Ife Adebayo: Issues to ponder as Nigeria celebrates another Independence anniversary (Y! Politico)

by Ife Adebayo

Ife Adebayo

The minister of finance says we should only be worried when our debt to GDP ratio hits 60%, by that time this country will be no more, if at a debt to GDP ratio of 20% the government is already struggling to pay FAAC funds to states then at 60% we might as well shut down the government and sell the country to the highest bidder. 

Yes…. I am going to rant. I will rant not because I love to rant but because I am so pained I have to rant. This government is the biggest fraud in the history of this nation. Transformation agenda, SURE P, agricultural reforms, plenty of big grammar but very little to show for it. The price of garri is rising, our universities have been closed for 3 months and counting. I say what sort of transformation is this?
When you have a president that goes to New York to ring bells when his country’s universities have been closed for 3 months then you will understand the height of unseriousness of this government. I simply cannot wrap my head around it. It makes absolutely no sense to me that we live in a country where the leaders of tomorrow are sitting idly at home for 3 months and the senate and house of reps went on recess, the presidency is fighting political battles, the opposition is not spewing and kicking out in rage, we are all just going on like everything is okay, like it is fine. It doesn’t feel normal, it feels like we are all mentally ill or something, how life can simply go on with such a long academic lull in our universities is beyond me. It makes me very sad and worried. We must speak out and speak out now.
Now to Nigeria and the economy in 2013. I am not an economist but I know that when your debt burden is rising without a corresponding increase in infrastructure and economic advancement it only spells doom. From 2010 when President Goodluck Jonathan first became the number one Nigerian citizen we have had our DEBT to GDP ratio increase spontaneously, this is surprising considering his economic team is being led by Mrs Ngozi Okonjo Iweala who spearheaded the dropping of the same debt to GDP ratio to almost 10% during the Obasanjo years.
The government’s praise singers are quick to claim that our debt to GDP ratio is low compared to other countries like Germany. The question these government apologists refuse to answer is this – how much of an international creditor is Germany compared to Nigeria? Do more countries owe Germany money than Germany’s debts? How much of an international creditor is Nigeria? What is the German GDP and per capita income? How easily can Germany repay its loans? How easily can Nigeria repay its own loans? When you consider other economic indices, I mean economic indices that the suya seller understands, indices like the price of garri and how many people can afford it, the cost of rice and how many people can afford, the cost of travel from Yola to Lagos and how many people can afford it, when you consider these market woman economic indices how strong is the Nigerian economy? And we have a government telling us to rejoice because our debt to GDP ratio has risen astronomically over a short period of time. The minister of finance says we should only be worried when our debt to GDP ratio hits 60%, by that time this country will be no more, if at a debt to GDP ratio of 20% the government is already struggling to pay FAAC funds to states then at 60% we might as well shut down the government and sell the country to the highest bidder.
Debt is increasing; we are not seeing a commensurate increase in infrastructural development or any major diversification of the economy. We still run a country largely dependent on oil income. I am not an economist and might not understand big economic grammar, what I do understand though is that now I spend at least 2000 naira on fuel for my generator daily because there is no electricity, now a paint bucket of rice I used to buy 3 months ago for 700naira now goes for 850naira, my usual keke marwa ride of 50 naira is now 70 naira. These are the indices the government should measure.
It is our birthday again, Nigeria is 53years old. We need to start asking serious questions. We need to drop the big economic grammar and transformation agenda gimmicks. How many of our children are in school? How many of them should be in school? How many classrooms do we have for primary and secondary school aged children? How many should we have? How many megawatts of electricity should do we currently produce? How many hours of electricity to Nigerian homes does this translate to? We need realistic estimates not in terms of megawatts but in terms of hours of electricity supply to homes. How much did it cost to travel from Lagos to Enugu last year? How much does it cost today? How many graduates were unemployed last year? How many are unemployed now? These are the ways in which the common man on the streets measures economic advancement; he wants to be able to feed his children, to send his children to school, to transport his goods and services, to pay for his healthcare.  The government must come down to the level of the common man and start to make sense to us. We do not understand the big grammar they are speaking at the top. We understand what our stomach says, we understand what our children’s stomachs are saying. These are the areas the government must minister to and minister to immediately.
As we turn 53… we must endeavor to ask the questions that matter, no matter how stale it might be to complain, no matter how uninteresting it might be to talk about the problems, we must continue to talk, to complain, to ask questions until we start to see improvements.
Happy Independence Day to you all in advance.
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Ife Adebayo is an IT Consultant with work experience in Germany, United Kingdom and Nigeria. He currently runs his own IT firm in Lagos, Nigeria. He is an ardent believer in the Nigerian project and encourages all Nigerians to become actively involved in making Nigeria a better place.

Ife is a registered member of the Action Congress of Nigeria, Epe Local Government, Lagos State. He was an active member of the UK branch of the party, holding the post of Youth Leader for the year 2010/2011.

 

Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.

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