"Dateline is Year 2014. Nigeria has within a short space of three years risen to be reckoned with as one of the top ten African countries well on its way to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), with the target only a year away. The once high rate of poverty put at about 75 per cent has been reduced to 34 per cent.
Power generation that years back seemed intractable has since received the needed fillip. It now stands at a commendable 35,000 Mega Watts all because the private sector and state governments that came in have utilized various alternative sources to gas and hydro-power. Much has come from solar, wind, coal and bio-fuel sources. Some smart Alecs have even turned the heaps of their backyard rubbish to veritable sources of environmentally-friendly energy generation. Alas! Our half-clad urchins no longer shout 'Up NEPA!' because power outage has become an exception rather than the rule.
"Similarly, the once embarrassing numbers of school-age children roaming the streets selling sundry consumables are now in school. The figure had dropped drastically from 8.2 million to 2.8 million! This is no American Wonder. It is as real as the daily sunshine. Both primary and secondary schools now boast of quality infrastructure; solid school buildings, well-equipped laboratories and libraries in addition to highly remunerated and dedicated staff all boasting of first degrees in the field of education. States and private individuals have since taken over from the federal government in such other areas as agriculture, electric power generation and distribution, water supply, road construction and maintenance, internal security as well as healthcare delivery. And talking about that, the World Health Organisation no longer worries about the once-parlous state of primary healthcare that saw Nigeria posting unbelievably deplorable figures in both infant and maternal healthcare delivery despite its huge oil revenue.
"But the million naira question persists: How were all these feats achieved in less than five years? No thanks to the magic wand by President Jonathan's resourceful economic team..."
"Wake up, Mr Baje. What's wrong with you?" The voice, though a little bit faint, belonged to Andy, my good old friend.
"What have I done wrong now?" I asked, perturbed.
"You have been talking to yourself for some minutes. You worry too much about this country Nigeria, one whose successive leaders care not a hoot about the security and welfare of its hapless citizens."Andy observed.
"You are worried too aren't you?" I asked
"Yes. On whose platform do you now stand, Aganganomics or Iwealanomics?" He asked. I caught his drift. While Olusegun Aganga, the former Minster of Finance once beat his chest about Nigeria's robust macro-economic indices, being amongst the best in the world Dr(Mrs) Okonjo-Iweala his likely successor thinks other wise. Displaying an uncommon candour before the Senate, she questioned the economic wisdom of the 2011 budget that earmarks a whopping 74 per cent to the querulous recurrent expenditure with little left for capital projects.
Her patriotic stand has echoed the concern earlier raised by erstwhile Vice President, Atiku Abubakar who had similarly questioned the rationale behind an absurd recurrent budget put at 107 per cent of total revenue! Put simply, a zero budget would still see the country borrowing N400 billion to finance the avarice of our political class.
It may not be out of place therefore, to recommend that all Nigerian politicians aspiring to occupy any sensitive administrative post to be grounded in the nitty-gritty of economics. Even for those of us with a smattering knowledge of economics we cannot but question why public money is skewed in favour of the politicians in public office. Budgets should be policy guidelines as to meeting the crying needs of the people. But every blessed year we are regaled about fantastic figures that at the end of the day live us poorer than we were the previous year.
For instance, in the days of the Shehu Shagari-led NPN federal government budgets were in hundreds of millions of naira. Over a decade later, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo-led PDP government reeled out budgets of reformation and consolidation that ran into billions of naira. Now, we hear of annual federal government budgets of over four trillion naira, yet the average Nigeria stews in his preventable poverty as prices of essential commodities skyrocket. The constant features of these budgets include bloated recurrent expenditures, low percentage to capital projects, lack of project monitoring, budgetary deficits and deliberate delays in the release of funds. Hence, one is not surprised to hear about the under performance of Ministries, Departments and Agencies(MDAs).
We are worried that the more dollar revenue that comes from oil the more Nigerians have to pay for petrol, electric power consumption and recently kerosene. The more the macro-economic indices seem to favour us the lower the quality of the life of the average Nigerian. Can Okonjo-Iweala make the difference? She was here before, assisted the country out of her crippling debt burden but the huge excess crude account she left has since been depleted. The National Economic Development Strategy (NEEDS) she conceptualized has refused to address the needs of job-seeking Nigerians.
Now, we want her to be given a free hand; to fashion out a home-grown strategy that would guarantee stable power acting as a catalyst for an industrial revolution. Not to pilot our economic affairs along the Breton Woods principle that under develop so called third world countries. Let the economic base be diversified away from oil to agriculture, solid mineral mining and tourism. Let true fiscal federalism come into full play to galvanize the creative energy of state governments, instead of being tied to the apron strings of the federal government. Please, Iweala let my dreams of connecting the nation to her vast natural endowments and touching tellingly on the quality of life of Nigerians be fulfilled during this your second coming.
http://allafrica.com/stories/201107130728.html
