“There’s no higher calling in terms of a career than public service, which is a chance to make a difference in people’s lives and improve the world.” —Anonymous
By Omoniyi Salaudeen
On Wednesday, Nigeria marked the first anniversary of the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on a cynical note. Traditionally, it has become a norm to start off the day with an early morning broadcast to afford the government the opportunity of presenting the scorecard of its activities to stir up public confidence. In this year’s event, the deficit of trust overshadowed the kick-off of the official celebration which began with the president’s address to the joint session of the National Assembly. The major takeaway from there was the old National Anthem, despite the reservations earlier expressed by some stakeholders.
In his argument in defence of the reversal, Tinubu said that the old anthem represented the beauty of Nigeria’s diversity.
He also taunted critics who raised objections against it being written by a British expatriate, saying it was Britain who named the country Nigeria, yet the country’s identity has remained. Debate is still raging over the desirability or otherwise of the sudden change. For most public affairs analysts, whether old or new national anthem, that is the least of the problems Nigeria has to grapple with in an economy where common people are suffering amid ocean-like plentitude of human and natural resources.
Coming with his Renewed Hope Agenda on May 29, 2023, Tinubu had raised the people’s expectation that the administration would bring fresh ideas into governance to soothe the pain of the hardship of the economy experienced under the previous regime of former President Muhammadu Buhari.
But the abrupt removal of the fuel subsidy announced on the day of his inauguration and foreign exchange rates unification have brought more pains than relief to the ordinary Nigerians.
But during the sectoral briefing earlier organized in the week to mark the official commencement of the anniversary celebration, ministers took turns to regale the audience with the achievements of their respective ministries.
Despite the comforting disposition they presented to the public, all Nigerians could see is poverty, hunger, deprivation, despondence, misery and despair.
On the economic front, the statistics are not cheery. Though not at war, Nigeria is currently facing the worst food crisis in its recent past, precipitating spontaneous protests across major cities in the country.
According to the reports from the Bureau of Statistics: “In April 2024, the headline inflation rate increased to 33.69 per cent relative to the March 2024 headline inflation rate which was 33.20 per cent.” This has been partly linked to the backlash of subsidy removal and the naira devaluation occasioned by the new regime of foreign exchange rate unification. As of May 27, the current exchange rate of the naira to the dollar stood at N1,482.63. The combined effect of the two policies has dragged more people into poverty. It has made it more difficult for them to cope with high cost of transportation and increasing prices of essential items, including food and drugs.
While the pain remains unabated, the economic hardship has been further accentuated by the multiple taxation policy of the government.
In the build-up to the last general elections, Tinubu adopted: “Let the poor breathe’ slogan, which resonated across the length and breadth of the country.
Under his administration, the poor are now being choked by the heavy burden of multiple taxations. The latest in the series of surreptitious taxes imposed on the populace is the suspended controversial Cyber security levy introduced by the Central Bank Nigeria (CBN).
At the level of manufacturing industries, the list of taxations that have been directly or indirectly passed on to the end users thereby fueling the current rate of spiral inflation are, among others, companies’ income tax, Nigeria Police Trust Fund levy, National Agency for Science And Engineering Infrastructure levy, tertiary education tax, Industrial Training Fund, output VAT, Non-recoverable VAT, and Custom duties.
Others are business premises tax, sanitation fees, ecological fees, sanitation levy, signage and advert tax, annual operating levy, NITDA contribution, PAYE, effluent discharge levy, tenement rates, infrastructure maintenance, building fitness, right of way tax, bridge crossing levy, employment development levy, withholding tax, infrastructure maintenance and community access fees.
Despite the aggressive pursuit of the current tax policy, Nigeria is now said to be weighed down by a high debt burden amounting to N97.34 trillion and it is expected to rise to over N207 trillion by the end of this year following the approval of fresh borrowings.
Since his assumption of office, President Tinubu has spent a great deal of time junketing around the globe to attract investors. Whereas, the administration has done little to boost investors’ confidence in the economy by maintaining sound macroeconomic policy, stable foreign exchange, and uninterrupted power supply. It is, therefore, not surprising that companies are folding up due to fuel and electricity costs, fuelling galloping inflation and the swindling value of real incomes.
Months after the inauguration of committee on the national minimum wage review, the organised labour and the Federal Government negotiating team have not been able to agree on an acceptable figure. On February 27, Nigeria’s workers’ union had to declare a two-day nationwide protest to demand that the government ease economic stress triggered by the removal of the petrol subsidy.
While workers have had to grapple with the current N30,000 minimum wage and the dwindling value of their disposal income, the cost of governance remains high, as the government sustains a large retinue of aides and assistants.
To show how far the government is remote from the suffering populace, President Tinubu, in a self-assessment of his government, said the past 12 months had been fulfilling for his administration despite the challenges of the economy being frontally addressed, saying that his administration had been able to stop Nigeria from bleeding which would propel it to prosperity.
“It has been challenging. It has been fulfilling as well. We took over, and we have stopped the bleeding. I can say categorically now that Nigeria is no longer bleeding,” he said.
This is mere rhetoric. Nigeria is still hemorrhaging with profligacy of the government. What wastage can be more than taking 1,411 delegates to a global summit on climate change? From the reports, Nigeria’s delegate list was one of the highest at the summit. Following the public outrage that greeted the event without due consideration to the economic situation in Nigeria, the government claimed that it funded only 422 people. Even at that, the figure is on the high side. As a face saving measure, the president later announced a cut on his travelling entourage and did the same to major officials around him. What is needed to ensure proper management of public funds is more than cutting down travelling entourage. The real financial discipline requires prudence and discipline in the management of public funds. It is only by so doing that the government can rebuild the social capital-trust and confidence between the government and the people.
It is not all bad news. With all the gains of subsidy removal, the most tangible achievements the administration can boast of are the 700-kilometre Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway awarded at N15 trillion, the 1,000km Badagry-Sokoto Highway, the rehabilitation of the Third Mainland Bridge, and the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway in Lagos. This is in addition to the 330 federal roads and bridges the president virtually commissioned last Sunday.
The government must, therefore, do more to change the present narrative; after all, human beings are the mean and end of development. To end the present suffering, policy review must be human-centred. And time is of the essence.
