In Removing Pressure on Citizens with Policy Choices, Dr. Chizea examines ways to manage recent government policies for positive impact.
We have been informed that what is responsible for the recent hike in pump price is that the price of crude went up recently from 70 to 80 dollars a barrel. And you say to yourself what an irony? A country that is the eight producer of crude in the world has its citizens groaning because its price went up! That has been the dilemma of the Nigerian situation.
There is also the explanation that pump price must reflect the reality of the market; please interpret to mean the falling rate of exchange!
We compounded the problem by also attempting to remove multiple rates of exchange rate in our market. Although this is a laudable long anticipated objective but what about the problem of sequencing?
Once again the root cause of the multiple exchange rates in the country is a combination of lack of productivity to earn badly needed foreign exchange and the consequences of macroeconomic instability which is anathema to attracting foreign investors.
What we have now done is to pile up pressure on our citizens, which runs contrary to what should be the focus of governance. The misery index in a country with 130 million out of 200 million designated as suffering from multi-dimensional poverty and 54% youth unemployment rate should be to work to bring some succour and not otherwise as it is currently the case.
There are a number of imperatives we needed to address to make the Nigerian environment attractive. Among the obvious ones are security issues, stability of policies, infrastructural bottlenecks, ease of doing business considerations, entry visa challenges, clearance experience at our points of entry, and keeping inflation under control. It is not realistic to expect all of these to be handled in one fell swoop. But we must get cracking.
As should be expected there are far reaching consequences most of which are unpalatable. I don’t know how many of us appreciate fully the consequences of an inflation rate that is close to 23%! For a very long time the authorities have targeted and worried on attaining single digit inflation rate. But for now, we must admit that we have lost that battle. No doubt we have all felt the quick and sudden increases in the price of good and services which have negatively impacted the misery index in the land. I have not seen anything like the current galloping rate of price increases in the economy before!
It has just been reported that the Federal Accounts Allocation Committee will share a whopping amount among the tiers of government at the end of July, 2023 which stands at N1.9 trillion. This is over three times the N786.161 billion shared both in June the N655.93 billion shared in May. Although the actual value of this humongous amount has been eroded by the inflationary spiral, those at the helm must he held accountable. There must now be no reasons for non-prompt payments of salaries and pensions for instance.
An approval for palliative disbursement of 800 billion Naira to be made to 12 million households over an initial period of six months has been received even though the President has asked for review following the reactions of compatriots. There are issues with palliative payments in Nigeria in the past. It was not transparent. Do we have a Register in place? What scientific approach was applied for compilation of this Register if at all available? What is even more is that such payments don’t amount to much in addition to the consideration that such funds are usually misapplied by those in charge. It is better to concentrate on providing services and sundry reliefs which will ameliorate the suffering in the land.
The National Assembly in approving the Supplementary Budget approved for itself 70 billion Naira as palliative payments to its members as well as 40 billion Naira for the purchase of SUV cars. How sensitive do we think such decisions are in the midst of so much hardship? Well, Femi Falana, if I read him well, has gone to court to stop this measure from being implemented. But it is best to move to adopt some of the recommendations presented herein as the path we have now adopted is not the safe way forward.
Slug: Removing Pressure on Citizens
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