As Nigeria Grapples With Economic Recession…

Nigeria needs a new
economic activity of the time that would create a need for the country to be reinvented. There is currently problem of hunger and poverty in the country and if the government does not rise immediately to address the problem, we are going to have a proletarian revolution. The government must use all available economic and financial tools to counter the slumped national economy.
The recession as declared by the Federal Government is not going down well with Nigerians and has continued to draw reactions from several strata of the country.
The Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) in its reaction urged the Federal Government to create viable economic policy or motivate plan to stimulate growth.
The Chamber’s President, Mr. Tom Ejinkenonye in an interview with newsmen in Abuja, stressed the need for government to act urgently to create a valuable economic motivation plan to stimulate growth, saying that without a stimulus of adequate scale and proper management, the economic situation would be more precarious than its current state. According to Ejinkeonye, this is really not a good time for the country as economic recession has led to unemployment, lower wages and incomes as well as lost opportunities, and retrenchment of workers, and so on.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) had released a report on country’s Gross Domestic product (GDP) which stood at -2.06 percent in the second quarter of 2016. “The NBS report shows that the recent -2.6 percent (year-on-year) in real terms was lower by 1.70 percent points from the growth rate of 0.36 per cent recorded in the preceding quarters. And also lower by 4.41 percent points from the growth rate of 2.35 percent recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2015”.
In his reaction, former civilian governor of old Kaduna State, Alhaji Balarabe Musa, said Nigerians are going through the most difficult moment in the history of the country with many people dying of hunger. “As we are all witnessing in the country at the moment, people are finding it difficult to feed coupled with other attendant problems like human rights violations. Nigeria may be heading for a proletarian revolution”, Musa insisted that what is happening in the country at the moment is not different from those countries that experienced revolution. “My advise for this government is to rise up quickly and do something before the situation gets out of hand”.
“When you are asking people to be patient, it means you are doing something to address the problem, a mother can only tell the child that is hungry to exercise patience for so and so time because the food is already being cooked. The rate of hunger and poverty in the country is unparalled and the present government must not gloss over the problem”, Musa declared, saying that the problem has gone beyond the constitution of a strong economic team as suggested by some people.
“I don’t believe it is the problem of strong economic team. The problem has to do with the system that controls all developments in the country”, he said, stressing that as long as the value system revolves round personal rather than public interest, the development of the economy would be stagnated. “We are talking of the fall in the value of Naira because we are not producing anything but I can tell you that some people are benefiting from the present situation, which is to show you the level the country has degenerated and advised Mr. President to listen only to the counsel of those who have genuine concern for the development of the country.
“I have discovered that a lot of people in this country are more interested in their personal agenda than public interest”.
Spokesperson of Afenifere, a Yoruba socio-cultural organization, Yinka Odumakin, said many people are committing suicide because they cannot feed and take care of their families.
He said, “It is obvious that things are getting out of hand with rampant cases of suicide in the country. Many are getting to the last of their strength and when it continues like that, you don’t know what would happen”.
Odumakin urged the Federal Government to address the matter before it gets out of control, adding “it is high time the leadership of this country addresses the matter before it gets out of hand. As things stand now both the middle class and the poor people are finding it difficult”.
Also reacting to the recession, President of Pillar of Associations, the umbrella body of all registered trade unions/associations, Port Harcourt, Comrade Emeka Onyekwum said, “we must tell ourselves the truth. A lot of things have gone wrong. We need to start from the foundation.
According to Onyekwum, before the exploration of oil, Nigeria was doing well with its abundant mineral resources, cocoa, palm oil as well as iron ore, including other agricultural products, stressing the need for government to encourage the informal sector which include manufacturers and entrepreneurs whom he said are key to any nation’s economic growth. He noted that government has the obligation to ensure regular and steady power supply, provide soft loans for farmers and entrepreneurs and grant them tax waivers to increase productivity and generate employment for the youth”.
He opined that if jobs were available in the country, youths would have not involved in militancy, kidnapping and other criminal activities and urged the federal government to engage the Niger Delta Avengers and the Fulani herdsmen in dialogue and provision of cattle and cow ranches. The association boss further stressed the need to put more money in circulation with the bank of Industry (Boi) playing a major role in giving loans.
“When all the money is stocked in one place without circulating, people will run short of funds and poverty and hunger will be on the increase. TSA is not an issue”.
He urged President Muhammadu Buhari to constitute a team of economists that can formulate stronger and functional policy that can grow the economy while making sure he acts on genuine advice and suggestions. By so doing, Onyekwum said, Nigeria would make a headway.
“Those who give good advice and suggestions should not be withhunted. The economic problem of this country is not a party issue but a matter of good leadership. Nigeria is a great country that needs good leaders”, he said, pointing out that Nigerians have been patient and giving government time but may run out of patience if nothing is done to salvage the economy.
A former All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship aspirant in Benue State, Nath Apir said Nigerians are currently regretting voting President Muhammadu Buhari at the last general elections. Apir while reacting to the declaration by the National Bureau of Statistics that the nation’s economy has gone into recession, lamented that APC-led Federal Government has failed to do the needful to sustain the level of economic growth recorded by the Dr. Goodluck Jonathan-led administration. According to him, Nigeria’s economy was performing above average during the last administration, pointing out that it took president Buhari six months to appoint ministers in a country which was rated by the World Bank and the International Monetary fund (IMF) as Africa’s largest and number one economy.
Apir complained that Nigeria is in shambles, adding that the people can hardly feed and that the naira has crashed to over N400 to the dollar. He said that the present administration talks of recovering money from looters but Nigerians have not seen where the revered monies have gone to. “he has just aggravated our economic situation in the country. Six months, no minister and the country is drifting and has not recovered till today. Buhari has brought us to this level. Nigerians are regretting voting Buhari, that is the truth. All his policies had been anti-corruption. By the time he came in as military ruler in 1983, we resorted to the purchasing of essential commodities. We are back to that vicious circle. We are back to anti-corruption war without real economic policies”, Apir lamented. He said Buhari has no solution to the economic crisis, noting that the experience of finance minister is low, “the president cannot assembly a group of yes sir people and expect good results because there is no one to challenge him”.
In an open letter to Buhari, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) requested him to “use your good offices and leadership to urgently take concrete measures to address and mitigate the negative effects of the economic recession and crisis on the poorest and most marginalised across the country. The letter dated September 2, 2016, and signed by SERAP’s Senior Staff Counsel, Timothy Adewale expressed concern that the economic crisis is having disproportionate impacts on the rights of the poorest and most vulnerable because they already suffer from years of corruption, underdevelopment and abuse of power”, and urged Mr. President to urgently provide the socially and economically vulnerable with social protection programmes and safety nets, protect them from severe poverty and deprivation.
An economist, Dr. Aminu Usman and lecturer, Department of Economics, Kaduna State university, advised the Federal Government to come up with ingenious policies to help the country out of the conomic recession, saying government should come up with political policies that would help the ordinary people and to jump-start the economy. Inflation and unemployment rates are running wild at 17.1 percent and 13.3 percent respectively.
The President, Aka Ikenga, Chief Goddy Uwazuruike, stated that though there is growing cases of hunger and poverty, there are no indices to suggest that the problem would end very soon. Fielding a question on whether the present situation may snow-ball into revolution, Uwazuruike said, “In the world today, it is difficult for anybody to predict what would happen the next moment. There is hunger and poverty in the country, whether it would lead to revolution is what I cannot predict”.
However, Lagos State chapter of All Progressives congress (APC) dismissed the possibility of social unrest as a result of the present economic situation. According to the Assistant Publicity Secretary of the party in Lagos, the thought of a social unrest does not make any sense, assuring with confidence that the present economic downturn that has brought hardship on the people would be over and advised the people to continue to show support to the government.
Meanwhile, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has advised the Federal Government to rely on indigenous economists to generate the necessary ideas and policies that will bring out the country from the present economic recession. The congress through its National President, Ayuba Wabba said the present situation requires our experts to fashion out how best the economy can be revamped.
NBA former President, Olisa Agbakoba in his view said that Nigeria can get out of the recession if better economic policy is put in place. “Only a massive bounce of the economy can bring Nigeria out of the recession. Give loans to manufacturers and not the big cabals. Government should change its monetary policies. TSA issue is minor, the finance sector is the problem of our economy because money is stocked in the banks not allowing increased spending.
President Buhari, however, reassured Nigerians that the recession will be over soon and promised to make Nigeria great again. A programme “change begins with me’ has been launched.

Shedie Okpara