By Shehu Bashir Esq.
There is a hypocrisy of silence from almost everybody who has been complaining about the economic situation in the country. This is especially directed to those latter day activists and political teleporters who will focus on the federal government but become faceless on the state governments.
In the history of this country, there has never been any such time that our monthly FAAC has gotten that humongous that the three tiers of government would share as much as a trillion naira in a single month.
There is no doubt that President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR is a financial engineer. Only an experienced engineer will reconstruct a dilapidated building and make it still habitable for years to live in. It is a reconstruction that comes with so much risk at the expense of his personal security.
Inheriting a dilapidated economy is one thing, but taking the bold steps to do a complete reconstruction, adding new pillars and removing to replace the old beams for a stronger structure deserves our praises. This is a bold step the past presidents have failed to take which unfortunately plunged us into catastrophic debt level and dangerously corrupt subsidy system.
Since the beginning of this administration, in the first two months, the least “FAAC” allocation that has been shared among the three tiers is probably around 950 billion naira. It has never gone below a trillion since over two years now. This would have been described as a wonderful “government magic” if the Kalakuta king was to be alive to do a remix of his song.
Yet, the federal government which is the coordinating house for the collection, collation, remittance and distribution of revenues has not failed in its responsibility accordingly. Each month, every state smiles to the bank with cash in their vault, too much for a single billion van to convey.
This credible financial management and equitable allocation distribution has helped the states in many ways. In the last few months, the least amount of allocation received each month by the least receiving state is probably around 15 billion naira.
This is even outside several other intervention funds that still come from the federal government to some of these states. We can see the evidence of this financial liquidity everywhere.
We must appreciate one fact — the federal government is not printing money to come this far. The two critical policies of the government – subsidy removal and Naira floatation – are paying off. We now generate legitimate income and spend actual earnings not unnecessary borrowings. Our income from all sources, including gas production is also increasing.
Unless the economic recovery gains are being under reported, even the private sector is booming with higher return on investment. There is a lot of confidence from investors that new areas of businesses are opening up.
Isn’t it more encouraging that within a space of just two years, Nigeria’s foreign reserves has jumped from about 35 billion dollars to about 42 billion dollars. Even the late Professor Peller (of blessed memory) could not have been able to turn paper into such amount of money.
What we are seeing is a result of empirical economic models which are not based on trial by error. It is a deliberate action to achieve a set goal — prosperity.
The revenue that we now earn from tariff through increased production, imports and exports is surging. Who could have imagined that Nigeria will have a trade surplus with the United States of America. These results are not the outcomes of a random action, these are well rooted economic policies which are helping in our financial security.
Unlike what we had in the past, with governors owing staff salaries in their states, there has never been any complaint from any of these governors on shortage of cash. They are all swimming in enough liquid. They have gotten more than they ever expected.
Ironically, in their hypocritical characteristic manner, majority of the negative activists on “poor state of economy” who often target the federal government are now ignoring the state governors and local government councils who are now also receiving their allocations directly from the federal government.
There will be hardship in the land if the state governors and local government leadership are not complimenting the federal government. Availability of cash in the economy is aided by financial circulation efficiency when local markets and vendors are patronized, when contracts are awarded through open and ministerial tender boards to majorly local contractors and when there is zero embezzlement of government money.
It is therefore necessary to call out all the state governors and local government chairmen, to appeal to them to contribute their quota to the stability of the economy. The federal government efforts are bringing the much needed reliefs. Inflation is coming down and forex market is steadily growing in credibility.
It is understandable that Mr. President cannot do more than imploring the state governors to judiciously utilize the available funds to undertake meaningful projects that will have greater direct impacts on the citizens.
However, we as a liberal citizens who are the most important stakeholders of the Nigeria project, we have to objectively add our voice to the situation so that the Nigerian people can truly breathe.
We cannot, under the pretense of political correctness indulge the complicity of the governors in the slow pace of our economic recovery. They have to spend the money at their disposal to embark on life enhancing project such as electricity, agriculture, transportation, security, education, health, road infrastructure, etc.
The ironical name calling against the federal government should not be corroborated by our silence.
The other two tiers of government – state and local government administration should develop pragmatic policies that will support the all important efforts of the federal government led Tinubu so that we can all renew our hope in peace.
God Is Here.
The Editor
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