…Nigerians react to democracy broadcast

Omodele Adigun; Louis Iba; Uche Usim; Chiwendu Obienyi

As President Muhammadu Buhari glowingly spoke about his success in revamping the nation’s economy, a cross-section of Nigerians have exploded in anger, saying that over 65 per cent of the populace are still living in abject poverty.

They however advised him not to claim success for an economy that he “crashed with his lethargic, lackadaisical and absence approach to governance.”

The President in his Democracy Day speech had said: “This administration has therefore focused on revamping the ailing economy it inherited in 2015. In 2016, government executed an expansionary budget and developed the Strategic Implementation Plan. For the first time, 30 per cent of the budget was earmarked for capital expenditure which represents an upward review when compared with the 2015 budget. The SIP was followed by the development of a comprehensive medium term plan – the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) 2017 – 2020.

“The broad strategic objectives of the ERGP were to: restore and sustain economic growth; build a globally competitive economy and invest in our people.

“The implementation of the ERGP has started yielding results. The National Bureau of Statistics reports that the economy grew by 1.95 per cent in the first quarter of 2018, which is a good performance when viewed against -0.91 in the first quarter of 2017 and -0.67 per cent in the first quarter of 2016 respectively.”

But, Mr Tope Fasua, the Chief Executive of Global Analytics Consulting Limited, said the country is far from being out of doldrums.

According to him, the fact that crude oil prices are trending up should also not lull the president and his team back to sleep.

Hear him: “I’ll say that Buhari should not claim success for an economy that he crashed with his lethargic lackadaisical and absent approach to governance. The fact that crude oil prices are trending up should also not lull him and his team back to sleep as over 65 per cent of Nigerians are still extremely poor. We cannot claim to be out of the woods yet. Nigerian government is planning 1.6 per cent GDP growth rate this year while we have 13 per cent inflation and 30 per cent lending rates. That is an economy heading to Hades. It is a tad irresponsibility for leaders to rush to town and claim glory for these kind of statistics.

This shows that there is no hope for economic renaissance with this government. It must be noted that we have been borrowing massively to paper over the economic cancer that has festered under the Buhari government due to negligence and continued corruption” In his own views, the former Managing Director of Unity Bank Plc, Mr Rislanudeen Mohammad said the frightening figure of unemployment remains a pointer to the fact that the economy is struggling to grow.

The Chief Executive Officer, Front-vine Securities Limited, Eugene Ezenwa, in his views said the circle of passing the budget is affecting the recovery of the economy as well as the masses.

“The 30 per cent upward review he is talking about; has the 2017 budget ended? When is the 2018 budget going to kick off? The administration is merely trying to correct mistakes it has made all the while and unfortunately, we thought the budget for this year would have started running from January but it will start by June.

“The job creation he is talking about is yet to be seen and even if it were created, there are thousands of Nigerian youths who are still unemployed. The good thing this administration has done is to carry on with the projects the last administration left behind, so they are trying to correct their mistakes. Unless we get it right in production and infrastructure, we won’t go far,” he said.

The National Coordinator, Progressive Shareholders’ Association of Nigeria (PSAN), Boniface Okezie, said there is an urgent need for the government to work on the development of infrastructure in the country.

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“Every year we keep talking about trillions on annual budgets and Nigerians have not felt the impact of these budgets. Then what do you expect us to be proud of? What are we celebrating May 29 for if there is no food on the table for those who are hungry? But in the aviation sector, Buhari has been accused of spewing lies and also taking credits for projects he did not initiate in his speech.     For instance, Reno Omokiri faults Buhari’s claims that his government had a hand in Nigeria’s aviation sector attaining and retaining the United States of America Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) Category One certification which allows direct flight services between Nigeria and USA.

“I  just watched President Buhari’s Democracy Day Speech and I am stunned at the level of lies contained in just one speech,” said Omokiri.

“Buhari lied by claiming US FAA Category 1 status as an achievement of his government. Nigeria attained US FAA Category 1 on October 23, 2010 under former President Jonathan.

Also commenting on the broadcast, Prof Uche Uwaleke of Nassarawa State University said President’s claim of economic growth was acceptable judging from the horrible state of economy when he came on the saddle.
“The government has done a lot to a large extent. When they came in, oil price crashed and the economy plunged into recession. But the CBN intervened in various ways. But the government has to tackle the rising insecurity like the herdsmen-farmers clashes. It’s affecting the economy. Again, we need to see more N-Power programmes”, he said.

Buhari is desperate for achievements,” he added.
Other industry watchers have also been stunned by the government’s claim to have been instrumental to the establishment of a functional aircraft maintenance hanger in Lagos by Aero Contractors pointing out that such claims amounts to fraud.

A source who was consultant on the project told Daily Sun that the project had no government direct backing and noted that in the aviation sector the government had made little impact in the last three years.

“Facts don’t lie. If you doubt me take a journey through the Port Harcourt Airport under Buhari’s government. And interestingly, the Transport Minister, Rotimi Amechi, hails from Rivers State. That airport continues to rank as the worst in the world. Port Harcourt Airport  is the metaphor of this government’s poor performance in the aviation sector,” added the source.

But the President of Association of Bureaux de Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON), Alhaji Aminu Gwadabe, praised the government for instituting ERGP, saying it is an innovative initiative to turn round the economy.
He also praised Buhari’s food security programme built around self-sufficiency and minimization of import dependency.

The presidebt had said: “As a result of it, rice importation from other countries has been cut down by 90 per cent which has a direct impact on foreign reserves”.

Gwadabe noted, that the programme is strengthening the Naira. He, however, advised that the government should extend the iintervention to rubber farmers so that the country can produce tyres and other by-products. He equally advised that palm oil and cocoa farmers should also benefit from the scheme.

In his own views, the former Managing Director of Unity Bank Plc, Mr Rislanudeen Mohammad said the frightening figure of unemployment remains a pointer to the fact that the economy is struggling to grow.

“The adjusted GDP growth released by the National Bureau of Statistics(NBS) showed that youth unemployment and under-employment stands at 52.25%. Mr President was comparing quarter by quarter but if you look at things critically, you’ll see that the little growth seen if from oil and not diversification because it has not trickled down. Companies that were hit by recession are yet to recover”, he said.

Also commenting on the broadcast, Prof Uche Uwaleke of Nassarawa State University said President’s claim of economic growth was acceptable judging from the horrible state of economy when he came on the saddle.

“The government has done a lot to a large extent. When they came in, oil price crashed and the economy plunged into recession. But the CBN intervened in various ways. But the government has to tackle the rising insecurity like the herdsmen-farmers clashes. It’s affecting the economy. Again, we need to see more N-Power programmes”, he said.