Thank You Mr President, But...

Once again, I felt obliged to listen to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu as he addressed the nation on Sunday, to commemorate our dear country's 63rd Independence anniversary. For all its intents and purposes, he delivered a good speech, high in promises, ostensibly to give and raise troden Nigerians relapsing hope, the cornerstone of his administration. 

Frankly speaking, I was not expecting anything less than what I heard him talk about. I mean, save the dispatch with which he handled the subsidy issue, much of his other speeches since assuming office has been about promises hinged on 'soon' as their implementation time line.

For instance, he once talked about an effective post subsidy palliative initiatives capable of easing Nigerians' burden, coming from the policy decision. How well the palliatives have truly reach affected Nigerians may be the subject of a symposium discussion, perhaps sometime later. 

On Sunday Mr President spoke about unleashing CNG-powered mass transit buses that will reduce to trickles, current transportation cost. If nothing else, this is a policy direction that has the potential to directly and positively affect every Nigerian. For me, it is a splendid one. Albeit, the real challenge with it, as it has been with others, is that it came with a 'soon' implementation template. That is not encouraging at all. 

Mr President's CNG-powdered buses promise reminds me of the one made by a group in the manufacturing sector in the wake of the subsidy hoopla. The group was on national television to promise hundreds of brand new, CNG-powered mass transport buses, which it promised to acquire and spread across the country.

The group also assured Nigerians that the acquisition and implementation processes were already in top gear. But I am not sure there is any information on whether any Nigerian has access to the buses at the moment. The promise, like some Mr President made before, which today's own may likely join, have reset the mind of Nigerians on askance mode, making them wonder about how and when 'soon' began to take the same meaning as 'forever'.

It would appear we may have to wait for the next Presidential speech for another 'soon' promise to be delivered as the outcome of previous ones. 

Let me reiterate my admiration for Mr President's CNG-powered vehicles promise. As stated earlier, it is a policy that, if timeously implemented, has the capacity to positively affect every Nigerian a lot more than any temporary monetary stipend for a select few, including the N25, 000 six-month largesse he promised to dish out to federal workers. I am not sure of how much help that would bring to the greater majority of economically violated Nigerians without addressing the fate of millions of unemployed Nigerians, other public sector workers, both at the states and council areas levels, and even those in the private sector. To that extent, the policy is enticingly useless on the long run given its potentials to engender a large scale spiking market reaction that will further impoverish those already on the fringes. Hello! 

That is not assuring at all. 

I have a challenged also with Mr President's promises. In the first instance, none of them seems to pay attention to the challenges that will prevent the CNG-powered vehicles from realising it's intended positive impacts.

Certainly, Nigerians need to move around. But not for the heck of just moving around. Traders and the business-minded Nigerians would need to move around with goods and services to and from delivery points safely. It presupposes that goods and services must be available. It also would make sense if the roads are good enough. It will not make sense, no matter how cheap it is, in a situation where agricultural and food products are in short supply for security reasons.

Let us even assume that insecurity is addressed the best possible way and Nigerians are able to freely move around. At the moment, food products are in short supply. Production is inadequate even for local consumption. The bottomline is that food supply is not available in the quantity that would meet local consumption. If juxtaposed against basic economic reality, the reason for ongoing inflation becomes glaring-supply-induced. That in place, available scarce funds will be further strained. 

The scenario painted above presupposes that by now, the administration ought to have set in motion modalities for the establishment of massive mechanized farms in all the 36 states and Abuja to mop the country’s vast reservoir of revenue-yielding agricultural potentials. By now, the administration should have pinpointed catchment locations with comparative advantages in the ownership and or production of these vast and priceless agricultural potentials in order to effectively harness them. 

Pinpointing their locations would mean that the administration would be able to locate and localize related industries for processing the products for their value additions. Indeed, I expect that in talking about viable, short term and cheap mass transit system, or even the non-sustainable monetary grants, the federal government would also create rooms for the more sustainable long term economic revitalization plans. That is what Nigerians need more than anything else. And I do not think Nigerians need binoculars to see what's going on in, particularly the agricultural sector, for instance. 

The administration promised to release about N5bn to each of the 36 states and Abuja as palliative funds. Information has it that in addition to releasing N2bn of the said funds, it released strategic grains to them as part of the palliatives. That is, in addition to more financial windfalls the states have received from federation allocations, over N1tn, since the disappearance(?) of subsidy.

Meanwhile, reports have it that some of the states have politicized the distribution of the palliatives just as they are wont to do with the funds by misappropriating them. At the end of the day, the real Nigerians in need of the palliatives will not get it. Is it not possible for the federal government to go the extra mile of acquiring arable lands across the country, preparing and allocating same to willing Nigerians, including my humble self, as farms, to be paid for from sales of proceeds marketed at government established marketing boards? I am certain the process will ensure that the administration recoup its investment on the long term, the same way it will score high points in job creation. Is that the job of a rocket scientist? 

Very soon, a year would have passed since the administration came into office. That's enough time to start the production and harvest of cassava, maize, beans or even rice. Within that same period, the monthly palliatives, including the new N25, 000 raise for federal public workers would have ended without yielding anything positive other than shift the evil day. Can't our policy makers wake up for once?