The Nigerian economy was at its lowest ebb in 2016 bedeviled by several challenges. Assistant Editor, Chika Otuchikere in this analysis, takes a look at some of the actions of the President Muhammadu Buhari’s led government which plunged the nation into its first economic recession in 25 years.
Many hurricanes that struck countries and cities were quite natural with metrological forecasts predicting them long enough for the citizens of the affected countries to take proactive measures. The Nigerian Hurricane Economic Recession, which struck in 2016 was man-made by all standards.
It came by surprise and hit the Nigerian populace like a bolt from the blue. While the governed could not believe what hit them, the officials of the ruling government, the All Progressives Congress (APC) for a long time after the hurricane swept the length and breadth of the country, did not accept that the nation had glided into a recession and so, continued to live in delusion.
2016 will be a year that Nigerians at all strata of the economic social ladder will not forget in a hurry and will continue to pray never to experience another year of its sort. As economic analysts put it, it is the worst economic situation to befall the country since after the Nigerian-Biafra civil war. What made the recession most disconcerting was its coming on the heels of the highfalutin promises made by the APC with which they blindfolded the electorate and coasted home to victory in the 2015 general election.
Nigerians lived in the illusion that with the coming of President Muhammadu Buhari who contested the presidential election on three previous occasions but failed to clinch the coveted office, Nigeria would do a somersault from a reputedly poverty and corruption ridden third-world nation into becoming one of the world’s emerging economies in the resemblance of the Asian tigers. What with promises such as the crash of the dollar and consequent parity of the Naira with the dollar, the downward review of the pump price of fuel by more than half its then selling price and the promise of monthly stipend paid to indigent unemployed Nigerians. If Nigerians expected anything with the coming of Buhari, it was Eldorado and not the Armageddon which eventually befell them.
According to some watchers of the Nigerian economy, the federal government took a first false step in addressing the country pitiable economic situation right from the inception of the Buhari’s government. They alluded to the very long delay in the appointment of cabinet ministers as the first ominous sign of doom’s days ahead for the country and her bourgeoning population.
President Buhari who won the presidential election conducted in March 2015 waited until September 2015 before he could send the list of his proposed ministerial appointees to the National Assembly. Many have compared him with United States president-elect, Donald Trump, who only had a first shot at the presidency, won the election and has already filled his cabinet list long before his swearing-in.
Many Nigerians believe that the Buhari’s action took a serious toll on government businesses, creating a huge gully in the smooth running of the day to day operations of the different ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) which became debilitated, while management of important government policies and programmes became muddled up.
President Buhari who appeared unperturbed by the long delay which painted him in the image of a man who did not know what to do with his new-found office, told Nigerians then that their anxiety over the delay was unfounded. He was quoted as saying that he was looking for saints to fill the offices. When the ministerial list finally saw the light of day, Nigerians were not only piqued at the personalities who made the list but began to express regrets about the choice during the 2015 election.
Another action of President Buhari which bemused Nigerians was the distribution of portfolios to the appointees. They queried the rationale behind saddling former Lagos State governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola with three key ministries, including Power, Works and Housing as well as the choice of Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, a supposed greenhorn in international financial matters as minister of Finance.
According to them foisting on only one man the power, works and housing ministries at a time when electric power supply was at its lowest ebb, and Nigerians depending more on generator sets, most federal roads in the entire length and breadth of Nigeria were in disrepair and Nigerians still groaning under poor and inhuman housing programmes, was an indirect way of saying that nothing meaningful would be achieved in all three crucial ministries.
There were other personalities in the cabinet which many analysts saw as square pegs in round holes, such as the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Sen. Udo Udoma. They likened the president’s choice a keg of gunpowder waiting to explode on the economy. Several months later when the economy began its nose-dive into recession, many economists began to call for the removal of some of these ministers who, they felt, have not helped matters in handling the nation’s economy.
However, the Buhari government has not yet braced itself to doing the needful even as some analysts are already predicting that that the country’s economic situation may degenerate into a depression if concrete steps are not taken immediately to address the current economic misfortune.
Looking at other actions of the government which landed the nation in this sorry state, pundits of the economy point at the first salvo the APC-led government fired at the Nigerian welfare in the first week of the January 2016 as the 45 per cent hike in electricity tariff. Initially, Nigerians thought it was a nightmare which they would suddenly jump out of after a short spell.
However, the government told them the hike had come to stay and that it was the only way regular and uninterrupted power supply would be guaranteed to all and sundry. Looking back at the tariff whose implementation has spanned 12 months this January, the supply of electricity has not improved. On the contrary, Nigerians attest that their electricity plight has worsened with the private operators performing even worse than when the supply of power was in the hands of government officials.
While small businesses are counting their losses using generators to power their businesses, the bigger businesses such as manufacturing companies are closing down and relocating to other neighbouring countries where electricity power supply is guaranteed.
At the moment, so many Nigerians are calling on the government to revoke the licenses issued to the independent electricity operators insisting that that they have worsened the electricity situation in the country. The Minister of Power who also has his hands full grappling with the deplorable federal roads has been giving little or no attention to the chaotic electricity situation of the country. His election promise of restoring electricity and ensuring 24 hours uninterrupted power supply has been jettisoned with Nigerians now paying cutthroat tariffs for electricity which is hardly available.
While Nigerians were still hurting from their misfortune in the electricity tariff hike, the government suddenly slammed them a deathblow with the astronomical hike in the pump price of fuel. The Buhari government in May 2016 announced an increase in the pump price of fuel from N86.50 to N145 per litre, in May 2016, a few days to his first anniversary as president.
Many Nigerians immediately and rightly, predicted that the nearly 60 per cent increase was going to trigger an unprecedented inflation on goods and services.
Although, the government had assured that they had articulated many social protection programmes in the 2016 budget to cushion the effect the hike of fuel price may have on Nigerians, as at the end of 2016, not many Nigerians could point at one of the measures nor anybody who benefitted from them. The chain reaction of the fuel price increase has reduced Nigerians into a shadow of their old selves with many averring that this was not the change that they voted for.