Expectations from the Economic Council Retreat

It is heartwarming that a 2-day National Economic Council Retreat held at the Statehouse Conference Centre this week. The national situation had required that such a retreat and not the normal meeting of the Council as provided for by the constitution, held. The retreat would and must have afforded a holistic view and approach to […]

It is heartwarming that a 2-day National Economic Council Retreat held at the Statehouse Conference Centre this week. The national situation had required that such a retreat and not the normal meeting of the Council as provided for by the constitution, held. The retreat would and must have afforded a holistic view and approach to tackling national challenges, with states and all stake holders keying in to the difficult revival effort championed by President Muhammadu Buhari. Until the retreat there had been anxieties even expressed that the President and the Governors, including the APC ones, were not on the same page with the President on the few prescriptions for addressing the myriad of challenges.
President Buhari in his address enunciated the purpose of this retreat which included generating "immediate, medium and long-term viable policy solutions to the economic challenges" facing the country at both the Federal and State levels. He selected four sectors of our economy for the retreat, namely Agriculture, Power, Manufacturing, and Housing arguing that Education, Science and Technology were not included for they "require a whole retreat by themselves".
One can not but agree that the selection is apt. Agriculture is the mainstay of the economy, the employer of the largest labour force, and the sustainer of over nine tenth of the population. Sadly it is the most devastated by neglect and the distortions in our economy brought about by oil. As the meeting went on, there was only a glimmer of hope that communities could till the entire farmlands of the North East sub-region, devastated by the Boko Haram insurgency this year. The desertification above the twelfth latitude has forced pastoralists to relocate to the Middle Belt and the Southern States and the pressure on the land resource is registering in the violent ethnic confrontations and recent killings typified by the massacres in Koh in Adamawa State, and Agatu in Benue State. Expected is a policy that ensures an immediate solution to the occurrences of violent and deadly conflict between farmers and pastoralists requires that States of the Federation execute whatever measures are proffered. I had written here weeks ago, drawing attention to the simplest solution applied in Jigawa State which ended feuds that were equally violent and bloody even though the combatants were of a single tribe and single faith. The solution lay in designated grazing reserves, and stock routes along shoulders of all highways across states. If Northern Governors leave the retreat with a commitment and funding for this alone, we would have gone far to stabilize the polity in this regard.
Electric power supply is currently at its worst than ever at any time in the nation’s history. Challenges in the sector appear to have defied all reforms that had earlier on been greeted with much celebration and fanfare, based on the promise and potential seen. Alas, there is a dilemma as Nigeria may not have got it right. There are defects in the unbundling of the Power architecture that Government needs to address fast and in this regard Government has to really fully deregulate to enable pricing determined by competition and effective and efficient service delivery.
Power supply itself has a bearing on Manufacturing where recent foreign exchange policies have forced unprecedented shut downs. Job losses have reportedly affected over 700,000, worsening a labour crisis that already had a figure of 22.45m as unemployed. In an estimated population of 120m, this is an unacceptable ratio demanding immediate corrective steps. Also, it was only last week that I wrote on the failure to flag off safety nets in the 2016 budget to help the poor and the vulnerable prior to economic adjustments. There is debilitating suffering among the poor, more so in the rural areas.
Of course there is a dilemma. Due to the nature of our political economy, dealing with the ills of mismanagement and corruption in the economy adversely affects the same vested interests that controlled power, industry and by implication employment of labour. It is for this reason for instance that the perennial fuel shortage may be impossible to address, since the players are also involved even in the scandal now breaking, of the non remittance of over N4trn of oil revenues, according to NEITI and the Revenue and Fiscal Mobilization Commission. Government must decide on total withdrawal of subsidy and full deregulation. Common folk are buying fuel at sometimes N300 per liter.
Nonetheless, Nigerians will be quick to point out that the articulation of the country’s predicament by President Muhammadu Buhari is not any rocket science. The challenges have for a long time been so identified, and workable solutions given. Always lacking was the selflessness required for making sacrifices similar to the ones Ghanians made under JJ Rawlings, or Tanzanians under Julius Nyerere for the positive changes that occurred in those countries. In addition, little or even total absence of the political will on the part of the leadership, to assertively execute the prescribed solutions. The monster called corruption just ensures that every effort is thwarted.
Noted loudly even by associates of the President is the absence of a defined economic blueprint for survival all these months. One is expected. It is even hoped that the National Economic Council unashamedly made a case of not throwing away some of President Goodluck Jonathan’s economic policies that worked, particularly the safety net programs such as YOU-WIN, SURE-P and more so, some of the glowing Agricultural policies.