Nigeria Decides: 2019 and choices before us

Here we are again, at another crossroad in the political landscape of our dear country. Starting from Saturday, February 23, 2019, each of Nigeria’s approximately 80 million registered voters would be expected to exercise their constitutional right to decide those who get elected to the various offices at the various levels of government. With the […]

Here we are again, at another crossroad in the political landscape of our dear country. Starting from Saturday, February 23, 2019, each of Nigeria’s approximately 80 million registered voters would be expected to exercise their constitutional right to decide those who get elected to the various offices at the various levels of government.

With the benefit of hindsight, given that Nigeria has been democratically governed over the last nineteen (19) years, there surely must now be vast enough experience for rational decision-making by discerning citizens on those to be elected into offices to govern for the next four years; from the presidential to the local government levels.

Although the elections are for various positions at both Federal and State levels, this article will focus on the Presidential election. Also, although there are about seventy-nine political parties contesting the 2019 elections at various levels of participation, this article will only focus on the two major parties on the ballot papers; the All Progressives Congress and the People’s Democratic Party.

The two parties have marshalled reasonably strong points as to why either of them should be voted into power for the next four years. But, it has to be assumed that Nigerians, hinging on the now vast democratic experience, would no longer be hoodwinked, and each potential voter now has the unique chance to decide which of the two platforms best represents his/her interest to deliver on the gains of democracy.

The Buhari administration came into power in May 2015 on a tripod of promises to fight corruption, curb Insecurity and improve the economy.

Unfortunately, at the onset of the admin, it was confronted by a myriad of near catastrophic problems amongst which chiefly were; nearly 75% of the states could not pay salaries, and the country slid into recession; as was foreseen by former Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, during the last days of the Jonathan administration. However, through a combination of economic prudence and effective official interventions by the APC-led government, the country emerged from the doldrums. In September 2015, the admin commenced disbursement of 689.5 billion Naira as bailout to 27 states to enable them pay salaries and offset pension liabilities.

To further stimulate the economy, the Federal Government embarked on an expansionary fiscal policy regime with investment of close to 2.7 trillion Naira in the 2016 & 2017 budgets alone on infrastructure. A further 650 million dollars Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund (PIDF) was set up to complement the capital expenditures of the Buhari administration with focus on funding Lagos-Ibadan express way, 2nd Niger Bridge, Kano-Abuja road and Mambilla Hydroelectric Dam.

These investments on roads, power and a new national rail network are unprecedented; with an overall focus of guaranteeing increased access to markets, reducing operating costs for businesses, and allowing Nigeria make up for lost time; this being in realization of the fact that the country lost a golden chance to spur economic growth and development in the 16 years under PDP, when billions of dollars were generated; but were then mismanaged or subjected to large-scale looting.To further enhance productivity, and ginger economic activities at all rungs of Nigeria’s economic ladder, the governing APC administration initiated microfinance schemes such as; TraderMoni, Marketmoni and Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP), in which billions have been invested, and that have been helping to generate appreciable income for smallholder businesses and thus make life better for thousands of Nigerians.

The ABP was launched by President Buhari in 2015 to create a linkage between anchor companies involved in agriculture value chain (processing, milling, storage, distribution etc) and smallholder farmers (SHFs) of key agricultural commodities. In December 2018, the CBN noted that as at October 2018, 862,069 farmers cultivating about 835,239 hectares, across 16 different commodities, have so far benefited from the Anchor Borrowers programme; a development that has generated over 2.5 million jobs across the country.

The admin has also moved to improve the Human Development Index of the country with an unprecedented array of social intervention programs. These include the Home Grown School Feeding Program (HGSFP), N-Power, Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) amongst others. The net effect of these programs are already been felt.

CORRUPTION

This been the cardinal theme of the administration’s campaign, it moved immediately to check it with a number of measure, amongst which are:

1. Expunging more than 34,000 ghost workers from the Federal Civil Service payroll, thereby saving about N2.3 billion monthly.
2. Implementing the Treasury Single Account (TSA); and by end of March 2017, over N7 trillion was recorded in the TSA, while as at August 2018, the TSA was saving the government N42 billion monthly; an initiative, which has been hailed far and wide.
3. A Whistleblowers policy was also unveiled by his administration, and has led to the discovery and recovery of billions of naira of stolen government funds in both local and foreign currencies.
4. A Presidential panel was set up to probe arms procurement between 2007 and 2015. The panel has made some shocking discoveries that are still rocking the armed forces and the security infrastructure of the country.

The Buhari administration is continuing with its vigorous fight against corruption with purpose, so much so that it can be described as retreating. Even the Judiciary is being cleansed of corruption, with top ranking judicial officers who were hitherto thought to be untouchable, now being investigated and prosecuted. We have also witnessed some high profile convictions.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has also been recording hugely significant achievements in the fight against corruption. In February 2018, the EFCC reported recoveries of about 511.9 billion Naira in 2017. The commission reported that, between January and December 2017, it recovered 32 billion Naira and 5 million Dollars forfeited by the former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Dieziani Alison-Madueke. Other forfeited monies include the N449 million discovered at a plaza in Lagos, $43 million discovered in an Ikoyi apartment in Lagos, N329 billion from petroleum marketers in Kano, while withholding tax of over N27.7 billion was retrieved from banks.

(To be continued)…

 Leme wrote this from the Directorate of Contact and Mobilization, APC Presidential Campaign Council.