Stop Blaming IMF, World Bank; Nigeria’s Economic Woes Are Self-Inflicted!

 By Olu Fasan

The International Monetary Fund, IMF, and the World Bank have long struck a raw nationalistic nerve in Nigerians. Romantic patriotism drives the nationalistic urge to reject any perceived IMF/World Bank ‘interference’.

*Tinubu

Several years ago, as a magazine publisher, I interviewed Dr Kalu Idika Kalu, then finance minister under General Ibrahim Babangida’s regime, when he stopped over in London on his way to the IMF/World Bank meeting in Washington. I asked him why Nigerians detested the multilaterals. “I think in Nigeria we’ve tended to be isolationist,” he said. Nigerians, he implied, loathed foreign institutions telling them what to do, even in the face of a self-inflicted crisis.

The Oppressors Who Love The Oppressed

 By Owei Lakemfa

It is bizarre. The International Monetary Fund, IMF, calling on the government to protect the poor from the impact of the fuel price hikes it engineers! To add to its criminal thought process against the Nigerian people, the same IMF is telling the Tinubu administration that fuel prices in Nigeria are too low and need to be increased because it is allegedly selling below market price. What market?

To understand this, we need to know that the Western Europe-owned IMF and its Siamese American twin, the World Bank, have since 1981 told every successive Nigerian government that our petroleum product prices are too cheap and must be increased.

Patriots In Kenya, Fascists In Nigeria

 By Andy Ezeani

Those in Nigeria who look towards the youths of the country, against the backdrop of the recent happenings in Kenya, and expect a similar redemptive stance need to be fair to young Nigerians. It is an entirely different hemisphere. Kenya is not Nigeria. And Nigerians are not Kenyans.

The tendencies of the political leadership in Kenya and Nigeria may be quite similar but the two societies retain their differences all the same. In standing up to brute force and putting their lives on the line to oppose an economic policy of the government, which they believe will only lead the society to turmoil and further grief, the youths of Kenya did what their counterparts in Nigeria would also do, under normal circumstances.

Can President Tinubu Emulate Kenya’s Ruto?

 By Adekunle Adekoya

Earlier in the week, there were reports of massive protests in Kenya, an East African country. The protests were actually not new, having begun in 2023, in reaction to bids by the government of Kenya to raise taxes. According to the 24-hour English news channel, Al Jazeera, the protests signify a major shift in Kenya, where, previously, most people accepted the inadequacies of government.

*Ruto and Tinubu 
I dare say in that regard, Kenyans are like Nigerians as my people also swallow, lock, stock, and barrel, all the balderdash that goes on here in the name of governance. It is instructive to recall that both Nigeria and Kenya were colonised by the British. Kenya gained independence in 1963.

Nigeria’s Low Tax Intake: Blame Weak Economy, Breach Of Social Contract

 By Olu Fasan

Recently, the International Monetary Fund, IMF, lamented Nigeria’ low tax revenues. Two weeks ago, when launching the IMF’s Regional Economic Outlook for Sub-Saharan Africa, the Fund’s Director for Africa, Abebe Selassie, said: “For a country like Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, with all those development spending needs, we think it is problematic that the tax revenue to GDP is only 8-9 per cent when it should be a lot higher.”

A few years ago, in its 2019 Article IV Consultation with Nigeria, the IMF made the same point. It said Nigeria suffered from “low tax mobilisation”, adding: “The revenue base is simply too low to address the current challenges”. Compared with the sub-Saharan African average of 18.6 per cent, Nigeria’s 8-9 per cent is minuscule and truly shocking. Like the IMF, successive Nigerian governments have fretted about it.

Electricity Tariff Hike As Maltreatment Of Nigerians

 By Adekunle Adekoya

I have zeroed in on electricity in the last few editions of this column because of the anxiety I harbour that our dear country, Nigeria, needs to get it right as soon as possible; before those that have gotten it right transmogrify into behemoths that can swallow us up. I had finished writing the last edition, with the headline: ‘Frequent national grid collapse: Time we took another hard look’, when the Federal Government empowered the electricity sector to announce new tariffs, ostensibly for affluent users, those said to be in Band A.

Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, had earlier in the year hinted of this development when he said that subsidy payments in the electricity sector by the Federal Government is not sustainable. I disagreed with him, because that would mean Nigerians will be paying higher prices for a service that at best, for the majority, remains epileptic. In addition, Nigerians are yet to see any initiative on the part of government that indicates we can expect better, improved services in terms of power supply. 

Tinubu’s First Six Months: Redemption Way Or Road To Golgotha?

 By Kalu Okoronkwo

President Bola Tinubu’s assumption of office on May 29, 2023, marked a critical moment in Nigeria’s political landscape, evoking both expectations and scrutiny.  His landmark speech during his inauguration that brought about the much-touted oil subsidy removal was a turning point in the country’s economic policy.  This is because many perceived the issue of subsidy removal as a hard nut to crack hence previous administrations only paid lip service to it.

*Tinubu 

Six months in the life of a new administration is very much early day for a four- year tenure but the augury mirrors what lies ahead.

An unbiased and dispassionate assessment of Tinubu’s first six months in office can only return one verdict: it has bought unmitigated hardship and thrown more Nigerians into multidimensional poverty. Food inflation is at its highest ever that even a bulb of onion has become a gem stone to be pampered and cherished.

Presidential leadership In A Nigeria Without Oil

 By Stanley Ekpa

When the International Monetary Fund, IMF, categorises resource-rich countries, it classifies the countries according to their export baskets. At least 20 African countries, including Nigeria, Angola, Ghana, and Tanzania, are classified as resource-rich, with their export bases comprising a bulk of unprocessed crude oil, minerals and agricultural commodities.

The classification of countries in other continents, such as Japan, Malaysia, and Indonesia, is based on the diversity of their export bases and value-added products. Since 1973, the year of the first oil boom, crude oil has constituted more than 90% of Nigeria’s export earnings, making Nigeria a global classic case of a monocultural economy. Though a monocultural economy has the advantage of product specialisation, it runs contrary to the spirit of Section 16 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) in building a balanced and resilient economy.

Nigeria And The Politics Of Hunger

 By Sunny Awhefeada

My first generation’s experience of hunger and its attendant crises was in the mid-1980s. My genera­tion here refers to Nigerians born after the civil war and attained teenagehood from 1983 onwards. We have read in history books of how starvation was one of the major tools that was deployed to fight the Nigerian civil war of 1967-1970.

Pictures abound of chil­dren, youths and older people who suffered from the affliction of hunger. Not even the efforts of humanitarian agencies that tried to alleviate the hunger in the refugee camps that littered the secessionist enclave of Biafra alleviated the crisis. Hunger engendered dis­eases which in turn yielded deaths.

Nigeria: Budgeting For Abject Poverty

 By Jerry Uwah 

Nigeria’s unemployment and poverty problem has assumed catastrophic proportions. In a country with a workforce of less than 100 million people, more than 22 million are jobless. In the two years since Nigeria replaced India as the world’s headquarters of abject poverty, 15 million more have been pushed below poverty line. In fact, Nigeria manufactures six extreme poor people every minute. 

           Senate President Lawan, President Buhari, 

                            House Speaker Gbajabiamila

The result is frustration and hopelessness. The story of Solomon Okon, a porter with Havana Hospital in Lagos, who lost his job during a rationalisation exercise is a sad reminder of a nation that has lost all sense of care and protection for its citizens. 

Nigeria: Wake Up, Sleeping Giant!

By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye

Tomorrow, May 29, 2020, is what used to be referred to in Nigeria as “Democracy Day,” but now it will only serve as the anniversary of President Muhammadu Buhari's regime and that of some state governors. It is usually a welcome excuse for great celebrations, chest-beating and wild claims about humongous achievements, many of which exist only in the imagination of the mostly failed leaders. 

*Nigeria Leaders: Jonathan, Obasanjo, Buhari

Even the term “Democracy Day” (which is now observed on June 12) is such an excruciating irony in a country where almost all the features that distinguish democratic societies have been brutally obliterated, leaving the populace continually trapped in destabilizing apprehension. 

There would, however, be no parties tomorrow. A hostile, dreaded   visitor called Coronavirus is town! Let’s hope, therefore, that the absence of bacchanals tomorrow will afford our leaders the conducive   atmosphere for deep, sober reflections, to determine whether they have merely added to the suffering and pain of the people or helped, even in some little way, to reduce them.             

If Nigeria is working, we will know! Those were the exact words of late Prof Chinua Achebe, Africa’s foremost writer and distinguished intellectual. In other words, the citizens do not need any bogus claims by government’s megaphones to realise that there is an improvement in their country’s economy because it will automatically translate to an enhancement in their lives.

Is Nigeria Working?

By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye

If Nigeria is working, we will know! Those were the exact words of late Prof Chinua Achebe, Africa’s foremost novelist and distinguished intellectual. In other words, the citizens do not need any bogus claims by government’s megaphones to realise that there is an improvement in their country’s economy because it will automatically translate to an enhancement in their lives.

*President receiving a get-well card 

And as they enter the markets to procure their basic needs or engage service providers for some of those services they just cannot do without, they would certainly have direct encounters with the “improvements” their country is alleged to have witnessed.

But sadly, what they are still seeing everywhere are benumbing evidences of further deterioration and the attendant pains – a direct result of very poor management of their country.

Buhari's Tale Of Empty Treasury And $30 Billion Loan

By Onyiorah Paschal Chidulemije

Ever since he was sworn in as a democratically elect­ed President of Nigeria on May 29, 2015, one frivolous trend that has conspicuously character­ized President Muhammadu Bu­hari’s administration is the inces­sant and boring tale of how he inherited empty treasury from the past government of Presi­dent Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. Like a nagging spouse, the Pres­ident would always explore and exploit every small or big oppor­tunity, either within or outside the country, to blabber on about how he came in to behold an empty treasury.

*Jonathan and Buhari 

Just recently, while addressing members of the National Insti­tute for Policy and Strategic Stud­ies who visited him in the State House, the President was report­edly quoted as saying that he al­most ran away from office after taking over from President Good­luck Ebele Jonathan.

Please hear him: “Actually, I felt like absconding…I asked if there was any savings and I was told there was no savings”.

Strangely enough, like a rea­sonable person will ask, is this why a man who had repeatedly contested for the Presidency of Nigeria and, thus, implicitly          pre­pared himself – psychological­ly and otherwise - to change the course of the country, should have taken to his heels? Oh my God! 

Now, let us return to the is­sue of President Buhari’s unending tale of empty treasury. Obvi­ously, it is no longer news that for umpteenth times, many a Nigerian had urged Mr. President to make public the hand-over notes bequeathed to him by the immediate past government of President Goodluck Jonathan so that the citizenry too could empirical­ly share a good deal with him on this lingering tale of having inher­ited an empty treasury from his predecessor. But all to no avail. Yet, this is an “honest” man and President who wants all and sun­dry to believe that he is not to a very large extent or, worse still, solely responsible for the current economic recession bedeviling the country (?).

IMF: Nigeria Opts For Self-Medication

By Abidemi Gbolahan 

The message delivered by the IMF Managing Director, Ms. Christine Lagarde when she visited Nigeria earlier in the year was that only Nigeria can help herself out of her economic quagmire. I also re­membered her advising Nigeria to address some structural defects ob­served in the economy if Naira de­valuation was not an option.

President Muhammadu Buhari has also been using every opportu­nity of any of his foreign trips to ex­plain that Naira cannot be devalued further. Even when the local neo-co­lonialists sharks in concert with their foreign partners went the whole hug campaigning for further devaluation of the Naira, they got the snub of the President. Consequently, they em­barked on destructive campaign - ‘Emefiele Must Be Sacked’. Yet, the President stood solidly behind the CBN governor.

 

*President Buhari and IMF Boss, Christine Lagarde

A bold and reassuring statement ever made by any official of govern­ment in Nigeria, even in the con­tinent to any neo-colonialist in­stitution, is the one credited to the Nigeria’s Finance Minister, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, at the just conclud­ed annual Spring Meetings of the two multilateral institutions – IMF and the World Bank in Washington D.C. where she was quoted to have told the IMF boldly that “IMF could be a doctor, but for Nigeria our mes­sage is not sick, and even if we are, we have our own local remedy”. In medical science at times there can be a critical choice between going with a doctor that will worsen your case or seek self-help. In the context of the current economic situation, it’s obvious that Nigeria has rightly set­tled for the later.

Similar stance taken by Nigeria’s apex bank – the Central Bank of Ni­geria - few months back incurred the ire of agents of these devaluation and neo-colonialists. It will be noted that, shortly after the Bank’s initial de­valuation of the local currency, and subsequent withdrawal of 41 items from accessing its FOREX. This was a decision apparently taken by the CBN management to rescue the cur­rency from its free fall, these ‘hawks’ took up arms against the CBN.

Remove Subsidies And Redirect Cash Into Needful Investments

"It Makes More Sense To Remove Subsidies And Redirect Cash Into Investments That Go Directly To Those Who Need It Most"

By Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

Globally, government support for fossil-fuel subsidies will amount to almost $650bn this year. The cost of these subsidies far outweighs the benefits and burdens the middle classes. Reforming the system can make energy infrastructure more efficient, shore up public finances and allow more targeted spending on public services.

The idea is not a new one. In 2009, the G20 countries and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum committed themselves to cutting inefficient subsidies but progress has been limited. But in the context of the decline in oil prices, which benefits consumers, we have a golden opportunity to deliver reform.

About 30 countries, including my own, Nigeria, have already made efforts to phase out fossil-fuel subsidies. In spite of the difficulties, it is well worth the effort.

In 2012 in Nigeria we reformed petrol subsidies. Conscious that the public might be concerned, we ran an information campaign to explain how the savings would be used to help everyone. Political pressure, however, led to the policy being introduced earlier than planned and, as a result, the changes came as a shock to many. This led to protests and the reform had to be partially rolled back.

Despite this, we were right to act. Even phasing out half of the subsidies was a substantial achievement. Some $13bn worth of petrol subsidies, including many fraudulent claims, had burdened the national budget, and we were able to redirect some of those funds. Within a year, our programme to reinvest the savings meant we could finish the renovation of a north-south national railway, as well as introduce improved maternal and childcare services in 500 primary healthcare centres.

Using lessons learnt from Nigeria and other countries we can put together a set of best practices to follow. These include co-coordinated communication, implementation and redistribution efforts. Reform should also create a broad sense of political ownership, especially in fiscally decentralised countries.

One of the most common concerns about removing subsidies is that it will hurt the poor. But in reality the subsidies benefit high-income populations and industry much more than low-income households.

The International Monetary Fund has estimated that more than 40 per cent of fuel price subsidies in developing countries accrue to the richest 20 per cent of households, while 7 per cent of the benefits go to the poorest 20 per cent.

It makes more sense to remove subsidies and redirect cash into investments that go directly to those who need it most. That was the aim of Nigeria’s programme and it is being tried elsewhere. In Germany and Poland, for example, coal subsidy reforms were supported by cash assistance for workers affected by mine closures.

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