By Gidado Ibrahim
Top on the priority areas President Bola Ahmed Tinubu promised Nigerians during his electioneering campaign was to tackle the prevailing economic conundrum head-on. This is aptly captured in his manifesto christened “Agenda for a Renewed Hope for Nigerians”.
Before he was sworn in on May 29, Tinubu knew the exact weight of expectations hanging on his mandate. Hence, he knew he had no luxury of time. Besides, the urgency or speed of one traveling from Maiduguri to Lagos and person travelling from Kaduna to Lokoja cannot be the same. Given the huge economic contradictions he inherited, Tinubu is not unmindful that some painful but landmark economic decisions need to be taken if he must be able to recalibrate the ship of the Nigerian State aright.
One significant character of the Tinubu-led government is the right diagnosis and prescription to different economic ailments plaguing Nigeria. In medicine, right diagnosis is the best step to successful treatment. As a man stepped in interplay of economic factors, the president is very aware that without enabling laws, nothing will work.
More so, in line with his policy of creating a conducive environment for businesses to thrive, President Tinubu, last week, signed four Executive Orders deferring and suspending the commencement of certain taxes paid by individuals and companies in the country. The aim is to reduce the tax burden on Nigerians and their businesses. It is also meant to address concerns raised by manufacturers and other stakeholders regarding recent tax changes.
The Executive Orders include the one that suspends the 2023 Finance Act deferring the date of its commencement from May 28, 2023 to September 1, 2023. The other orders include the Customs Excise Tariffs Amendment Order 2023, as well as the imposition of 5% Excise Tax on Telecommunication Services, among others.
In elementary economics, we are told that economy is the superstructure that all substructures depend on. If economy of a nation is in a shambles, it means the nation is in distress. Needless to reiterate that Nigeria is the most populous country and arguably the largest economy on the African continent; it is widely regarded as an African powerhouse. With abundant natural resources and a young, dynamic population, the country has long played an important role on the continent and it has the potential to be a wider global player in the coming decades.
In fact, 1962 international studies predicted Nigeria, India and Brazil to join the developed world in 15 years. Alas, almost 61 years after this optimistic economic outlook, Nigeria’s economic potential has remained constrained by many structural issues, including inadequate infrastructure, tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade, obstacles to investment, lack of confidence in currency valuation, and limited foreign exchange capacity.
Realistically, given the magnitude of economic rot President Tinubu inherited, five weeks is too short a time to bring the administration under analytical x-ray. But it is enough time to judge the president on whether he possesses the courage, conviction, clear vision, empathy and pedigree to lead Nigeria out of the woods. Analysts and the vast majority of Nigerians are beginning to thump up for the five-week-old government. What most Nigerians are praying to God for is for the president to sustain this focus and momentum.
That is why Nigerians are saying that endless election related litigations are needless distractions. Elections have come and gone. What we should be discussing now is the all-important issue of good governance and how to bring succour to hungry and traumatised Nigerians. Instead of litigations, those who were not lucky this time should join hands with President Tinubu to pull Nigeria out of its current economic quagmire. The president is just one person but like the time-tested saying goes, “two heads are better than one.”
The five weeks old administration has been characterised by pragmatic steps and ideas, landmark decisions and breathtaking actions and at an unimaginable speed. By Tinubu’s serial economic decisions, Nigeria is once again warming its way back to prominence in the international community. In a felicitation visit to President Tinubu, three weeks after he was sworn in, precisely, on 21 June, the British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Richard Montgomery, said and I quote: “As I discussed with His Excellency, the big economic decisions being taken by this government are really important and are being noticed around the world: the removal of subsidy; the exchange rate reform, all of that create a much better investment environment.”
In the same vein, on June 16, exactly 17-days after Tinubu took office, one of the world’s leading news agencies, Reuters ran a story. Permit me to take an excerpt: “Nigeria’s new president, in office for less than a month, is pushing to put Africa’s largest economy on a reform track that investors have eyed for decades, fuelling excitement that money could flow to a nation that many deemed investment unfriendly.
“President Tinubu’s bold actions, including removing restrictions on the naira currency that allowed it to hit a record 790 to the dollar and subsidy removals that tripled petrol prices, could take stress off the battered finances of Africa’s largest economy. If this stays, then it would mean that (Tinubu) had been able to remove the two subsidies that have crippled Nigeria fiscally and monetarily for the last decade.
Because of the quickness and alacrity with which President Tinubu approaches decision-making, he has been given a nickname, President “Baba Go-fast”. Even the international media have re-enforced the nickname, “Baba Go-fast). Why is this so? He has shamed the cynics and pestle-wielding critics with his performance.
Tinubu also signed a series of laws aimed at empowering Nigerians. For instance, with the new electricity law, states, companies and individuals can now generate, transmit and distribute electricity, meaning this important power has been devolved down the ladder. Under the student loans law, indigent students will no longer drop out of universities on account of their inability to pay school fees. They will now be offered loans to pay their fees and repay the government later.
President Tinubu has done well to project Nigeria on the global stage. On his first official trip outside the country after assuming office, he attended the New Global Financing Pact Summit in Paris, France, where he announced to the whole world that Nigeria is back and ready for business. His administration will ease the structures and processes of doing business and ensure investors can repatriate their profits home anytime they want to.
On the sidelines of the summit, he met with Afreximbank president, B. O. Oramah, and AfDB president, Akinwunmi Adesina, among others, during which he extracted commitments from them about using facilities in their institutions to aid Nigeria’s economic recovery.
The step by the president to work in synergy with state governors is in the right direction. He inaugurated the national economic council headed by Vice President Kashim Shettima. As a sign of confidence in the rebounding of Nigeria, humanists and philanthropists like Bill Gates were in town. He came along with Alhaji Aliko Dangote to discuss issues around polio and malaria eradication, among others.
But in all this, President Tinubu must bear in mind that all his efforts would amount to nothing if he fails to confront corruption squarely and nip it in the bud. He must not forget to prosecute saboteurs of the nation’s economy parading as political big wigs and cabal who are waiting in the wings to shortchange the poor masses, as Nigerians await the perfect solution and palliatives to cushion the effects of the harsh but beneficial economic policies.
While I congratulate President Tinubu as he gets set to be crowned the new ECOWAS chairman, I want to assure the West Africa subregion and Africa at large that the Nigerian leader will turn around the fortunes of the continent for good.
– Ibrahim is director, Communication and Strategic Planning of the Presidential Support Committee (PSC).