Since President Muhammadu Buhari came into office, Nigerians have been waiting to get an idea of what his response would be to the current economic melt down. We have an idea that the government would be involved, but we really don’t know how it would be structured or how big the involvement would be. We still don’t have the details.
In a recessed economy such as ours, the government can jumpstart the economy by borrowing and spending large quantities of money. Increased spending will generate demand thus leading to creation of jobs which in turn leads to recovery.
When Barack Obama was elected President November 4, 2008, the US announced a net loss of more than half a million jobs. It was the largest drop in a single month for 34 years and bringing unemployment to 6.7 per cent . The following day, Mr. Obama announced the biggest infrastructure investment since President Dwight Eisenhower created the US highway system in the 1950s.
In his first address to the Congress, Mr. Obama put his top priority for America’s beleaguered workers in simple terms: “ Now is the time to jumpstart job creation.” Known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, it seeks to bring timely relief to 11.6 million unemployed Americans. Shortly after Congress approved $787 billion stimulus plan, Mr. Obama Said: “We have once-in-a-generation chance to act boldly and turn adversity into opportunity, and to use this crisis as a chance to transform this economy for the 21st century.”
Mr. Obama’s stimulus package breakdown is as follows: $27.5 billion for highway projects, $340 million for watershed and flood prevention operations, and watershed rehabilitation, $2.5 billion for distance learning, telemedicine, and broadband programs, $150 million for economic development assistance programs, $4.7 billion for a broadband technology opportunities program, $6 billion for local clean water initiatives, $21 billion to laid-off workers with employer provided health insurance through COBRA, $53.6 billion to help states deal with budget deficits, $36.2 billion for energy spending, $19.9 billion for aid to poor families, a tax credit up to $400 for low-and-middle-income individuals and $800 for families, a one time payment of $250 to recipients of Social Security and government disability.
In 2013, the Bank of Japan pursued an unprecedented $1.4 trillion stimulus plan to loosen monetary policy and spur economic growth. The Bank of Japan’s shock therapy was designed to jumpstart the world’s third largest economy which was hard hit by collapsing exports to China and European Union, falling domestic auto sales, and decelerating post-tsunami reconstruction spending.
In 2008, China unveiled an economic stimulus program totaling $586 billion, aimed to bolster domestic demand and help avert a global recession. The plan includes spending in housing, infrastructure, agriculture, healthcare and social welfare, and a tax deduction for capital spending by companies.
Last year, South Korea reeled out a stimulus rescue worth 16.1 trillion won ($14.31 billion) to jumpstart Asia’s fourth largest economy as it fought to overcome the twin challenges of weak domestic and global demand. “Our fiscal soundness will worsen temporarily,” says Bang Moon-Kyu Vice Finance Minister, “but we have decided it is more important to make the economy recover early on and create a sturdy fiscal foundation,” says Moon-kyu.
It’s been 16 dark years for Nigerians to be sure. Our people’s health are frail. Our financial prospects are bleak. Our families are dismantled and dispersed. Jobs are uncertain and tomorrow looks no better than today. Nigerians have seen it all: want and misery, ignorance and brutishness, pain and penury, neglect and contempt, trial and struggle. It’s easy to be overwhelmed by the darkness.
Presidents have long been seen as operating within a political environment that is intractable and highly resistant to change. History has also revealed that presidents are powerful agents of structural change. Nigeria is in the worst economic crisis in our history. Millions of Nigerians are unemployed or underemployed. There is a lot of pain out there, and a lot of potential going to waste. President Buhari should deploy all the full brunt of the federal might into the economic crisis.
The federal government needs to step in and spend. A lot. Mr. Buhari must provide a blood infusion to the patient right now to make sure the patient is stabilized. We need a huge stimulus plan in the trillions to jumpstart the economy. Budget alone is not enough to curtail the hemorrhaging job loss. Stimulus plan worked in the 30s, 40s, and presently for the US. It worked for Japan in 2013, it worked for China in 2008, and it worked for South Korea in 2015. It will work now for Nigeria in 2016. The stimulus plan should target infrastructure, housing, education, health, transportation, broadband technology, clean drinking water, postal services (post-office), agriculture, social services and other essential sectors.
Millions of jobs will be created in rebuilding and repairing our schools – elementary, secondary, universities and other public institutions. Public transportation – new rail lines, new road network of four or five lanes in each direction that crisscross the 36 states like the US Interstate 95 (I-95), building new hospitals all over the states, construction of new ports in riverine areas, new refineries in all the 36 states, hydroelectric power, solar power, and wind power. Allocate money to states to help them deal with budget deficits, provide internet in all schools, build new public libraries and parks, construct housing projects in all the 36 states for low income workers, establish state and local government police and state troopers that will man our dangerous and deadly high way 24/7. The job creation in these areas do not require heavy reliance on electricity because they are not manufacturing industries. Once we get our acts together in the power sector, we can dive into heavy industrial manufacturing.
An effective, appropriate stimulus plan should accomplish the following: A stimulus package that will generate growth and jobs to offset rising unemployment. A stimulus package that will take effect immediately. A stimulus package that will target unmet needs. A stimulus package that will be fair to all sectors of the economy. Jobs, jobs, jobs, a stimulus package that will create immediate jobs. A stimulus package that will not be bogged down by bureaucratic nonsense. A smart stimulus that will have its impact within the next year. It must have some components that will have immediate effect, and others that might have impact in six months to a year.
The government should not be a slave to textbook economics because it doesn’t apply to a very nonstandard situation as reflected by the economic reality on ground. If we slash government spending, the economy contracts further and creates deeper recession and cuts into long term job creation.
President Buhari need to act now to craft an effective economic stimulus plan to spur growth and job creation. Without a stimulus of sufficient magnitude, the Nigerian economy is headed to dire straits.
Who Will Explain Coronavirus To Buhari?
Coronavirus (COVID-19), an exorable doom, threatens life on the planet. It is exorable because it is conquerable. This explains why world leaders are taking the charge to combat this ominous apocalypse. It is a time for leadership from the fore-end; a time when citizens must hear their leaders speak to them; see them take action, making assurances and fulfilling those promises. The counsel, consolation and firm statement of a leader is imperative at this moment.
In Canada, Justin Trudeau, prime minister, despite being in self-isolation and his wife battling the virus after contracting it at a conference in the UK, is leading the fight against this dreaded disease from the fore. He is providing regular updates of the efforts of his government to roll back this scourge, listening and speaking to citizens.
In a popular broadcast on March 13, Justin spoke to citizens of Canada announcing measures to relieve the financial stress brought on by the pandemic on Canadians.
“We do not want any Canadian to have to worry about whether or not they’re going to be able to pay their rent, whether or not they’re going to be able to buy groceries, or care for their kids or elderly family members. We need to make sure that Canadians have the options and the ability to follow the best public health advice and keep themselves safe,” he said.
In the UK, Boris Johnson, prime minister, leads the struggle against coronavirus. He provides updates, alongside health experts, on the measures his government is taking to tackle the spread of the disease. And in the US, Donald Trump is not shying away from speaking to Americans on the virus.
As a matter of fact, President Muhammadu Buhari’s lapses are often easily dismissed by his supporters or by Nigerians who do not know better. Some of them say, ‘’ Why must the president speak when the minister of health and the NCDC DG are already doing that?” This is a contemptible rationalisation of incompetence. Are they suggesting the president lacks the capacitance to understand the issues?’’
Really, I surmise the president has been walled off the ‘’candid cameras’’ over the years by his handlers – not just now – because he lacks the intellectual propensity to understand and discuss incisive issues. The last presidential media chat he held was in 2015 and it was a woeful outing. Also, his non-choreographed media interviews have been abysmal to say the least.
The truth is the unfiltered Buhari is a vacuously gaffing one. On October 14, 2016, standing beside Angela Merkel, German chancellor, Buhari said his wife, Aisha, ‘’belonged in the kitchen and the other room’’, when he was asked to comment on the first lady’s criticism of his government.
On April 18, 2018, at the Commonwealth Business Forum in London, the president said the young citizens of the country he leads are lazy.
“More than 60 per cent of the population is below 30, a lot of them haven’t been to school and they are claiming that Nigeria is an oil producing country, therefore, they should sit and do nothing, and get housing, healthcare, education free,” he said during a panel appearance with world leaders at the forum.
In a February 2016 interview with UK Telegraph, Buhari dropped another clanger. He said the young citizens of his country have a knack for criminality and should not be granted asylum in the UK.
With the Buhari experience, it is indubitable that Nigerians must place a high premium on education — not just certificate – in choosing their leaders. The cost of electing leaders who do not have the intellectual grit to understand and handle matters is far too high.
The senate has asked the president to speak to citizens on this threat, and Nigerians are also asking the president to speak to them. This is an abnormality. Citizens must not beg to hear from their president. But because it is Buhari involved here, we have to beg and even excuse the crass inefficiency and vacuity.
Perhaps, the president is still trying to get a hang of it. I think he has ‘’capable handlers’’ who can break it down to him in ABC.
Mr President, speak to your citizens. The words of a leader are more resounding and assuring than the blandishment of proxies.
PS: Let’s follow all health protocol as advised by the NCDC.
• Wash your hands regularly with soap under running water.
• Cover your mouth and nose properly with handkerchief or tissue paper when sneezing and/or coughing. You may also cough into your elbow if a handkerchief is not available.
• Avoid close contact with anyone showing symptoms of respiratory illness such as coughing and sneezing.
• Avoid self-medication, report to the nearest health facility when you experience any of the above-mentioned symptoms.
Sanusi: Once Upon An Emir, By Wole Olaoye
We are all potential Ex-es: ex-student, ex-director, ex-lecturer, ex-senator, ex-governor, ex-president, ex-oba, ex-emir…. The inimitable Zik famously reminded us when he had a spat with Ukpabi Asika that Ex was an inevitable prefix for any human being as was evidenced by the fact that a certain young man who would someday become an ex-Administrator, was the son of an ex-postmaster!
So, what’s so apocalyptic about Sanusi Lamido Sanusi joining the ranks of ex-potentates? Nothing? Everything! Don’t ever think that bell you are hearing is tolling for the former Emir of Kano. No. It could be signalling the beginning of a comprehensive demystification of traditional rulership by plebeians holding tenured political power. In centuries past, no plebeian messed with the traditional institution. The halo of nobility, the sheer vastness of a prince’s hereditary powers, rights and privileges, made the subject know his place.
Yesterday’s subjects are today’s political sovereign. They make no pretences to sophistication. They load a gun to kill a spider. When you dethrone a monarch and then deprive him of his liberty, forcefully banishing him to a place without electricity and potable water, you are playing god. If it was all a public relations Olympics, the calm dignity with which Sanusi handled the humiliation made people all over the world admire his chutzpa and hand him the gold medal. A
Life and its many puzzles! Why is it that for some men and women, “their sleep is taken away unless they cause some to fall”? What do you do about an ego that knows no satiation? As the Preacher in the Good Book timelessly says, “All the rivers flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full… The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear content with hearing… there is nothing new under the sun”.
The Yoruba have a poem that says just that. “The horse struts and frets and then dies. Being a veteran walker is no immunity to getting lost. Nothing new under the sun. I’ve seen kings reduced to slaves; and servants who mounted the throne. Haven’t my eyes beheld both river and sea? Haven’t I seen a hunchback on spindly legs, and a midget climbing a ladder to add condiment to the soup pot? Tell me, has anyone ever started a building from the roof?
The new Emir of Kano, Alhaji Aminu Ado Bayero, is a cousin of his predecessor. As royal intrigues go, when the dust is settled the sword will be sheathed and brother will embrace brother. That is the way of princes. Eventually, outsiders will realise that all they can ever be in palace politics is outsiders. Our very own Nobel prize winning Kongi was not amused by the scandalous extra-judicial detention of the former emir.
He put the emir’s travail down to his progressive stance: “Emir Sanusi was a one-man EFCC sanitisation squad in the banking system, taking on the powerful corrupters of that institution…. “Most important of all, and most pertinently for the nation, Sanusi was one of the early warning voices against religious extremism whose bitter fruits the nation is currently reaping….
The doors of enlightened society remain wide open to Muhammad Sanusi. As for his current crowing Nemesis, a different kind of gates remain yawning to receive him when, as must, the days of governorship immunity finally come to an end.” Support for Sanusi is not limited to radical voices.
It is easy to kick a man given a pin-fall by fate, or piss on the grave of a fallen warrior. Dead men don’t bite. Real friends show up when you are in life’s valley. Say what you will, I would rather have a friend like Nasir el Rufai when the chips are down. In the midst of all the turmoil, conspiracy theories have surfaced to the effect that the dethronement is but a political sleight-of-hand to propel Sanusi to Nigeria’s presidency in 2023. Caution! Let’s separate the issues. Political succession is totally different from fundamental human rights. Sanusi is not my next president.
My views on power rotation are well documented. The ex-emir will go down in history as a champion for the rights of the poorest of the poor. He advocated for a new Northern Nigeria where old backward practices such as the almajiri system and irresponsible parenting will be abandoned. His was the voice crying out in the desert, lift my people up from the cesspit of penury. The attempt to demonise him after dethronement through various allegations, including one on religious fundamentalism, is dead on arrival. The same fate will befall the vilification of El Rufai on account of his loyalty to Sanusi. Please quote me: Modern challenges can never be resolved with a resort to medieval solutions.
Sanusi Dethronement: The North Only Beheads The Bearers Of Truth
By Fredrick Nwabufo
Northern Nigeria is prostrate. It is the axis of uglies – banditry, insurgency, kidnapping, diseases, ignorance, and drug abuse. Alas! The region’s elite are aware of the problems, but look away because the disequilibrious status quo sustains them. What is petrifying, however, is that they maul and clobber at anyone who spits the truth in their faces.
I think, this is the mortal sin of Muhammad Sanusi II, emir of Kano – beyond his politics with Abdullahi Ganduje, governor of Kano.
The World Bank says 87 percent of Nigeria’s poor are in the north. And that while poverty is plummeting in the south, it is rocketing in the upper region.
“Poverty in the northern regions of the country has been increasing especially in the north-west zone. Almost half of all poor lived in the north-west and the north accounts for 87 percent of all poor in the country in 2016,’’ the Bretton Woods institution said in its report entitled ‘Advancing social protection in a dynamic Nigeria’ in February 2020.
In August, 2019, the federal government revealed that 1,460 people were killed by bandits in seven months. And that the north-west is the worst-hit by this bloody enterprise. The killings have steadied, expanding in proportion and execution in the region.
In his accustomed manner, Sanusi recently vocalised these depressing figures of retrogression in the north – as regards the World Bank report — earning himself praise from progressive Nigerians and reprimand from the usual suspects — those stuck in the cesspit of bigotry.
Also, the gadfly emir of Kano, whom I regard as the John the Baptist of the north for his vociferous condemnation of this status quo, is alone in his advocacy against irresponsible polygamy, Al-majiri and child marriage – practices the northern elite espouse. He is the face of a progressive north; the northerner of the new age.
As a matter of fact, on different occasions he had complained about the northern elite whom he said wanted to silence him for speaking the truth about the region.
‘’Our colleagues and compatriots among the elite do not like statistics. Numbers are disturbing. I recently gave a speech in which I said the north-east and north-west of Nigeria are the poorest parts of the country. This simple statement of fact has generated so much heat; the noise has yet to die down. The response to this speech has been a barrage of personal attacks and insults aimed at silencing any voices that dare shine the light on the society to which we are saying Bring Back our Girls,’’ he said at a lecture held to commemorate the Chibok girls abduction.
And I guess they can only take the throne away from him but cannot take away his royalty in the community of decent humans. Really, I believe the emir would rather give up his throne than be gagged by the shareholders of iniquity.
To say the least, Sanusi’s dethroning was not unexpected. Ganduje had always shown his hand in this plot. Really, the emir of Kano never hid his dislike for him. But what is there to like about a governor who was allegedly caught on camera stuffing wads of dollars into his babariga? In the build-up to the 2019 governorship election in the state, the emir was not shy in expressing his disapproval to Ganduje’s candidature.
So, Ganduje, who considers Sanusi a ‘’loud mouth’’, plotted a bitter revenge after he was re-elected. He had moved to remove the emir in 2018 but for the intervention of some ‘’higher powers’’. However, he whittle-down the power of the emir by creating new emirates from his domain. He was not done though. He rustled-up allegations, set up probe panels – all in the desperation to embarrass Sanusi.
Really, one of the most abrasive places to exist is in the circle of non-progressives. You talk different, think different or act different, they will feel threatened. Even when you try to clown around; the aboriginal clowns will still feel threatened because you do not look the part.
I think, Emir Sanusi is light-years away from the people he is dealing with in Kano government. He is needed more at the top echelon of government where he can contribute more meaningfully to the development of Nigeria.
Northern Nigeria is not ready for an emir like Sanusi. He is ahead of his time.