Elections are basically over and now it is time for governance. Whether the federal or a state government is helmed by PDP or APC the issues plaguing our country – many of which have been plagues for decades – still need to be fixed.
At the risk of sounding like a scratched record we must highlight these problems. These problems did not vote for any party even if some of them formed the basis for campaigns. Some of these problems like the power situation are glaring and encountered daily. There is a power cut in 80% of homes in Nigeria at least once a day. Power still needs to be fixed and the politicians must keep their promises.
The unemployment rate has a lot of statistics flying around. We don’t need statistics to know that people are unemployed. Just look around your family and friends or check how many people vie for one position each time there is a job interview advertised. The thousands of people that trooped out to apply to be one of the housemates at Big Brother Nigeria 2019 auditions tells a story.
University lecturers were on strike for months heralding the fact that our University system is in shambles and has been so for decades. Just to put this in context there are 75,000 Nigerians in school in Ghana. Nigerians spend 300 Billion Naira per annum sending children to school in Ghana. At 75,000 students it would be 4million Naira per annum per student. To put this in context, note that the total budget of Taraba State is 146 Billion Naira and the proposed budgetary allocation for education in the 2019 budget before the National Assembly is 462 Billion Naira. So, we can see that this is a lot of capital which should stay in Nigeria. If we included what Nigerians spend for children in school in the UK and other countries the sums would be mind boggling.
Let us think for a minute what these moneys can do for our economy if students schooled in Nigeria instead. Universities and all tertiary institutions need urgent attention by the government irrespective of party. On a related note UNICEF has ‘’blessed’’ Nigeria with the emblem of having the highest number of out-of-school children in the world – a total of 13.2 million children accounting for one in every five out of school children in the world. Talking about emblems we seem to have several; the Brooking Institute has recently named us the Poverty Capital of the world. We took the trophy from India.
These are surely not nice badges to wear for a country that has so many hardworking people and abundant natural resources. Public health care is virtually non-existent and health insurance for the poor in our midst is still a pipe dream. It is important to note that in 2014, a total of 28, 139 doctors and 1375 dental surgeons were issued with practicing licences, which constitutes the approximate current total stock of 29,514 medical practitioners in Nigeria. Reports have it that there are currently about 5,000 Nigerian medical doctors currently practising in the United States, and we have not included doctors in Saudi Arabia, UK and other places. So, Nigeria does not lack the most important aspect in the medical profession – the human capital. We just need to get the infrastructure right. Would we be talking about progress made by any government by 2023? Or healthcare would still be in the doldrums? On the monetary policy side, we have a double-digit inflation rate of 11.37% and FX rate at USD 360 being the new normal. Any responsible government needs to be concerned about these even though it is within the purview of an independent Central Bank. We expect a new Central Bank governor to be announced before June this year and any responsible government should be shopping for an economist (not a banker) to helm the affairs of the Central Bank if these issues are to be addressed.
GDP growth currently at 1.95% per annum (GDP growth was 6% years ago) shows that the domestic business climate is contracting and needs to be addressed urgently. The current unofficial news that Value Added Tax may be increased is perhaps not a good way to go because increasing taxes in a contracting economy cannot be the solution. We should look to expand the pie instead by ensuring more businesses are thriving and more people come into the tax net.
For those of us who have lived in Nigeria long enough, majority of these issues raised are not new. Some have gotten better, many are worse. But all of them are still not at par with citizens expectations and worldwide standards. Government in and government out these issues perennially make the headlines – promises are made but business is as usual. It seems that what Nigeria has been blessed with in natural resources and talent we have lost in visionary governance. Every examination has a pass mark – below the pass mark is a failure. No excuses! Every responsible company has targets and goals – not achieving the set target is failure. No excuses! I therefore posit that every good government should publicly declare their targets in every sector and should be held accountable. Where they fail, we should make no excuses for them. We should take a cue from Finland, were the Prime Minister Juha Sipila stepped down after a reform of the health care system failed.
I know it is not our culture in Nigeria to admit failure and resign, but as citizens we can demand the resignation of any government who fails to keep their promises. Even if they don’t resign, we should demand it continuously to keep them on their toes. We cannot bequeath to the next generation these same conversations about power, poverty, health care and the rest of it. The thought that our children and grandchildren may continue to have these same conversations about basic issues in the years to come is dreadful.
Ayuli Jemide
