Anthony Ademiluyi

A rumour had it that Ambassador Joseph Patrick Kennedy, John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s father hurriedly sold his shares when he saw some stock in the possession of a shoeshine boy. In the 1920’s, the ownership of shares was an exclusive preserve of the wealthy and powerful in the United States so for it to have diffused to a commoner whose daily troubles was on how to bring home the bacon was a dangerous sign indeed. The financier’s intuition was his messiah as America was plunged into a devastating financial crisis when the stock market crashed in 1929. It was so bad that former multimillionaires were literarily jumping to their deaths from roof tops. It was around this same period that Nnamdi Azikiwe later known as the Great Zik of Africa felt he couldn’t take the pain of destitution anymore and laid on his tracks for a train to run over him before he was mercifully saved by a Good Samaritan.

When President Franklin Delano Roosevelt took over in 1933, he wasted no time in rolling out effective measures to deal with the malaise. He called it the ‘New Deal’ and he regularly engaged his countrymen on radio in what known as the fireside chats. He took the pains to explain every government policy and how it affected every American. The crowning of it all was the signing of the Social Security Act into law in 1935 barely two years into his Presidency. His reassuring words kept the hope alive and prepared them for world leadership following the outbreak of the Second World War.

After months in denial, Finance Minister, Kemi Adeosun admitted that the country was in a technical recession. Another synonym for a recession perhaps as a quick dictionary search didn’t reveal the meaning behind the new coinage. The International Monetary Fund also revealed a contraction in our economic growth by as much 1.8%.

This disclosures meant little to the hoipolloi as their lives have never been better in the pre-recession era. As far as they were concerned, this was just another swiftly invented nomenclature to keep them in anguish ad infinitum.

The steep fall in the price of crude oil in the international market and the non-diversification of the economy will mean that we will be in for a great deal of trouble.

The aloofness of Buhari is grave cause of concern as we are still in the dark as to how he intends to adequately respond to this new challenge. His speeches don’t show any clear cut direction on how he would steer the nation out of the brink. Over a year after being sworn in, we are still left guessing as to the thrust of his economic policies. The woes in the stock market has as its remote cause the unwillingness of Buhari to chart a sturdy way forward for the ailing economy and guesswork is now the order of the day.

The chickens have finally come home to roost and the curse of oil is now more real than ever as the price has been on a free for all fall over the last few months. Many states cannot meet their obligations and the bailouts by the Federal Government is unsustainable. The subtle debate as to whether to dispose of our national assets or not to shore up our revenue base with the conspicuous silence from Buhari is rather tragic.

As the world tilts towards a knowledge driven economy where creativity and innovation is king, there is no communication by Buhari as to how Nigeria intends to plug into the new reality. What is the agenda by the government to set the agenda for the country to create unprecedented wealth in this space to make up for the shortfall of oil which has exposed the vulnerability of our mono economy? Zuckerberg was no simpleton for making CcHub his first port of call as wealth is now shifting from natural to human resources. If not for the Aso Rock Villa Demo Day, the sixth world’s richest man may not have bothered to return to the country for a second visit. Nigerians are still at a loss on how public policy would be shaped to enable us feel the positive effects of globalisation. India is the world’s largest centre for the outsourcing of IT because of a visionary government policy in the 1980’s that positioned her as a most sought after destination for that purpose. Israel cashed in on the skyrocketing costs of healthcare in the United States to sell itself as a viable alternative.

Buhari planned to take a loan from the Bretton Woods institutions to meet the shortfall in this year’s budget and stabilise the economy. Was a loan the best economic directional move given the antecedents of the World Bank as being largely responsible for the economic woes of third world nations? The proposed loan borrowing wasn’t even subjected to any form of debate. We were largely kept in the dark until the negotiations went awry. Does Nigeria need another debt trap that could mortgage the future of generations yet unborn? We haven’t still fully recovered from the effects of the loans that the IBB led government took in the 1980’s under the guise of the Structural Adjustment Programme.

The country is also mired in a food crisis despite the abundance of agricultural potential. There is palpable silence on any well thought agricultural policy that can get the nation out of this embarrassment. For a President who has been in farming for decades, it is unacceptable that he cannot elucidate a pragmatic way forward in this much neglected sector. There is no plan to make agriculture attractive so that youths can save themselves the agony of unemployment and destitution by making a decent living there. An attraction that pulls migrants from developing to developed economies is the fact that food is cheap and in plentiful supply. There is a subsidy plan where the government purchases food items from the farms at rock bottom prices which insulates the farmers from the vagaries of the fluctuations of prices in the international market. With the vast expanse of land lying fallow all over the country, no policy has been crafted to give agriculture a pride of place.

It is in a time of crisis that destiny throws up certain leaders. One attribute is their ability to connect with the masses and fan the embers of hope for a greater tomorrow. In all spheres of life, communication is a key tool for effective leadership.

Being taciturn is no excuse for the large communication lacuna that we currently have. As President, he is supposed to be something akin to being the father of the nation and as such should keep all Nigerians in the know as his agenda and plans. It is a well-known fact that powerful words act as a soothing balm especially in a heart wrenching time like this where people need to stay sane to survive the times.

We don’t expect Buhari to suddenly metamorphose into another Winston Churchill whose oratory kept the flame of the Brits alive when Hitler’s bombs threatened to raze down the Empire or an Abraham Lincoln whose Gettysburg Address saved the Union. It won’t be bad if he can take the pains to communicate more often with his countrymen rather than give the scary impression that he is more at home with the foreign media.

---

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