BY JIDE OJO
Last Thursday, June 27, 2024, President Bola Tinubu for the first time, attended the National Economic Council meeting which is constitutionally chaired by the vice president, Senator Kashim Shettima. It was the 142nd National Economic Council meeting attended by state governors and some deputies at the State House, Abuja. By the time the press was being informed about what transpired at the meeting an economic relief package totalling about N1tn was unveiled for Nigerians. Is this Tinubu’s Marshall plan to rebuild, reconstruct and revamp the economy of Nigeria?
Highlights of the package are as follows: The president gave all the state governors seven days to provide concrete feedback on their plans to rev up food production in their respective states. He also announced a National Construction and Household Support Programme which would see 100,000 families in each state getting N50,000 grant for three months; N155bn would be disbursed for assorted foods; 36 States and the Federal Capital Territory would get N10bn allocations each for CNG buses. In summary, the N50,000 planned for 3.7 million families across the 36 states and the FCT, the N10bn allocation each for CNG buses in the 36 states and the FCT, and the N155bn spending on assorted foods, are estimated to cost over N1tn.
The president was quoted as saying, “There is nothing we are doing that is more important than producing high-quality food for our people to consume, buy, and sell. We create jobs in the production of it. And that is before we generate wealth by exporting the excess. It is not beyond us to achieve this for Nigerians.”
Under the National Construction and Household Support Programme, the Sokoto – Badagry Highway, which will traverse Sokoto, Kebbi, Niger, Kwara, Oyo, Ogun, and Lagos, will be prioritised. Explaining the rationale for the project, the Presidency said, “Within the Sokoto – Badagry Highway corridor, there are 216 agricultural communities, 58 large and medium dams spread across six states, seven special agro-industrial processing zones, 156 local government areas, 39 commercial cities and towns, and over one million hectares of arable land.” The programme also prioritises other road infrastructure projects, such as the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway, which is underway and the Trans-Saharan Highway, which links Enugu, Abakaliki, Ogoja, Benue, Kogi, Nasarawa and Abuja.
Tinubu also approved full counterpart financing for Port Harcourt-Maiduguri Railway; to traverse Rivers, Abia, Enugu, Benue, Nasarawa, Plateau, Bauchi, Gombe, Yobe and Borno, as well as for the Ibadan-Abuja segment of the Lagos-Kano Standard-Gauge Railway; which would traverse Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Kwara, Niger, Abuja, Kaduna, and Kano.
Last Friday, June 28, 2024, I was on Politics Today on Channels TV to discuss these economic relief plans. Similarly, last Monday, July 1, 2024, I was on Adamimogo 105.1 FM, Ibadan to discuss the N50,000 Conditional Cash Transfer to be given to 100,000 families in each of the 36 states and FCT. I am of the considered view that these are laudable packages if genuinely implemented. It will improve the approval rating of the president and avert the kind of restiveness recently witnessed in Kenya. Recall that in the midst of grinding poverty, high unemployment rate and the inability of the government to resolve the new minimum wage for Nigerian workers, the debate is on about the plan to buy two new presidential aircraft for the use of the president and his vice. It’s impossible for our leaders to continue to enjoy on our behalf.
The president said during and after the campaign, “Let the poor breathe.” How can the poor breathe when the powerful political elite of this country is wallowing in a luxurious lifestyle, funded by the state? Just last month, the N21bn new official residence of Nigeria’s Vice President was commissioned in Abuja. Billions of naira have been spent to purchase official vehicles for members of the national and state Assemblies and the presidency. Yet the have-nots are asked to tighten their belts while the rich politicians are loosening theirs. That’s simply a double standard!
Going through the nitty-gritty of the N1tn economic relief packages, two things stuck out like a sore thumb. In the president’s first economic relief packages unveiled in his nationwide broadcast on Monday, July 31, 2023, he said inter alia, “The provision to invest N100bn between now and March 2024 to acquire 3,000 units of 20-seater CNG-fuelled buses. These buses are to be shared to major transportation companies in the states, using the intensity of travel per capita. Participating transport companies will be able to access credit under this facility at nine per cent per annum with a 60-month repayment period.”
Has the Federal Government abandoned this earlier announced plan and instead decided to give each state N10bn to go and procure their CNG buses? Will there be value for money here? Is there any monitoring and evaluation framework in place to ensure that this fund is well utilised? Are CNG buses the magic wand to bring down the cost of transportation in the country?
Again, in that speech, the president said he had approved the Infrastructure Support Fund for the states. It’s been a year now. How much was given to each of the states and what did they use it to do? The president also said N200bn out of the N500bn approved by the National Assembly for subsidy relief packages would be disbursed as follows: N50bn each would be used to cultivate 150,000 hectares of rice and maize. N50bn each would also be earmarked to cultivate 100,000 hectares of wheat and cassava. Any update on this?
Tinubu likewise made the following pledges: “…. to spend N75bn between July 2023 and March 2024. Our objective is to fund 75 enterprises with great potential to kick-start sustainable economic growth, accelerate structural transformation and improve productivity. Each of the 75 manufacturing enterprises will be able to access N1bn credit at nine per cent per annum with a maximum of 60 months’ repayment for long-term loans and 12 months for working capital.”
He promised to energise the micro, small and medium enterprises sector with N125bn. Out of the sum, N50bn would be spent on a Conditional Grant to one million nano businesses between now and March 2024. The target was to give N50,000 each to 1,300 nano business owners in each of the 774 local governments across the country. Similarly, 100,000 MSMEs and start-ups would be supported with N75bn. Under this scheme, each enterprise promoter would be able to get between N500,000 and N1m at nine per cent interest per annum and a repayment period of 36 months. To the Minister of Trade and Investment, how much of this fund have you been able to disburse and to how many beneficiaries?
Another thing that worries me about the N50,000 Conditional Cash Transfer to 100,000 families across the 36 states and FCT is the credibility quotient of the database of the beneficiaries. In the last exercise, when the administration promised to give N25,000 monthly to 15 million households for three months from October to December 2023, the exercise had to be suspended till early this year because the states claimed that the database compiled by the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation lacks credibility. How are we sure these 100,000 beneficiaries in every state are the poorest of the poor with verifiable biometrics such as data capture, Bank Verification Number, National Identification Number and bank account? It will be a shame if only party loyalists are singled out as beneficiaries. In any event, Nigerians await full implementation of this second phase of economic relief packages.
