policies and programs for the masses. Otherwise, without data of actual farmers and other pertinent data, it will be difficult, if not another wasted government effort in addressing the present food crisis. Hence, I am suggesting to the presidency to consider statewide all-inclusive economic intelligence to gather needful data for policy decision making.
And secondly, we cannot overemphasised the traditional role of the media in a democracy. Investigative journalism is to be promoted in this present times to ensure the public is well acquainted with critical government policies and programs implementations. A corollary to this is to also promote what I call select listening meetings which is to gather collective feedbacks and proposals from the public concerning specific or critical national issues. This is how we keep public figure and every concerning institutional on its toe.
As it is now, blame games, sponsored protests and unhinged, non-contributing gyration would only increase our incapacity to unite to solve our many national challenges. It is high time we recognised we need to save the building from collapsing because we are all under the same roof. It is time we evolved from a blame game culture to a solution-making culture in the interest of our country. Is everyone not feeling the heat and probably in double portion?
God Bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
