- Economic experts proffer quick fixes, maintain current economic policies will lead nowhere
Nigerians have expressed worry over their worsening predicament, saying the more they show understanding and make hard sacrifices in the face of the economic crisis, the harsher their living conditions become.
They said about sixteen months after the removal of fuel subsidy by President Bola Tinubu, their woes have been compounded and that they are yet to experience any positive outcomes from the economic policies of the Federal Government.
Some of the nation’s citizens who spoke with The Point in separate interviews queried President Tinubu who doubles as the Minister of Petroleum, Wale Edun, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy of Nigeria and Olayemi Cardoso, the Central Bank of Nigeria Governor on their economic policies which they said have been making life unbearable for the common man.
As the Naira continues to fall both in the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market, it is also declining in the parallel market, prices of goods and services in the country have been hitting the roof.
The Nigerian Economic Summit Group had said recently that the present economic situation in the country is scary.
Private sector led-think tank group said the country needs to take bold and decisive steps to address the challenges.
According to the chairman of the NESG, Niyi Yusuf at a news conference in Abuja, one of Nigeria’s pressing concerns now is translating economic growth into improved lives and livelihoods for all its citizens.
Bemoaning difficulty in paying his children school fees for the 2024/2025 academic session, a father of three, Isaac Adelowokan said he did not know how he used the money he saved for his children’s school fees for the family upkeep.
“The foundation has been destroyed and we need to start from scratch. We need to fix the big elephant in the room and that is the exchange rate.”
“I am in a difficult situation now and I am losing it. Our Naira is miserable to the extent that when you have N200,000 in your savings, you discover you have nothing the moment you dip your hands in spending it. I had been saving for my children’s school fees when they resume this September but look at me now, just in a matter of weeks, foods and other family needs have consumed it. My children are yet to resume school.
“Still, our President will ask us to be patient. The question is, for how long are we going to endure this terrible situation? We are making sacrifices but nothing appears to be getting better. More taxes are being invoked by the government and prices of fuel are on increase almost on a daily basis. For how long should we sacrifice because we are tired? President Tinubu should act fast because things are already worse,” Adelowokan, a tricycle rider in Osogbo said.
Another citizen, Mrs. Ige lamented hunger and financial distress across the country, saying the policies of President Tinubu have claimed many lives and subjected several others into miseries.
She said, “When I say things are getting difficult, I mean it. We are losing people to this economic crisis and starvation is everywhere.
If you go to our hospitals, many are very sick and they are becoming hypertensive. The government is asking us to be patient but our public office holders appear not to know what we, the common masses are passing through. Asking us to make more sacrifices while the prices of things are increasing on a daily basis is tantamount to suicide and people are suffering.”
Meanwhile, some public affairs analysts have accused President Tinubu, governors, members of the National Assembly and other public office holders of living in extravagance while citizens who voted them into power languish in poverty.
They berated Tinubu, especially for purchasing expensive vehicles, yachts and embarking on costly trips with taxpayers’ money, while his policies are worsening the pains and woes of Nigerians.
A former Dean of Student Affairs, Federal Polytechnic, Ede, Dr. Oluyemi Omotosho-Junior, Ayo Ologun and Prince Kanmi Ademiluyi called on President Tinubu to desist from “stepping on Nigerians’ toes.”
According to Omotosho-Junior, “President Tinubu asked us to sacrifice but he is creating more ministries and buying cars and yachts. He is here to enrich himself and members of his family.”
Lamenting the current economic realities, Ademiluyi stated, “The country is in an existential crisis. Cost of feeding and even paying school fees is scary. The President of a country is supposed to rally the populace and uplift the citizens.”
Speaking, economic experts argued that the current policies of the Federal Government would not ameliorate the suffering of Nigerians.
They advised the Federal Government to stop operating the nation as if it is one of the states of the federation.
An economic expert, Oludare Mudashiru, called on the Federal and State Governments to focus on production and manufacturing in order to add value to Naira.
He said, “President Tinubu’s policies upon assumption of office brought us to where we are at this unfavorable destination. Petrol was N200 when he became the President; a dollar was less than N740. Today, petrol is now over N1,000 and a dollar is over N1,600. What kind of economic policies would have brought us that far, it is a very terrible economic policy.”
Questioning the rationale behind asking Nigerians to be more patient with the current economic policies when governments are increasing cost of governance and earning big, Mudashiru pointed out that, “If we are talking about delayed gratification that the President promised, then let us talk about delayed gratification across the strata. You cannot be talking about delayed gratification for the larger population and you are not delaying gratification for the minutest population that is consuming the resources of the country.
“Delayed gratification is supposed to be across. The government should have cut its spending, it should have reduced their portfolio, should have reduced the cost of governance and that is what is delaying gratification. He should have used all of those cuts to expand the economy, grow the economy and then later, if they like, double the cost of governance. So, if you are talking about delayed gratification, how far can you ask Nigerians to be patient? For how long can you ask Nigerians to remain patient in the face of this suffering? Have the incomes of Nigerians grown within that same period? The price of fuel is growing from less than N200 to over N1000?”
On devaluation of the nation’s currency, the agro-preneur submitted, “I don’t know why our economy has to be dollar dependent and if our economy is a dollar dependent economy, what should be the economic policy of the government to ensure that our own currency is not stumbling everyday against that benchmark currency. If you ask me, have Nigerians not been patient enough? Like I said before, a day will come when Nigerian leaders will realise that Nigerians should be applauded for being fantastic followers even in the light of their prevailing challenges.”
Emphasising on the need for trade and production to be prioritised by governments in the country, Mudashiru stated, “The relationship between currencies has to do with the purpose of the currency.
Trade is a fundamental reason for means of exchange and the volume of trade you do is a determinant factor in considering how much comes to you is trading.”
He added, “Foreign exchange is not just a function of sitting around the table and deciding how much of a particular currency you need as a country or how much of a particular currency you need as a country. What we should be talking about is if currencies are the means of exchange for goods and services, then, our fundamentals as a country is to produce those goods and services that will bring about the earnings of whatever currencies that we pretend to earn.
And if the Nigerian currency is more important to us than other currencies, then we should do more of our trading in that particular currency. But, like I would always say, every country is supposed to always think about their comparative advantage. What puts us at advantage is when we now exploit the particular currency that we are looking for.
“It is a very simple rule of economics, the more goods you produce, the more services you render, the more the earnings you get and if you have become a country that has not been producing goods, that is not rendering services, then you will always be a deficit and that is what is happening to Nigeria and that is what we are battling as of today. It is all about production and service rendering that you are able to get as much as you are determined or as much as you need as a country and for us, as at today, we are at our zero base considering our capacity, potential, natural resources, they are not close to getting us anywhere. You can see we are in a lot of debts right now.”
Mudashiru argued that President Tinubu, Yemi Cardoso and Wale Edun have not been able to perform because they are using the style of which they deployed in governing Lagos State for Nigeria’s economy.
“Lagos is a centre of trade and commerce, Lagos is not a centre of production, so, if you are bringing somebody who is used to selling things that he doesn’t know how they are produced, they are just selling, then it will be difficult for the person to talk about production. Sometimes, they even sell reproduced goods and bring the same set of people to come and manage a system that is production oriented, it won’t work.
“They are only bringing their rent seeking idea of which they ruled Lagos into governance. Having these Lagos guys at the helms of affairs has been the greatest challenge for Nigerians. They are putting the cart before the horse. We expect them to strengthen production first, add value and then trade and commercialise. We know that the oil and gas sector is the power in which this production is going to happen and if we are truly production centric, we won’t just be hiking the price of energy. You have removed subsidies on everything in Nigeria and that is what we are suffering now,” he stated.
An economic expert, Paul Alaje, urged President Tinubu to start from scratch, saying, “The foundation has been destroyed and we need to start from the scratch. We need to fix the big elephant in the room and that is the exchange rate. Naira should weigh above N1, 000 to the dollar. And if we do that, the money going to the FAAC will reduce. But do the people in FAAC want their money reduced or do they want Nigeria to have more value for their money?
“The reports of the Bureau of Statistics came with a level of concern for growth in naira terms. The growth we witnessed across the sector was very marginal. Population growth rate takes between 2.6 to 3 per cent. So, there is in the real sense no growth.”
He agreed with earlier experts that Nigeria needs to focus on manufacturing if the economic crisis would be ameliorated.
“What we should concern ourselves with now lies and ends with manufacturing. We cannot sandwich the manufacturing sector.
From the recent report, service provided over 60 per cent. So, we need to focus on how we boost manufacturing and to boost manufacturing, you have to look at the cost of governance. If we don’t reduce spending and reduce what is called Ways and Means and keep it less than two percent, then we may not head anywhere,” Alaje said.
A public affairs analyst, Ikenna Ofor, told The Point that he was skeptical about Tinubu’s economic policies working as “advertised.”
Ofor explained that it was so because policies of past governments in Nigeria did not address the country’s economic challenges.
He also added that in Nigeria, preceding governments usually fare better than succeeding governments.
He said, “I understand that the President has been insisting that his economic policies will soon begin to bear fruits and that Nigerians will have reason to rejoice very soon.
“But I beg to differ. I am skeptical about the present administration’s economic policies working as advertised. And this is because most of the economic policies that were implemented by past governments we have had in Nigeria have not rescued Nigerians from the brink.
“Recently, there was a discussion on social media that centred on an unverified observation that in Nigeria, preceding governments always fared better than the governments that succeeded them.
“For the sake of clarity, the argument is that Obasanjo’s government was better than Yar’Adua’s government that succeeded it, and Yar’Adua’s government was better than Jonathan’s government that succeeded it.
“And then Jonathan’s government was better than Buhari’s government that succeeded it, and finally it has been predicted that the trend will continue and Buhari’s government is expected to be better than Tinubu’s government, but God forbid that it happens that way.
“My prayer notwithstanding, I am still worried. The economic policies should by now have at least been showing early signs of recovery. The government sometimes says that prices are going down but, alas, in the markets and other places, prices of goods and services are still not reasonable and affordable for the common man.”
About what more sacrifices Nigerians should make, Ofor advised, “About sacrifices Nigerians should make, I think the people have already made more than enough sacrifices. They have been paying for the little things they need way more than necessary.
“Salaries are no longer reliable and have remained static. They can’t even be called take-home pay anymore. So, it will be wicked to ask Nigerians to make more sacrifices.
“Meanwhile, the only good thing Nigerians can do now is to ensure that they save more. If they can, the insignificant fees they pay to subscribe for cable television should be reviewed.
“Internet subscriptions should also be slashed. If you make N10, 000 subscriptions, for instance, you can cut it down to about N5, 000.
“And for those who love driving to work come rain, come shine, they should look at public transportation for now. It will go a long way in helping them to manage their depleted finances.”
Where’s FG’s N40, 000 rice?
Meanwhile, Nigerians have again expressed frustration over the difficulties in accessing the Federal Government’s N40, 000 subsidised rice launched on September 6, 2024, in Abuja.
The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Abubakar Kyari, had asked interested Nigerians to be ready to provide their National Identification Numbers with an Automated Teller Machine card as the only means of payment.
However, many Nigerians have complained that the sales points are inaccessible.
On September 15, an official from the agriculture ministry, in an attempt to address public concerns, said that sales to non-civil servants would begin on Monday, September 16.
“We started with civil and public servants because they possess the necessary credentials. Before purchasing, one must present a valid identity card and National Identification Number.
“I am skeptical about the present administration’s economic policies working as advertised. And this is because most of the economic policies that were implemented by past governments we have had in Nigeria have not rescued Nigerians from the brink.”
“Sales points were set up at the Office of the Head of Service of the Federation, Ministry of Agriculture, and the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission,” the official, who spoke in confidence due to lack of authorisation to speak on the matter, explained.
He assured Nigerians that sales to the general public would begin on September 16, reiterating the government’s commitment to ensuring everyone benefits from the initiative.
“Now that many civil servants have benefited, we are moving to the general public,” the official added.
While the sales did begin as promised, citizens are lamenting the challenges of traveling from the outskirts of cities to urban centres, particularly in the Federal Capital Territory, to access the sales and collection points.
Many persons outside the FCT have reported being unable to locate any sales points at all.
In the Kubwa area of the FCT, a resident, Blessing Ameh, said, “Not at all. I have not seen any sales point in my area in Kubwa.”
The situation was similar in Oyo State, where another resident, Deborah Johnson, remarked, “We have not seen even a single bag here.”
Experts have suggested that for the initiative to be effective, the government must decentralise the payment and collection points, allowing people to purchase the rice without incurring additional transportation costs.
An agricultural economist at the Centre for Agricultural Development and Sustainable Environment, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Tobi Awolope, said, “Accessibility is a crucial component of food security. Issues around the supply chain, particularly the high cost of transporting food, have posed a major threat to societal welfare, especially for rural dwellers.
“Access to food—both in terms of proximity and affordability—is a fundamental human right. Therefore, collection centers should be located where all social groups can easily reach them.”
While Nigerians appreciate the government’s efforts to alleviate the impact of rising food inflation, they are urging authorities to ensure that the rice distribution reaches areas where the majority of the population resides.
A resident of Karu, Ibrahim Abdullahi, said “I was at the sales point located at the Nigerian Agricultural Insurance Corporation until the close of business yesterday (Thursday), but I couldn’t make a payment due to the overwhelming crowd.
“Today (Friday), I’ve been trying again, but to no avail. The government should decentralise the collection points so we can access the rice in our local areas.”
