Nigeria in post COVID-19

Nobody knows exactly when the deadly coronavirus will end. The pandemic has continued to affect the world’s economy, Nigeria inclusive. Nigeria, which operates renting economy and depends on crude oil for its revenue, will likely bear the brunt. The outbreak of COVID-19 has exposed the weakness of Nigeria in so many ways. First, our overstretched […]

Nobody knows exactly when the deadly coronavirus will end. The pandemic has continued to affect the world’s economy, Nigeria inclusive. Nigeria, which operates renting economy and depends on crude oil for its revenue, will likely bear the brunt.

The outbreak of COVID-19 has exposed the weakness of Nigeria in so many ways. First, our overstretched health care system has been severely hit.

The poorly funded health sector can neither contain the spread of the coronavirus nor detect it.

The sector has suffered a total neglect from our leaders who have penchant for medical tourism at slightest minor ailments, such as common headache, which cost the country billions of dollars annually.

It might annoy you to know that in the peak of the disease outbreak, the country could not boast of good isolation centres to accommodate victims of the virus.

The late chief of staff to President Muhammadu Buhari, Abba Kyari, one of the senior government officials to have died of the killer virus, was said to have been admitted in a private hospital in Lagos.

In the post COVID-19 era, government should wake up from its deep slumber, go beyond rhetoric and fix our comatose health sector.

There is the need for government at all levels to increase budget for the health sector. In the post coranavirus era, Nigerians want to see newly built hospitals across the country. Government should also employ and train adequate health manpower to confront the ever-increasing health challenges of the country.

If these measures are put in place, our moribund health care system will be reinvigorated to contain the excessive foreign medical tour by our ruling elite.

The common man who has suffered enough and lost confidence in our health care system will heave a sigh of relieved .The poor men/women will patronise government hospitals with great enthusiasm.

Another sector that will suffer COVID-19 devastating consequences is the petroleum industry. Nigeria is a mono-economy. The country relies on crude oil to fund its 70 to 80 per cent capital and recurrent expenditures.

The 2020 budget, which was prepared based on 68 dollars per-barrel benchmark, will be soon reviewed to reflect the current global oil price that nosedived due to COVID-19 pandemic.

In recent times, government has devised and thought outside the box on how to address the challenges of revenue.

Some of the drastic measures so far taken are closure of border and increase in the Value Added Tax (VAT). These policies have yielded positive results. In the post COVID-19 era, government should go beyond these policies. Our money-guzzling democracy should be properly examined and cost of running it pegged.

The National Assembly has continued to milk the country dry through over-floated salaries and allowances. There is the need for government to cut down the salaries and allowances of our legislators to save the cost of governance.

In the face of  the COVID-19 pandemic, there is looming imminent jobs losses facing our formal and informal sector of the economy. The banking sector has sent panic signal to its employees.

Already, Access Bank has started sacking its workforce and promised to pay half salaries to their surviving ones. The Kaduna State Government deducted 25 per cent of its personnel salary to fund COVID-19 intervention programme last month.

Unless government follows due process as promised by Mr President, many jobs will be lost after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Government should save the situation amidst rising rates of unemployment in the country. The post COVID19 periods should serve as a time for sober reflection and reassessment of our economy.

Let government do whatever is necessary to fix our battered economy.

Ibrahim Mustapha Pambegua wrote  from Kaduna