Economy: The president can offend any kid

Dele Momodu’s article, “President Buhari, don’t offend those kids”, published by Thisday, Saturday, 12th March, 2016 was thought-provoking. The article sought to persuade President Muhammadu Buhari not to deny foreign exchange at official price to that tiny number of people looking to educate their children abroad. After reading the article, I felt a strong desire […]

Dele Momodu’s article, “President Buhari, don’t offend those kids”, published by Thisday, Saturday, 12th March, 2016 was thought-provoking. The article sought to persuade President Muhammadu Buhari not to deny foreign exchange at official price to that tiny number of people looking to educate their children abroad. After reading the article, I felt a strong desire to intervene, if only to confront some of Momodu’s antagonism.
I want to start by saying that in taking the necessary measures to revamp the Nigerian economy, President Muhammadu Buhari is free to offend anyone. If it ever becomes necessary for this government to “cancel concessionary allocation of foreign exchange at official rates to Nigerian students abroad” in order to conserve our fast dwindling foreign reserves and keep the economy afloat, so be it.
We have to live with the fact that a sizeable chunk of our foreign exchange comes from the proceeds of petroleum export, which price has crashed. In the first place, for many parents, the wherewithal to send Nigerian kids abroad to study was itself facilitated by oil wealth. The price of oil has crashed in the global market; this government does not pretend that it still has the sufficient foreign exchange to meet all the country’s needs.
I don’t see anything wrong with what Buhari said in answer to why “he sent his own kids abroad”, that he did so because he could afford it. I am rather surprised by Dele Momodu’s deceitful: “I wish to say categorically that education should never be the exclusive preserve of those who can afford it.” Of course, education “should never be the exclusive preserve of those who can afford it.” However, educating kids abroad has always been the exclusive preserve of those who can find money for it. Whether it is Herbert Macaulay, Sapara Williams or Zahra Buhari, studying abroad has always been a privilege. How many of us wanted to go to America and Europe to study but failed?
I am not talking about exceptionally gifted students who through sheer hard work win one scholarship or the other; however, Dele Momodu knows very well that whether in 1879 or 2016, it is the children of “the rich and those of privileged government operatives” who attend great institutions. No matter what Buhari does, this category of people will find a way to continue to educate their children abroad. I don’t know the number of families involved or the number of kids that will be “offended” if Buhari closes the window of “concessionary allocation of foreign exchange at official rates” for their education abroad but I know there is even a greater number of families and kids denied water and electricity for many years (including 16 years of PDP rule) and they bear their deprivation in peace.
If President Buhari, in his own wisdom, judges that Nigeria’s foreign exchange is better allocated to some other sectors that can turn around the economy for the greater good of all the citizens, so be it. We must not be held hostage by some privileged families or their kids’ insatiable desire for dollars and pounds to study abroad. There is no doubt that we need to provide the best education for our kids, and I’m encouraged by this year’s budget for education. However, where the country is broke, sacrifices may have to be made by everyone.
The current economic situation requires that everyone makes the necessary adjustment until we are out of the woods. If there is anything the current fight against graft has done, it is to indicate that our highly placed public officers who claimed to have served the country have stolen more than necessary, in part to make contingency arrangements for the comfort of their children, whether in terms of the multi-million Naira houses they bought for them or the billions they stashed away for them to expend.
It is absolutely unfair for Dele Momodu to say that this government is profligate, it is not. I am one with people who suggest that our governments should not give cheap foreign exchange to Nigerian pilgrims going to Jerusalem or Mecca; however, there is a difference between a religious obligation and a status symbol pursuit that studying abroad has become. There is a difference between a lifetime pilgrimage undertaken by Muslim pilgrims and a privileged family that insists that all its children will study abroad, not minding the dire economic situation of the country.
It is too late for the Gods to “leave us the way they met us.” Even inside Nigeria, students had momentarily dropped out of school until the fortunes of their parents had improved. If President Buhari’s government fails to provide foreign exchange for parents to educate their children abroad in 2016, it is because the country cannot afford it; in which case, these parents and their kids will have to see it as a necessary sacrifice until our economy emerges from the doldrums. We want an economy that works for 160 million Nigerians. We don’t want the Nigerian economy to be judged only on the basis of whether it could service the dollar needs of its elite. President Buhari has a four-year mandate to serve, to turn around the economy, and if he is convinced depriving foreign exchange at official price to Nigerian students abroad can help our economy, he is at liberty to do so. A temporary suspension of the provision of “concessionary allocation of foreign exchange at official rates to Nigerian students abroad”, if it happens, is no evidence that President Buhari is anti-poor.