By Sanya Adejokun
When Dr Goodluck Jonathan emerged President in 2010, unemployment rate was about 21 percent but the latest figure from the National Bureau of Statistics says it is 24 percent.
It means that it is not necessary for Coordinating Minister for the Economy Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to stress herself too much trying to describe the state of the economy. The economy is seriously in bad shape and the woman with the magic wand from the World Bank, leading a pack of supposed egg-heads in the Economic Management Team has simply failed the nation.
A number of Nigerians have also attempted to absolve Dr. Jonathan saying that he is a good man but surrounded by evil people. Again, that assertion will not be correct because for one, Nigeria does not require a good man as president but a good leader. As President, Dr. Jonathan had the prerogative to appoint those who shared his vision. Again the popular adage says “show me your friend and I will tell you who you are.”
For over four years, crude petroleum sold for over $100 and Nigeria sold an average of two million barrels per day. It was during this period that Saudi Arabia stashed away enough resources to be able to call Russia, Iran and even Shale Oil bluff by mid 2014 when oil prices slumped. Even now, Saudi Arabia continues to finance her domestic and international obligations including raising salaries. The case for Nigeria is however, is a 360 degrees difference. Just a month after the halving of oil prices, Nigeria was already finding it difficult to meet basic financial obligations.
Naira’s exchange rate tumbled from about N155/$ around mid 2014 to N220/$ just before presidential election on March 28, 2015. However, as early as Monday March 30, 2015, when clear signs began to emerge that General Muhammadu Buhari would win the election, I began to check the market for exchange rate situation.
The first good news emerged from the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) when market capitalisation improved tremendously and in three days of trading had gained the most since Jonathan emerged president. By Friday April 3, naira value had also improved tremendously selling for N190/$ at the parallel market. By 12 noon on Saturday, it was N178/$ and by 2pm, dealers in Zone 4 area of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) were already selling at N170/$. That shows global confidence in Buhari’s capabilities.
On facebook, a friend attributed these dramatic changes in figures to politics suggesting that those opposed to Jonathan made things difficult just to make the outgoing president look desperately incapable. Unfortunately, that was not the case.
The most important issue is investor confidence. Markets are driven by profit motive and once investors make up their mind that a market is unstable, they leave with their money. President Jonathan would appear to have appointed aides that are more powerful than him. He was not able to control his appointees or maybe he does not believe that there is anything like corruption. In many of his interviews, the President downplayed the evil even though most Nigerians including Nigeria’s observers think that corruption is endemic within the system. Almost all officials of government accused of corrupt practices were absolved by the President even without bothering to investigate.
During his re-election campaign in Enugu, President Jonathan appealed to Igbo voters not to vote for Buhari whom he accused of jailing their son Jim Nwobodo for stealing a sum not enough to purchase a Peugeot 504 car. His wife, Dame Patience also played down on corruption in one of her campaigns outings when she said “in abroad, if a young person worked hard and buy a copter, everybody will congratulate him but here, if a young man work hard and buy a copter, everybody will be shouting corruption.”
And despite President Jonathan’s belief that his administration performed well, physical evidence suggests otherwise. Electricity situation is worse today than it was in 2007 but Jonathan flaunts the privatisation of the sector as achievement. Privatisation is only an abdication of responsibility.
It is also noticeable that portable water is not readily available to Nigerians. In the 1990s, it was illegal to sink boreholes in Abuja but now, almost every home in highbrow Asokoro, Maitama, Aso Drive and high density areas like Garki, Wuse have boreholes. The situation is much worse in the satellite towns. Water hawkers are a common feature and residents no longer report burst pipes to the Water Board because that will be their only source of water until it is rectified.
And so, when it was reported that General Buhari cautioned Nigerians not to expect miracles from him, I was afraid. I was afraid that maybe the Peoples’ General did not really grasp the import of the enormous responsibility that he begged to be imposed upon him. Oh yes, at this point, Nigerians want a miracle worker. The people have suffered for too long.
Well over 60 percent of Nigerians today are youth and they are in a hurry for the good life. Despite the arrogance of outgoing administration, so many African countries are doing much better than Nigeria economically. Ethiopia for instance has been growing at about 10 percent and it recently commissioned a modern electric train while Dr. Doyin Okupe, Special Adviser to President Jonathan on Public Affairs says the country cannot afford new train coaches!
Sanya Adejokun
Lugbe Abuja
[email protected]