Nigeria is in the throes of national protests at the moment, with at least a dozen people killed so far; this is besides the destruction and looting. And the authorities have been threatening fire and brimstone in a bid to discourage these protests. Unfortunately for them, there is so much hunger, poverty, misgovernance, high inflation, and unbearable distress that the masses are intimidated by threats.
Realising the futility of their efforts, even after co-opting all stakeholders, including organised labour, the organised private sector, all religious and traditional institutions, and organisations to its side, the authorities secured ex parte court orders to limit the protests to designated locations in the capital, Abuja, as well as the commercial hub, Lagos, and Kwara State.
The causes of these protests include principally economic insecurity. For example, Nigeria is experiencing the worst cost of living crisis in a generation. Headline inflation is at 34.19 percent according to official government statistics. And food inflation is even far worse. While there is overwhelming proof that the president of Nigeria, who only came in around 15 months ago in May 2023, might have inherited a very bad economy, he has not made things any better with ill-thought-out subsidy removal, floating of the naira, and a myriad other missteps.
The expectation of many Nigerians when the President decided to address the nation because of the protests was specific and concrete measures. Like in Kenya, where the president withdrew the finance law, abolished dozens of government departments, fired his cabinet, and cut fiscal allocations for the presidency and the general costs of governance. Nigeria needs to not only take a leaf out of the Kenyan book but should even go further. There is a need to make food affordable to all Nigerians, particularly the low-income earners who have been priced out of purchasing essentials like rice and bread.
These are some of the problems as well as the solutions I am proposing that can be immediately implemented to solve some of the most pressing challenges Nigerians face:
The problem is that subsidy removal has made the price of fuel spike with the knock-on effects on the cost of living. Some of the solutions include encouraging local refining with a surplus of crude feedstock so as not to subject Nigeria’s domestic fuel price to the vicissitudes of international oil prices; immediate full implementation of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) to encourage transparency; aggressively incentivising investments into the oil and gas industry to boost production and revenue; and bringing the full force of the Nigerian state to bear in tackling oil theft and insecurity in the oil-producing areas as well as everywhere else.
The problem is that food is neither affordable nor available for Nigerians. Some solutions include deploying full powers of coercion of the state to end banditry, militancy, insurgency, the herder issue, criminality, kidnappings and any form of insecurity within months so that all Nigerians, most especially farmers are safe on their farms; increasing mechanisation by incentivising change from using hoe & cutlass and other stone-age tools to using modern and sophisticated tools to increase yield; subsidising fertiliser and other farm inputs to boost production; encouraging all year round farming by fixing dilapidated dams and irrigation infrastructure; stop throwing money at problems believing these problems would magically solve themselves as done with ABP; post-harvest losses which could be as high as 80 percent must be reduced to almost zero with modern storage, improved infrastructure and better transportation between farms/villages and the markets/cities.
The problem of the general cost of living crisis, as evidenced by some even going as far as selling their own babies to feed and pay rent!
Some solutions include the political class demonstrating empathy beyond the shadow of a doubt that they too are enduring same hardships that Nigerians are suffering hence building confidence,understanding and demonstrating leadership; cutting the cost of governance by 90 percent or by much as possible and use the savings from this to support the most vulnerable Nigerians in a clear and transparent way; the CBN keeping a lid on money supply because inflation is always and everywhere monetary in nature; Ways and Means Advances must be scrapped completely and urgently too; no one should strip the CBN of its operational independence as the Senate tried to do; doing everything to boost exports particularly from Nano, Small, Medium-Scale Enterprises (NSMSMEs) as they have been punching below their weight.
In conclusion, Nigeria might be on its knees at the moment, which is basically self-inflicted through gross incompetence and bad governance; consequently, there is a need to be drastic in measures to stop the descent in its tracks. As Nigeria is a country with a huge population, treating things with levity or at snail pace would never cut it.
Samson G SIMON, Karel-Nigeria. He can be reached on [email protected]
