The Nigerian economy, which is still reeling from the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war, looks set to suffer another setback as politics has already taken centre stage, pushing governance into the background.
A number of President Muhammadu Buhari’s cabinet members have declared their intention to succeed him and have refused to resign before the primaries.
BusinessDay findings revealed that their electioneering has slowed down policy implementation, project supervision and other key activities of many government ministries, departments and agencies.
As of the last count, Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, Rotimi Amaechi (minister of transportation), Chris Ngige (minister of labour and employment), Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba (minister of state for education), Ogbonnaya Onu, (minister of science and technology), Godswill Akpabio (minister of Niger Delta affairs), and Timipre Sylva (minister of state for petroleum resources) have formally joined the race for the presidential ticket of the All-Progressives Congress (APC), while a few others have been rumoured to be nursing similar ambitions and quietly ‘consulting’.
Godwin Emefiele, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, is also eyeing the presidential ticket of the APC.
The Federal High Court in Abuja, on Monday, declined to grant the prayers of Emefiele’s lawyers to bar him from being disqualified to contest for the presidential ticket of any political party ahead of the 2023 general elections.
His lawyer, Mike Ozekhome, had urged the court to issue an interim order stopping the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) from disqualifying him from participating in the primary election of his preferred political party.
But ruling on the ex parte application, the judge, Ahmed Mohammed, ruled that he would rather order INEC and the AGF to appear to state their side of the case instead of granting the CBN governor’s request.
The judge said having read the affidavit in support of the motion, it was more appropriate to direct the defendants to appear in court on May 12, to show cause why Emefiele’s request should not be granted.
“Some major business decisions in key parastatals such as Nigerian Ports Authority, Nigerian Shippers’ Council and National Universities Commission are suffering uncertainties because the supervising ministers are distracted with politicking,” said Yemi Akintunde, a business lawyer attached with Open Society Initiative for West Africa.
“If you check around, there are some government offices that are deserted because of next month’s primary elections,” he added.
Festus Ogbeide, a contractor and CEO of Randall Construction Ltd, confirmed the above development and narrated his struggles with accessing a government ministry to get clearance for his goods at the port.
“I can’t clear my goods at the port because I need clearance from the ministry of transport but the permanent secretary is always on political trips with the Minister of Transport,” he said.
Apart from those running for president, there are other ministers or heads of federal agencies who are also eyeing elective positions in next year’s general election.
Bashir Jamoh, director-general of the Nigerian Maritime Safety and Administration Agency, is rumoured to be consulting for the Kaduna State governorship seat.
Abubakar Malami, the country’s Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, has also officially declared he would run for governor in Kebbi State.
“People from the state have been pressuring me to contest the governorship position in 2023,” Malami told the News Agency of Nigeria.
Isreal Akintunde, a business lawyer at an auditing firm, said the way major supervisors of government agencies are gradually abandoning their primary duties for political ambition really calls for worry and must be addressed.
“At a time, the administration is supposed to be commissioning major projects, counting their physical achievements or even doing more work to ensure they leave an indelible mark and their names etched in the good books of history, majority of the ministers are distracted with government appointments,” he said.
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Last month, Nigeria suffered the biggest downward revision of the sub-Saharan Africa countries covered by global credit ratings agency, Fitch, which says Africa’s biggest economy will only grow faster than South Africa and Sudan this year.
“Further economic reforms are particularly unlikely now that the Vice-President, Yemi Osinbajo, the administration’s key voice for business-friendly policies, has dedicated himself to his own presidential campaign for the 2023 election,” Ben Weaver, sub-Saharan Africa analyst at Fitch, said.
Fitch believes the leadership battle for next year’s general election will be hard-fought.
“With these few, we believe policymaking will remain slow over coming months as politicians continue jockeying for positions,” Weaver said.
Peter Obi, former Anambra governor and presidential hopeful on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party, says it is sad that federal universities are on strike while politicians are campaigning for the 2023 elections.
“It is very sad. It is intolerable that schools are closed and we are campaigning and we are even talking about elections. It would never happen in any other country except Nigeria,” Obi said while appearing on a radio show in Nigeria’s commercial capital.
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) is on strike over the federal government’s failure to honour an agreement on issues bordering on funding universities, as well as salaries and allowances of lecturers.
Beyond the ASUU strike, local airlines in Nigeria also have concerns of their own. They threatened last week to shut down operations this week over aviation fuel price hike.
Diesel prices have nearly tripled since the start of the year, with manufacturers facing higher operational costs.
“President Buhari’s administration is crumbling; his cabinet members have left their duty posts. This is the time when the treasury gets looted the most because nobody is watching,” Akintunde said.
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