Majeed Dahiru
OUT OF THE BOX
The PDP in the past sixteen has battled with Nigerians over removal of subsidy from PMS without success. This commodity is the important input Nigeria’s informal sector, which accounts for about sixty percent of our economy. Therefore,it is a big betrayal of trust on the part of the CHANGE government to go ahead and remove subsidy from PMS, a much despised and resisted PDP economic policy which has further impoverished the masses. Today Nigerians pay more for less power in addition to the steep increase in personal income tax from 10% to 30% percent coupled with a disgraced naira, caused by an outdated forex policy.
The result is the opposite of the professed intention of government. businesses are folding up and the existing diversified economy is giving way to no economy at all. Another policy which this government parades as an achievement is the full implementation of the Treasury Single Account TSA. The initial intention of this policy was to migrate all the commercial bank accounts of revenue generating agencies of government into a single consolidated revenue account as required by the 1999 constitution as amended section 80. Other non-revenue generating MDAs were to follow in phases to avoid shocks to our financial system as a result of liquidity crisis. However,for reasons that are clearly more altruistic than pragmatic, major revenue generating agencies are yet to migrate into the TSA, because the heads;NPA [ HadizaBala Usman], NIMASSA [Dakuku Peter-side],FIRS [Tunde Fowler] AND dept. OF CUSTOMS AND EXCISE [Hameed Ali], are the protégés of the major powers behind the Buhari administration.
This is contrary to the original intentions of the policy. Whereas the government hurriedly migrated non-revenue generating and expenditure MDAs into TSA. These people are privileged to be certified “clean” and infallible and can be trusted with public money. The effect of this manner of TSA implementation is the liquidity squeeze currently been experienced in the banking and financial sector and, the bearish activity in government business transactions leading to a near collapse of small and medium scale enterprises. Nigeria is fast becoming George Orwell’sAnimal farm where all animals are equal but some are moreequal than the others because there are two sets of rules for two different sets of people in a clear case of double standards by the Buhari administration.
In the face of the negative effects of Buharinomics, Nigerians are being asked to sacrifice but the leadership class are not sacrificing at all. They keep blaming the past administrations for our current problems conveniently forgettingthe reason they were elected was to solve the problem and not to complain. So much has been taken from the masses but too little from the leaders. The proceeds our collective sacrifice put at over 3trillion [proceeds from taxes and savings from subsidy removal] are been consumed recklessly by the political leadership class at all levels of government.
The presidential fleet is still intact with over a dozen serviceable aircrafts at an annual maintenance cost of over 10 billion naira. The cost of running the presidential office increased from 6.6 billion naira in 2015 to 18.1 billion naira in the 2016 budget. Another 3.62 billion naira is set aside for the purchase of BMW cars for unspecified purposes. The allocation to state house clinic alone ballooned to 3.8 billion nairain 2016 an amount more than the 2.2 billion naira budgetary allocations to all federal hospitals nationwide. Several billions of naira will be spent on recreation facilities, lighting and general renovation of the presidential villa. The president also approved a bailout of about 480 billion naira to state governments to help pay backlog of workers’ salaries. This decision which was taken more out of political expediency than economic common sense. The idea was first proposed by the APC governor of Imo state Rocchas Okorocha and quickly supported by another APC governor of the almost failed state of Osun Rauf Aregbesola. they impressed it upon the president that their inability to meet up with their obligations to workers and other developmental projects was as a result of the substantial amount of money drawn from their treasuries which was used to bankroll his election in 2015.
This largely explains why the bailout fund was misappropriated as workers are still not paid fully, because bail out for states government have been converted to re-imbursement to governors for out of pocket electoral expenses. The governors like Oliver Twist have asked for more bailout funds and the president graciously approved another 90 billion naira to bediverted again to their personal purse. Some governors, hiding behind the veil of economic recession, have practically abandoned their responsibilities of thinking outside the box and working hard to improve the lot of their people and relocated to Abuja where they are enjoying the proceeds of their criminal conversion of the people’s common wealth.
The concept of Buharinomics has reduced most Nigerians to penury and abject poverty. This is expected from a government, which is notorious for sectionalism, which inevitably promotes mediocrity over competence and expertize. Sectionalism is the root of corruption. The most powerful unit of government is the kitchen cabinet. This is where programs of government, key and strategic appointments and general policy directions are decided. In this case the kitchen cabinet of the Buhari administration is dominated by the president’s friends and family drawn predominantly from his northern section of the country in a classic case of nepotism. Under such system, nothing can work properly, because the true intention of the government will be more self- serving than for the purpose of the common good of Nigerians because members of the kitchen cabinet cannot work against a system that produced them.
