Presidential Bounce from Presidential Tribunal: What’s in it for Nigerians?
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By Franklin Otorofani, Esquire
March 03, 2008
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Metaphorically
speaking, it’s fair to say that the Yar’Adua ‘Presidential Plane’ that had
refused to take off had been gathering momentum in the runway in the past seven
months; sufficient enough to attain the critical lift off state before the
favorable verdict delivered last Tuesday by the Court of Appeal, doubling as the
Presidential Election Tribunal. While many Nigerians, including this writer,
have expressed their impatience, indeed indignation, at the slow pace of the
administration, the fact remains that the Yar’Adua government had finally, but
quietly taken off well before the favorable tribunal verdict landed the nation’s
political turf with a thud!
Unfortunately, however, its stealthy take off mode had, for the most part
witnessed, not the implementation of his seven-point program as such, but the
apparent revision of some of the reform programs of his predecessor. I have
deliberately used the word “apparent” because a closer examination of what
appears to be a revisionist policy of the Yar’Adua administration only yields
specific instances of tactical, but not strategic changes in policy directions.
Thus, while the Yar’Adua administration has received knocks from this writer and
other advocates of free market economy over its obvious meddlesomeness regarding
NICON and Transcorp, the overall thrust of the administration’s policy direction
remains indubitably pro-market, free economic model, that is the ideological
bedrock of the inherited reform initiatives of the previous administration. As
General Ibrahim Haruna, Chairman of AREWA Consultative Forum, puts it, Yar’Adua
is only “reforming the reforms” inherited from OBJ rather than jettisoning the
reforms altogether as his action had been interpreted in certain quarters. And
Yar’Adua’s recent declaration that he was merging NEEDS with his seven-point
program, coupled with his oft-repeated declarations that the private sector
would be made to assume the driver’s seat in the nation’s drive for economic and
technological development, would appear to reinforce this argument and put to
rest the notion of abandonment of the reform agenda of the previous
administration. That’s not what President Yar’Adua is about.
Other indications that point to the sustenance of the reform programs include
the economic diplomacy recently embarked upon by Yar’Adua which is reminiscent
of the Obasanjo administration’s economic drive. Nigerians will not forget in a
hurry that the former President literarily made China his second home as part of
his economic diplomacy and President Yar’Adua has followed suit. The result is
that China has suddenly become a big player in the Nigerian economy in the Oil
and Gas sector, telecommunication transportation, just to mention but a few
within a short period threatening the dominance of the United States and Britain
in those all-important sectors.
As I write this article, President Yar’Adua is in China in economic shuttle
diplomacy where he announced that the Chinese will be invited to build Metroline
Rail Transportation systems in Lagos and Abuja. Remember the Lagos Metroline
Project that was initiated and abandoned midstream by the Lateef Kayode Jakande
administration in Lagos some 28 odd years ago? Yes, folks, the Metroline is back
on the drawing board! That is Nigeria for you. Only God knows how much it will
cost today. Back then the advertised project cost was somewhere in the
neighborhood of N4 billion, but today your guess is as good as mine, cost wise.
It’s a good thing though that it’s the Federal Government that will bear the
cost. Lagos, Abuja, Kano and Port-Harcourt, deserve modern high speed
metropolitan rail transportation system. It’s about time, Nigeria!
However, the gusto with which the President made the announcement in far away
China is evidence of the presidential bounce he got from the favorable
Presidential Tribunal verdict. What is more, still savoring the verdict, the
President has reportedly ordered the EFCC to arrest a serving Minister of State
who has misappropriated unspent budgetary allocation in her ministry in order to
beat the presidential directive to return all unspent allocations to the
treasury to be captured in the 2008 budgetary estimates. As reported in the
papers, the minister had a different plan for the unspent funds. So she promptly
awarded emergency contracts and backdated the awards which she used as
instruments for sharing the allocations with herself and her comrades-
in-corruption. She is now cooling her heels at the EFCC Interrogation Room.
Thank goodness, EFCC is still alive and breathing even if not loudly enough.
That in itself is part of the Yar’Adua style—quiet, almost stealth operation.
Yes, the reforms are being reformed—the Yar’Adua way! And it’s this reform of
the reforms that many had seen as deviation from the reforms. As pointed out
earlier that is not necessarily the case. The OBJ reforms are not written on
rocks, and therefore, amply permissive of fine tuning. OBJ himself had
fine-tuned the reforms in the course of their implementation and has reportedly
advised the new President to do the same whenever and wherever necessary. And
that, precisely, is what President Yar’Adua seems to be doing which has been
mistaken as ‘dumping’ the reforms. Far from dumping the reforms Yar’Adua is
putting his own presidential touch and style on the reforms in particular
instances, not wholesale rejection of the reforms. To the extent, therefore,
that the main chassis of the reforms is intact, any panel- beating of the body
of the reforms is not only permissible, but desirable, and therefore, to be
encouraged for a new administration.
With this mindset, yours truly shall henceforth view whatever tinkering with the
reforms by the Yar’Adua government as necessary compliments or incidents of the
reforms rather than as evidence of their abandonment, and I would respectfully
urge the reader to follow suit. In taking this stance however, I am not
unmindful of the fact that a policy can be dismantled by pulling down its
pillars one peg at a time until the entire policy is completely dismantled.
Fortunately, that is not the case here.
To the best of my knowledge and information, none of the affected privatized
entities has been re-acquired outright by the Federal Government whether it is
NITEL or NICON. And even if it was, it would only be one in hundreds of
privatized entities that have not been re-acquired by the government. It is my
considered judgment, therefore, that President Yar’Adua is on course with regard
to the reform agenda, notwithstanding the reversal of sales of particular
privatized commercial entities.
Presidential gusto that springs from the favorable verdict could equally be seen
in the reported plan of President Yar’Adua to shake up his cabinet. Now, if we
remember how long it took the President to constitute his cabinet—over four
months— tinkering with the final make up could not have been in the cards so
soon thereafter, and no one thought of that before now. But hey! The Tribunal
has just handed Mr. President a brand new mandate that requires a brand new
cabinet because old things have passed away!
Lo and behold! A new cabinet is on the way that should sweep away the Government
of National Unity (GNU) hustlers who have become deadwoods in his cabinet
because they were products of political expediency and unabashed electoral
blackmail that was perpetrated by the unprincipled opposition. These GNU
deadwoods were forced on the President supposedly to calm the frayed nerves of
electoral losers but the reverse was the case as predicted by this writer a long
time ago. Their presence in the Yar’Adua cabinet has not added any value to his
administration. On the contrary, it has become an enduring symbol of political
blackmail. The marriage of convenience which produced unearned cabinet positions
for the losing parties did not prevent Muhammadu Buhari and Abubakar Atiku from
going full throttle in their determined efforts to unseat President Yar’Adua
through the Tribunal. If anything, the GNU contraption accelerated their charge
to throw Yar’Adua out of Aso Rock unceremoniously. Now that the Tribunal has
redeemed his presidency, the GNU babies must be sent packing and thrown out with
the bathwater! I hope Yar’Adua’s proposed cabinet shake up will accomplish just
that in addition to showing the other deadwoods in his cabinet the way out. They
have no place in his administration if he must deliver on time and on budget as
he has promised the nation.
And that bring me to the question of the character of the Yar’Adua cabinet
itself. Apart from some bright spots it’s one of the dullest and uninspiring
cabinents ever assemble in living memory by any President in Nigeria, military
or civilian! Yar’Adua might be a quite and unassuming personality but that’s no
reason to populate his cabinet with dark and cloudy characters that cannot
inspire themselves let alone the mass of the citizenry. It’s no wonder not much
has been achieved in the past eight months of the Yar’Adua presidency. A
government that is founded on rickety foundations of debilitating political
compromise cannot do much. There are too many deadwoods in the Yar’Adua cabinet
that they have deadened the color of the administration needlessly. Politics and
leadership are as much about perception as they are about reality. President
Yar’Adua could do with some color and showmanship, if not by himself, but by his
aides. Presidential affairs need not be conducted in a graveyard. Nigerians need
some drama for their spiritual wellbeing if not for their economic bottom-lines.
This writer had in his last article called for the revamping of the Yar’Adua
administration on the heels of the favorable verdict and I’m pleased with the
report that he is about to do just that. And before he implements the shake up,
I have one advice for him. He should do away with those who do not demonstrably
share in his missionary drive to take Nigeria to the promised land of being
among the 20 largest economies in the world by the year 2020. He must therefore
get rid of those ministers that are currently sleeping at the wheels and replace
them with young Turks in the mold of el-Rufai, Nuhu Ribadu, Charles Solubo, Oby
Ezekwesili, etc, etc. These are the tested and vetted reformers that Nigeria has
had and there are many more out there. As a matter of fact, now is the time to
bring Professor Solubo on board in a ministerial to help drive the reforms
forward. The president should bring on board only professional people with the
zeal and capacity for reforms rather than career politicians who should be given
only party appointments to deal with partisan politics at party level. They have
no place in the cabinet.
It would be well for him, therefore, to do away with those imposed on him by the
PDP whose performances are below average by the President’s own assessment
report. The bottom line is that it is his own legacy as a President that is at
stake here, and in the end he alone is responsible for his success or failure
rather than his ministers because the buck stops at his desk. Part of the
success of an effective leader is the ability to pick the right materials for
the right jobs and failure to do so could spell doom for his presidency.
The Presidential bounce has could also be seen in the reaction of the National
Assembly to the President’s veto of the budgetary estimates. The National
Assembly had jacked up the estimates increasing its own recurrent expenditure by
over 70%! That means more perks for Distinguished Senator and Honorable members,
right? It’s so unfortunate that the fight by the National Assembly to increase
the budgetary estimates was, at least in part, for the purpose of increasing
their financial benefits by way of massive increase in recurrent expenditures in
addition to their constituency allowances regardless of its impact on inflation
and macro economic indicators. The fact that crude oil is selling for over
$100.00 p/b is no reason for going on a spending spree. If OBJ had done that our
foreign reserves would have been wiped out thereby jeopardizing the health of
our economy.
And because of his government frugal disposition and Yar’Adua’s similar
disposition, our foreign reserves have hit a whopping $56 billion mark going by
the latest report.
But that does not call for squander-mania but prudent spending because this oil
wind fall will not last forever. If past experience is anything to go by oil
windfall, as it was in the IBB years, is usually followed by oil downfall, as it
was during the Abacha years when oil was selling for as low as $10 per barrel!
History could repeat itself again and when that happens Nigerians would be in
for whole new rough ride of excruciating economic pains far worse than anything
experienced before and now.
Given this scenario, therefore, President Yar’Adua is well within the bounds of
economic reason in vetoing the opportunistically inflated, but grossly
irresponsible budget passed by the National Assembly. The National Assembly
should understand the consequences of free-loading the budget that would
definitely lead to over injection of excess liquidity in the macro economic
stream. A sick patient is not cured by the administration of overdose of
medication but by the correct dosage of medication administered in the right
mixture and at the right time. And in this matter the National Assembly is well
advised to defer to the executive branch of government in economic matters
especially as the National Assembly, by the admission of its own leadership,
does not have the requisite expertise and resources to manage the economy. That
is not to say it should not vigorously carry out its constitutionally mandated
oversight functions which it did commendably well leading up to the budget
passage, by compelling the executive branch to capture all unspent allocations
in the budget. The National Assembly deserves commendation for the robust manner
it approached the issue until the executive branch bowed to its just demands.
Beyond that, however, it should not seek to replace the President’s budget with
its own estimates just because there is oil windfall and risk reversing the
gains recorded in the economy so far—over 8% growth rate with lowered inflation
rate. While increased spending on account of oil windfall might be tempting and
popular with the masses, it is not at all economically sound proposition.
It’s gratifying to note, therefore, that the leadership of the National Assembly
has signaled its intention to go along with the President on this issue instead
of picking a fight with the executive for which the previous leadership was
notorious —notably the N’Abba and Anyim led National Assembly. The newfound
rapport between the executive and legislative branch is a most welcome
development in the polity. Nigerian lawmakers must take a lesson from the United
States regarding unnecessary legislative bickering and gridlock that has more
often than not brought government business to a halt in the US with the masses
paying dearly for it. It’s this unsavory state of affairs that Barrack Obama has
exploited in his presidential with devastating results for the Clintons who are
associated with Washington politics. The exercise of checks and balances should
not be turned into an instrument for embarking on a collision course with the
executive branch except in clear constitutional or legal issues that cannot be
compromised without doing harm to the system itself.
Finally, the presidential bounce must be reflected in the living conditions of
the Nigerian people. I might be a hardcore, free market advocate, but I stand
for the welfare of the people and both are not mutually exclusive. The people
themselves, and not President Yar’Adua and his functionaries, should be the
greatest beneficiaries of the favorable Presidential Tribunal verdict. Did you
ask how does the President do that? Simple! Empower the people economically and
financially and the economy will receive its own presidential bounce! The
Americans have just done that when they sensed that their economy was headed
downhill rather precipitously. In a twinkle, both the executive and legislative
branches of government huddled together and clobbered together tax relief and
other packages designed to reverse the economic slide in the United States.
What’s in it for Nigerians? The one word for it is: “Empowerment!” The people
need to be empowered financially to enable make, what economists, term
‘effective demand’ of goods and services. In other words, the people must be
given back their purchasing power, which in turn will stimulate production of
goods and services leading to a robust economy in both the short and long terms.
That is the principle behind the economic measures recently adopted by the Bush
administration, working of course, with Congress.
What should the Yar’Adua government do for the Nigerian people then who have
waited this long for this day? Why? Give them their economic bounce! Nigerians
are not known as great tax payers therefore, the tax relief option is out of the
question. However, in the absence of tax relief measures as it is in the United
States, the government should find a way to institute a social welfare program
to stimulate consumption of Made-in-Nigeria goods and services that would not
negatively impact on the economy in terms of inflation. That’s right. Any
palliatives must be targeted at enhancing the purchasing power of the average
Nigerian and specifically targeted at Made-in-Nigeria goods and services that
would generate employment opportunities and have multiplier effects on the
economy.
Mr. President, Nigerians too need a dose of Economic Bounce from the
Presidential Tribunal, not more hardships—no, not more darkness…! Because they
too want to bounce around—not from Abuja to Beijing, China, but from Ajegunle to
Oshodi—Oshodi to Mile 12; and perhaps, from there to Gwagwalada, Kano, and who
knows—maybe proceed from there to Head-bridge, Onitsha. Ooops! I must not forget
bouncing off to good old ‘Waffi’— the legendary Oil City, in the heart of Niger
Delta! Waffi? That’s right! That’s my city, men! Oh Warri! What has become of
thee? Hath thou been reduced to a ghost of thy former self? When will thy glory
return?
Come to think of it, Waffi needs the biggest bounce Yar’Adua can offer the Niger
Delta. Isn’t it about time to give Waffi a big bounce, Mr. President? How about
a Metroline for Warri too given its notorious traffic congestion? That should
send a big signal that the era of marginalization of the Niger Delta is over and
over for good, and the big guns will fall silent in the creeks. I guarantee
that…One once of action is worth more than a ton of unfulfilled promises.
Mr. President, will they get a bounce?
We’re waiting for the answer…!
Franklin Otorofani, Esquire (USA)
Contact: mudiagaone@yahoo.com
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