‘Our administration shall govern on your behalf but never rule over
you. We shall consult and dialogue but never dictate. We shall reach
out to all but never put down a single person for holding views
contrary to our own. We are here to further mend and heal this nation,
not tear and injure it’- Bola Tinubu, May 29 th , 2023.
Above is a quote from the inaugural address of President Bola Ahmed
Tinubu on May 29, 2023, when he assumed office as the 16 th
President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
In two-days’ time, his administration would clock one year in office.
In the next two editions of The Discourse, we shall take a look at
what he promised Nigerians when he assumed power last year, x-ray
how Nigerians have fared under his government and offer suggestions
on how we can all contribute our quota to the growth and
development of our country.
When Tinubu was seeking the votes of Nigerians, he came up with an
eight-point action plan with a catchy phrase – ‘Renewed Hope
Agenda’, which listed food security, poverty eradication, growth, job
creation, access to capital, inclusion, rule of law and fighting
corruption.
With one year spent out of the four-year mandate given to him, many
Nigerians have started doubting whether they did the right thing by
giving him their mandate. This is because majority of them are
passing through a difficult time unimaginable in the history of the
country. The standard of living of many Nigerians have deteriorated
as inflation has pushed the prices of basic food items beyond their
reach. Yet, food security tops the list in his eight-point agenda.
During one of his visits to Lagos and while on his way to the Lagos
Central Mosque for Jumat Service, President Tinubu was told openly
in Yoruba dialect that ‘ebi n’pawa’ (We are hungry). The two phrases
epitomise the current situation for millions of Nigerians who are
simply hungry. And we know what is said about a hungry man. Even
the federal government-owned Agency, The National Bureau of
Statistics (NBS) has consistently churned out figures of the high cost
of foodstuffs and other essential consumer goods in the country.
In its review of food prices in the last 12 months, the NBS noted that
the average annual rate of food inflation for the 12-month period
reviewed ending April 2024 over the previous 12-month average
was 32.74 per cent, which was “a 9.52 per cent points increase from
the average annual rate of change recorded in April 2023 (23.22 per
cent)”.
Selected Food Price Watch for January 2024 shows that the average
price of 1kg of local rice stood at N1,021.79. This indicates a rise of
98.47% in price on a year-on-year basis from N514.83 recorded in
January 2023 and 11.31% rise in price on a month-on-month basis
from N917.93 in December 2023.
The average price of 1kg of boneless beef increased by 37.08% on a
year-on-year basis from N2,418.91 in January of last year (2023) to
N3,315.78 in January 2024.
On a month-on-month basis, the average price of this item increased
by 5.37% from N3,146.94 in December 2023. The average price of
1kg of brown beans rose by 64.42% on a year-on-year basis from
N593.96 in January 2023 to N976.58 in January 2024. On a month-
on-month basis, it increased by 12.16% from N870.67 in December
2023.
Similarly, the average price of 1kg of onion bulb rose by 97.38% on a
year-on-year basis from N446.44 in January 2023 to N881.20 in
January 2024, while there was a decline of 9.33% on a month-on-
month basis. In addition, the average price of 1kg of Tomato rose by
80.98% on a year-on-year basis from N467.04 in January 2023 to
N845.26 in January 2024. On a month-on-month basis, it increased by
3.82% from N814.16 in December 2023 to N845.26 in January 2024.
The state profile analysis in January 2024 reveals that the highest
average price of 1kg of local rice was recorded in Abuja at N1,350
while the lowest was recorded in Benue State at N800.64. The highest
average price of 1kg of boneless beef was recorded in Abuja at
N4,000, while the lowest was recorded in Gombe State at N2,639. In
terms of the average price of 1kg of brown beans (sold loose), Akwa-
Ibom state recorded the highest price at N 1,466.67, while Adamawa
recorded the least price at N677.23.
Rivers State recorded the highest average price of 1kg of Onion bulb
at N 1,454.09, while the lowest was reported in Zamfara State at
N435.71. The highest average price of 1kg of Tomato was recorded in
Delta State at N1,474.79, while the least average price was recorded
in Kano State at N422.7.
These are figures put together by the NBS. It simply translates to the
fact that prices of foodstuffs are on the rise and many Nigerians can
no longer afford to feed themselves adequately. A man that is unable
to feed well will soon start paying visits to the hospital as he will not
be too far from several illnesses. But even to treat ‘ordinary’ malaria
now in Nigeria is beyond the means of most, as anti-malaria drugs
and several others are beyond what average Nigerians can afford,
leaving them to patronize the once neglected herbal medicines that are
unregulated, not to mention that there are quacks in the trade,
compounding the problems of the masses. Patients on admission are
now being discharged from hospitals by relatives for lack of adequate
funds and taken to religious houses in the hope of ‘miracle healing’.
On poverty eradication, another point on President Tinubu’s Renewed
Hope Agenda, not much has been recorded going by the analysis of
the cost of foodstuffs and living. In the last one year, more Nigerians
have fallen into what has now been termed multi-dimensional poverty.
The World Bank poverty clock, a tool used to track poverty progress
worldwide, says 71 million Nigerians are extremely poor. Our NBS
has however classified 133 million Nigerians as multidimensionally
poor. Many Nigerians wake up daily without knowing where their
next meal will come from. Parents can no longer afford to send their
wards to school due to extreme poverty. Where they are forced to
send such wards to school, the children don’t stay in classrooms, and
where they do, they can’t assimilate what is being taught due to
rumblings from their empty stomachs.
The federal government introduced a meal per day for school children
to encourage them to attend school and enable them concentrate on
their education. But again, the usual Nigerian factor of corruption is
messing up the programme as a large chunk of the funds end up in the
private pockets of those in charge of the programme. Now, we have
been told that the federal government is in a dilemma as it would now
cost N540 billion in a year to feed school children due to inflation
whereas only N100billion was allocated for the programme in the
2024 budget.
It’s not as if the federal government does not know that most of her
citizens are facing excruciating poverty. A special Ministry was
created by the last administration to address the multidimensional
poverty plaguing the nation. Named the Ministry of Humanitarian
Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, a huge chunk of money was allocated
to the Ministry with the mandate of lifting Nigerians out of the
poverty quagmire. Those at the helm of affairs in the Ministry,
however, preferred to banish poverty in their own life and their
generations yet unborn than do what is right by their mandate. The
two Heads of that Ministry who are women are now enmeshed in
corruption allegations. Sadiya Farouq, the pioneer Minister is
currently having discussions with the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission (EFCC), while Betta Edu, who took over from her, is
currently under suspension.
Things were not that bad one year ago when Tinubu came on board,
but the twin policies of fuel subsidy removal and unification of the
dual exchange rate of the naira has been attributed as the cause of the
pain most Nigerians are currently going through.
The Federal Government has also admitted that Nigerians are going
through hardship and is pleading for understanding. But any policy
that would snuff life out of the masses should be re-examined if it is
not producing desired results. Government exists worldwide to better
the lot of their people.
We started getting it wrong the day we started importing fuel into this
country. For crying out loud, Nigeria is an oil producing country. God
loves us so much by giving the nation abundant crude oil. We had
four refineries working perfectly in the country in the 80s, but greed
and corruption by those in power ‘killed’ those refineries. Many who
knew next to nothing about the workings of a refinery were employed
to manage them which led to the death of those refineries. We
resorted to importation of petroleum products into the country at huge
cost, fretting away our huge foreign exchange.
The Tinubu government, with the help of Alhaji Aliko Dangote, is
trying to change the sad story. Port Harcourt refinery we have been
told will soon be back on stream, while Dangote refinery, by next
month, should start producing fuel. If we cannot refine our crude oil
in-country, can’t we also make it available to Dangote Refinery to
refine for us so that we can buy affordable petrol from him? His
company had to also import crude oil from the United States of
America. Whenever he is ready to sell his petrol, Nigerians should not
be shocked if he asks us to pay international price for it.
Without stability in the petroleum sector, I do not envisage any relief
for Nigerians in the nearest future. The high cost of fuel contributed
significantly to the increase in the prices of goods and services.
Farmers will have to transport farm produce from the hinterland to
cities and this would impact on the prices of foodstuffs at the market.
To make a bad situation worse, with vast farmlands under the control
of bandits and terrorists, many farmers can no longer go to farm and
when they do, they have to pay protection fees to non-state actors to
guarantee their safety. There is no way prices of foodstuffs will come
down without the government tackling insecurity in the country.
Tinubu in his inaugural address, promised Nigerians to create one
million jobs especially for the youths. I am not sure if anything has
been done in that regard. Rather, more Nigerians are out of jobs as
several blue-chip companies have been forced to close shop due to
harsh operating environment. Companies such as GlaxoSmithKline,
GSK, Procter and Gamble, Sanofi, Equinor and Binance, have had
dialogue with their legs, moving their businesses to other climes.
Tinubu promised to work with the National Assembly to fashion out
an omnibus Jobs and Prosperity Bill on job creation. But one year
down the line, nothing has been done in that regard. Youth
unemployment is still high in Nigeria. You only need to visit any
major city in Nigeria to see Nigerian youths languishing.
The International Labour Organisation (ILO), in 2022, estimated that
12.6 per cent of youths in the global workforce would be unemployed
amounting to about 74.6 million youths. In Nigeria, about 53.40 per
cent of youths are unemployed according to youth unemployment
figures released by the NBS in 2022. Now, many of our young ones
are not even interested in getting daily paid jobs but now enroll in
schools where they learn yahoo business and other criminal activities.
The females among them are into prostitution and ‘hook-up’ business.
By Kazeem Akintunde
