• Thursday, March 28, 2024
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Nigerians must put pressure on Buhari to attend presidential debate

Buhari-presidential debate

There are many reasons to believe that President Muhammadu Buhari may not participate in Saturday’s debate for presidential candidates.

Feelers from the ruling All Progressives Congress(APC) show that participating in the debate will be an option for Buhari, the party’s candidate, meaning that he may or may not attend the January 19 debate if he chooses. An APC stalwart dismissed the debate as inconsequential, saying there are other ways Buhari can communicate his plans to Nigerians.

The battle has now shifted to Nigerians to prevail on the president to attend the debate for various reasons.

In 2014/15, Buhari had avoided presidential debates as an opposition candidate of favouritismthe APC. Some faceless groups, like they did in 2015, are already popping up emotions, urging Buhari not to participate in this year’s debate. Whether it is out of fear of being dwarfed in the debate by other candidates or not, Nigerians must put pressure on all candidates, including Buhari, to come out and talk to them on what they wish to bring to the table if elected, or re-elected in case of Buhari.

The debate, which is being organised by the Nigerian Elections Debate Group (NEDG) and the Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria (BON), will have presidential candidates from five parties, including Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN), Alliance for New Nigeria (ANN), All Progressives Congress (APC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Young Progressives Party (YPP), participating. The vice presidential version was held on December 9, 2018.

Buhari particularly, being the president, must be there to defend his economic management.strategy. According to the Brookings Institution, Nigeria is now the poverty capital of the world with a record 87 million people living in extreme poverty and 8,000 people sliding into extreme poverty on a daily basis. Nigeria is fourth on the Misery Index in the world. The population grows at 2.6 percent per annum, while GDP growth in the third quarter of 2018 was 1.81 percent, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). Inflation, which stood at 11.28 percent in November, has been double-digit for more than one year.

The economy slipped into recession under Buhari. Unemployment rate rose to 23.1 percent in the third quarter of 2018, from 18.8 percent in the second quarter.

The NBS said that the country’s foreign debt at the end of the first half of 2018 (H1’18) was $22.08 billion, representing a 17 percent rise over the $18.9 billion recorded at the end of 2017.The country’s fortunes are also stymied by high domestic debt and extremely high-cost debt servicing. Nigerians deserve Buhari’s explanation on all these.

The President also needs to tell Nigerians why Apapa that provides N3 billion to N7 billion every day for Nigeria is left to totter. About 5,000 trucks seek access to Apapa and Tin Can ports in Lagos every day, according to a latest maritime report by the Lugo’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI).

These trucks have continued to plunder Apapa and Tin Can despite that access roads and the two ports were originally meant to accommodate only 1,500 trucks.

Consequently, Nigeria loses N600 billion in customs revenue, $10 billion (N3.6trn) in non-oil export sector and N2.5 trillion in corporate earnings across various sectors on annual basis due to the poor state of Nigerian ports.

The LCCI report notes that 25 percent of cashew nuts exported from Lagos to Vietnam in 2017 went bad or were downgraded owing to delays at Lagos ports. Similarly, only 10 percent of cargoes are cleared within the set timeline of 48 hours now while the majority of cargoes take between five and 14 days to clear. The report even notes that some cargoes take as many as 20 days to be cleared at the ports. This means that executive orders on ease of doing business in the ports are violated.

Babatunde Ruwase, president of LCCI, had recommended the finalisation of concessioning of Onitsha seaport, urging the government to improve the security situation along and within the Warri port in order to ward off militants and touts.

Three and a half years after Buhari’s first term, these ports have remained the way they were in previous administrations.

“It is our fault if Buhari refuses to attend the debate. If he does not speak to us, then he is either unfit to stand for a long time during the debate or he does not have the capacity to argue his points, which are both bad signs,” Kolawale Odunjo, a Lagos-based businessman, said. Buhari also needs to clear the air on the arraignment of Justice Walter Nkanu Onnoghen at a period when elections are less than five weeks away. Many have accused the president of being afraid of losing his case at the Supreme Court if he wins or loses in five weeks’. The opposition PDP thinks that Buhari and his party believe Onnoghen is their stumbling block at the apex court and therefore must be demobbed. Buhari needs to explain this saga at the debate.

Nigeria has allocated only 2.9 percent of its total budget on health in the last three years, as against South Africa’s 13 to 15 percent over the same period, according to BusinessDay calculations.

Consequently, everything in the health sector is getting worse.

The WHO puts standard health budget allocations at 26 percent, especially for developing countries.

Nigeria has demography of 198 million, which presents a market opportunity but also a health burden on the government. The country recorded 1,110 deaths from cholera in 2018 in 29 states across Nigeria between January and November. This was 84 times higher than 2017 cases.There were 611 confirmed cases of Lassa fever last year.

The 2017 was marred by outbreaks of diseases such Lassa fever, which occurred in 718 cases wherein 68 persons died. Between January and July 2018, there have been 115 deaths in confirmed cases and 10 in probable cases. Cerebrospinal meningitis was suspected in 14,518 cases, across 181 local government councils, with 1,166 people reported death. Other outbreaks of include monkey pox and cholera. Cancer is responsible for the deaths of 72,000 Nigerians yearly, according to Wellbeing Foundation Africa (WBFA)’s 2019 research.

“The World Health Organisation has a standard benchmark that should be followed by developing countries with high rates of diseases. Compare that ratio with what we have in Nigeria and you will see why we still struggle with health issues,” Okey Akpa, chairman of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Group of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), told BusinessDay on the phone.

“This is a global benchmark that is a product of research,” Akpa added.

President Muhammadu Buhari, on coming to power, had barred civil servants from seeking medical treatment abroad, promising to visit local hospitals himself. Ironically, he became the first to visit a London hospital when he fell sick.

More so, Buhari needs to tell Nigerians his plan for the education sector in the face of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) strike and 10.5 million out of school children.

He is also accused of favouritism, aiding corruption among the cabal and close associates, as well nepotism in appointments.

“He has implemented his 97/5 percent (whatever that means in maths) philosophy in his three and half years. Let him dispute it,” Sunday Unah, an Enugu State-based public affairs analyst, said.

These are allegations Buhari must defend or clear.

 

ODINAKA ANUDU