Chief Femi Aborisade, in this conversation with KUNLE ODEREMI, says Nigeria has the resources necessary to guarantee access by Nigerians to the basic things of life if properly harnessed and deployed:
NIGERIANS are hoping for better days in the new year, given the difficulties they passed through in 2024. What should be utmost priorities of the ruling elites if such public optimism does end up as a mirage?
My immediate answer to the question is for the elites ‘ to make Nigeria Better’. The next thing is: how can they make Nigeria better? I believe there should be a change of policy in governance and particularly in the five areas that I listed below. One is poverty alleviation; immediate reduction on price of fuel; increase in export and reduction of unnecessary import; Central Bank to take back power on foreign exchange and electricity stability.
To alleviate poverty in Nigeria is not a rocket science, and one does not need to be a genius to deliver this. Poverty has greatly reduced quality of life, and our people are barely surviving. They live on hope. They don’t know what they will eat in the morning, not to talk of the afternoon. The increase in minimum wage by the authorities at all levels is a decoy just like giving someone something with a right hand and taking it back with a left hand. About 75 percent of Nigerians are living below the poverty level. There is a need for rapid economic growth. We must first answer the question? Why are we in poverty, and why are things expensive that are beyond the reach of the masses. What are the prices of food before May 2023, and what are the prices today? Why are there unprecedented increments on everything?
What are the specifics you think should be addressed?
It boils down to misguided policies of the federal government. The production of foodstuffs is not on the decline, but transportation of it from one place to another is a major contributing factor. To move foodstuffs from one place to another costs huge money, and the traders would have to add it on top of what they bought and pass it to the consumers. Therefore, the prices are driven crazy and beyond the reach of the masses. The price of a chicken in 2024 was more than doubled the price before May 2023. The chicken feeds are at the highest level, and that accounts for the price of chicken. The provision of palliative is not the solution. It is only turning Nigerians into beggars. Our people are now swallowing their pride, and so begging is no longer seen as shameful. It is very humiliating when you see thousands of people struggling to get palliative, only meant for 50 or 60 people. Imagine how many children lost their lives in Ibadan just because of a promise of N5,000! Children that are more valuable to our people were being thrown over the fence for a paltry sum of five thousand Naira only.
To therefore bring our people from poverty, the Federal Government under President Tinubu must do what I consider further reduction in the pum,p price of petrol.
But oil markets have been adjusting price?
A comprehensive review of the price of fuel is imperative. As of today, the cost of buying 1 litre of petrol is about N1000 on the average. This was the same litre that only cost N195 before May 2023. The astronomical fuel increase was one of the major factors that are responsible for the poverty in the land. The government did not time the ‘removal of subsidy’ well. No measure was put in place before the announcement of the removal. It then triggered a chain of reaction in the market that the president did not envisage. Whatever the reason behind the removal, it was ill timed. It is a fire brigade approach, but on this occasion, it did not only fail to quench the fire but also added to it, and so the fire is burning out of control. There is a need for a change, ‘ Operation Feed the Nation must be re-introduced.
How should we address food insecurity as the government says there’s no need to introduce commodity price control mechanism?
Nigeria is not a productive country; we are consumers of foreign products. We spend too much money buying foreign products, which in turn, is massively draining our foreign exchange. We overrely on crude oil where we derived over 90 percent of our foreign exchange. Is it not time for us to look back and remind ourselves how they did it in the Western Region of old under Chief Obafemi Awolowo. The Western Nigeria region was the richest of the three regions in the First Republic because of cocoa export and great management skills. Under Chief Awolowo as the Premier of the Western Region, agriculture was highly promoted and developed, and farmers were encouraged in many ways. They pronounced the farmers as kings and treated them so. The government was buying directly from the farmers. The Cocoa Commodity Board that was established in 1947 was upgraded to cater for the needs of farmers. They introduced free education and free healthcare for all the children in the Western region. They established the first television service in Africa in 1959. There was no oil to depend on and yet, they performed excellently. The present government must therefore make as priority ‘ mechanised farming’ to boost production and to encourage younger people into farming. We can no longer rely on the old people who are still using old tools to cultivate. We must provide a well-structured system to provide our youth with knowledge and information on agriculture. When I was young and in primary school, part of our morning devotion songs was that ‘education without tools of farming is incomplete’. They drove that into our mind at a very early age. I believe in that and I have a farm too even when I was young and till today. Youth must be engaged in farming with real support from government though not by way of giving them money as loans which they may divert to other things but by way of agricultural equipment loans, the tools that they really need. The government must explore these areas very well. The government must quickly intervene without any further delay to save our land, the developers are buying all the lands to sell to people for the purpose of building houses, all the arable land for agriculture may not be available very soon if adequate care is not taken. From Ibadan to Lagos now, hardly can one see any forests, they have been purchased by the developers. The government must step in by buying all these lands for the purpose of agriculture. This situation must be arrested very quickly. Otherwise, there will be a shortage of food very soon.
There are nagging questions about the foreign exchange as the local currency is still a far outcry in value to the United States dollars and others.
Power should return into the hands of the Central Bank to determine the foreign exchange. The free market where the forces of the market determine the foreign exchange rates should not continue. The level of corruption in this country cannot allow it. Nigeria is not yet ripe for it, it can only work where there is stability in the economy and where corruption level is very low, our economy now is not yet stable, in fact it is volatile and there are no strong institution to build on. So, leaving the market forces to determine the foreign exchange is making it worse. Before May 2023, 1 dollar is around 550 Naira and we were complaining that it was too high. Today, the same one dollar is 1750 naira. That means the policy is not working, and it should be reversed until such time when we have a stable economy. The Federal government under President Bola Tinubu should have stabilised the economy which was moribund under Buhari led government before announcing his policies on the fuel subsidy and foreign exchange.
A major catalyst for an economy in real production is efficiency in the power supply sector. What needs to be done to raise the current performance index in the sector?
Electricity stability is critical Yes, in all modern worlds, the roles of electricity in economic development cannot be underestimated. Nigeria is still lagging behind. The current Minister of Power started on the high note, but he himself admitted the failure to improve electricity recently. They have failed to meet the target, and one cannot see how economy will improve without adequate supply of electricity. This is another area where the government should concentrate her efforts in 2025. There must be an increment in the megawatts. All industries depend on electricity and the costs of using a heavy power generator for production make the products expensive. Whereas if there is adequate supply of electricity, the unnecessary spending on Diesel will be cut out. I complained bitterly to a colleague about the way banks are robbing us in Nigeria compare to the UK, but he drew my attention to one factor. He told me that they rely on generator in the bank to power all their activities, computer, air conditions, etc. They are spending too much money on diesel and they have to pass it to customers. The electricity coverage in the UK is 100 percent with an uninterrupted power supply, whereas electricity coverage in Nigeria is about 60 percent with no adequate or almost zero supply in some areas.. We have 23 grid-connected generating plants that are active in the Nigerian supply industry with a total supply of 11, 165 Mega Watts, but only 7,139.6 MW are available for the use of about 200 million people. It is unsustainable. The government must do all within her power to increase the megawatts in 2025
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