By Sheriffdeen Tella

Nigeria has always been blessed with ministers of information and special/non-special assistants on media and publicity. They always know their onions. They have a way of selling their bad products as the only excellent being in town and I cannot remember when last we had an excellent product as president. They seem to have a way of changing apparent F9 ‘parallels’ in economic performance to A1 using WAEC certificate grading. Yet, they have not all been Lai Mohammed, the incumbent minister whose first name fits into the job. Actually, to ask for excellent leadership in Nigeria is to scout around for non-existent excellent followership. How I wish we were truly “Good country, good people.”

I remember that Professor Dora Akunyili of blessed memory, a pharmacist of no mean standing, became a public relations par excellence when she picked up the portfolio as Minister of Information, not to talk of Nweke Jnr and their seniors in office. I remember a hilarious response from my brother and friend, Reuben Abati, who was in charge of media and publicity for President Goodluck Jonathan and his client stopped saying amen in a prayer session that was virtually turned on its head. Reuben, probably euphemistically, retorted, when asked why the President stopped, that “the President has a number of times he can say amen at a function.” We are presently witnesses to the conduct of Garba Shehu and Femi Adesina.

So, when people are talking about the incompetence of officers, we must exclude those who occupy the information ministry. Even incompetent masters know who can sell rotten fruits to millionaires. So, when the Minister for Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, was reeling out the ‘fantastic’ achievements of the current government during the past week, I had to check within my space whether it was daybreak or nightfall outside. But as I was just adjusting my sitting position, the PHCN struck familiarly. By the time the generator was put on, the show had ended. Our focus in this piece is not on this personnel, it is just to tell us a story, that Nigeria has talents. The government policies and conducive environment that threw up Mr. Mohammed and company have been replaced with no plan, no future projections for citizens. Quality education is the bedrock of talent hunting, talent detecting and talent development but after the First Republic, the succeeding economic managers did not care about citizens’ human capital development. The paltry budget allocations to education and health and the actual expenditures on these sectors in the last 20 years attest to my position.

I listened to some prayers on the eve of 2022 and was not shocked with prayers centred around the exit of a bad year. A year full of heightened armed banditry activities, kidnapping, armed robbery or general insecurity and economic quagmire. That was 2021 when more people lost their jobs and incomes than the previous and actual COVID-19 year – 2020; many lost their lives in search of survival or insecurity; governments found it increasingly difficult to pay workers for jobs done, poverty level and in grades grew, three different variants of COVID-19 emerged unexpectedly and took away the lives of breadwinners and family ATMs, and the year was characterised by lots of manhour losses due to deliberate and sporadic labour strikes or threat of strikes. Year 2021 looked like a double leap year because of its message of bad omen for ordinary Nigerians but eventually ended after 365 days!

Surprisingly that was the year Mr. Mohammed praised the government’s immeasurable achievements on many fronts and wished it could be elongated for more dividends of democracy. Of course, it was the year many special Nigerians won more paper contracts they knew they would collect money but not execute as the money would be for 2023 elections. It was the year the judiciary’s attention was diverted to internal soul searching and away from prosecution of ex-office holders by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and Independent Corrupt Practises Commission; it was the year of aggressive loan contracts by the federal and state governments on behalf of Nigerians and for the development of Nigeria! Money that was supposed to be used for investments in various sectors of the economy to generate more income became concentrated in the hands of few who invested such money to expand their real estates in Dubai, London, New York, et cetera and bury the rest underground in their estates or palaces in Nigeria waiting for the campaign period when they will be spending money freely without going to any bank. This is what we expect to witness in 2022.

We are already in the new year and can look back at the position of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari, at the signing of the 2022 budget. Firstly, the report that the Federal Government plans to borrow N12 trillion from domestic and external sector between this year and 2023; secondly, the hint by the Minister of Finance, Budget and Planning, Zainab Ahmed, that we should expect more taxes, levies and price hikes in fuel and electricity; thirdly, the increase in the budget deficit by the National Assembly without adequate rationale or suggestions on new sources of financing the deficit are enough to create fear that 2022 economic outlook could become quite terrible for Nigerians. The first and third activities imply that the Ministry of Finance may continue to use our revenue to service and repay debts, leaving little or nothing for development and possibly forcing the ministry to scale up the tax rate and the central bank to further devalue the naira, both at the expense of the economic wellbeing of the citizens. The second item indicates that citizens’ hardship will continue in 2022.

However, at the signing of the budget, the President gave some hopes. He promised that the capital projects would be executed faithfully, asking the Ministry of Finance to cooperate by releasing funds as when due and that those holding to our money will be pursued to pay up. Capital projects have greater multiplier effects in terms of employment and income generation than recurrent expenditure. If bureaucracy is reduced in terms of release of funds and the projects properly executed, it might lift the economy up from the recession but one is afraid of the corruption in the civil service which is the main stumbling block in the release of funds for projects. It will however be meaningless if contractors execute projects and are not paid in time because the so-called multiplier effects will not be realised since many contractors pay their workers on the basis of getting paid for the job carried out.

The President promised that the government would make sure people owing or holding the country’s money in whatever form will be pursued to pay such money. Such money runs into trillions of naira and can plug significant holes in the budget deficit. Given the projected global recovery in oil prices for 2022, the oil sector revenue might be able to provide the required succour to the economy’s finances. Hopefully, the government will think out of the box on reliance on loans to run the economy as well as change the idea of raising revenue through increased taxes rather than widening the tax net in scope and coverage. Then, the economic turnaround can start in earnest in 2022. There are enough local and international research outputs to guide the government on what to do to turn Nigeria around, but government functionaries seem to have their own agenda. There is immeasurable pride in running a developed Nigeria.