APC’s FIVE THOUSAND NAIRA PROMISE FOR THE UNEMPLOYED AND VULNERABLE: LET’S NOT BEAT OURSELVES UP OVER AN IMPROBABLE PROMISE:
For me, I think the government was courageous in telling the truth, to Nigerians, on the impracticability of the proposition. Just like School feeding, just like State Creation and other bogus promises which only appeal to the undiscerning, there is no basis for those lavish schemes which are not sustainable and only speaks of spending without a carefully thought out spin-off and possible benefit for the economy. I am not saying that investment in human capacity development does not pay dividend. What I am saying is, there are more strategic schemes which can help the bottom of the pyramid, bridge inequality and create a sustainable basis for the development of the economy.
LET’S REVIEW A COUPLE OF THINGS THAT THE GOVERNMENT CAN DO AS REPLACEMENT FOR THE BOGUS FIVE THOUSAND NAIRA PROMISE
1. EDUCATION - Tied to poverty is illiteracy. How do we avail the right kind of education that can feed our development needs and de-emphasize education that prioritizes white-collar jobs over blue-collar? How do we create an education system that can accelerate development; and one that targets the bottom of the pyramid - giving them requisite vocational skills that can feed into a chain of small businesses and guarantee a supply of support skills that can help quicken our infrastructure and industrial development? That should be our priority. School feeding is of secondary importance here, and may be introduced if the economy is buoyant and is able to support the investment long-term, otherwise, why not seek other platforms in which the parents of school-children can be supported, while the right infrastructure and instructional environment is created?
2. ENERGY - Growth and Development are actually not synonyms. In Nigeria's case, growth averaged 6.2% for 10 years from 2004 – 2014, without commensurate development. How can a nation fast-track development with electricity supplies to the national grid averaging 2,500 Megawatts in a nation of 178 million people? It is often said that small businesses are the engine room of development in any economy, and China remains a classic example. There is correlation between access to energy and cost of doing business as well as the development of small businesses. Rather than invest 3 Trillion in hand-outs to constituents that are not properly delineated, given the absence of a credible National Identity Scheme, why not invest it as part of Development Financing for Energy and other Infrastructure? If this is done, not only will we be able to create over 200, 000 (two hundred thousand) direct jobs in the energy and infrastructure sector, we’ll also be able to liberate over 2,000,000 (two million) indirect jobs from Agribusiness, manufacturing and allied industries, as a result of acquired energy and infrastructure efficiencies. This does not include the tax income and foreign direct investments that will flow therefrom.
3. EMPOWERMENT - Agriculture contributes about 21% of Nigeria's GDP but it is largely done at subsistence level with no empowerment for rural and small-holder farmer, whose manual efforts are greeted with very low yield-per-hectare, hence the high-level of rural-urban drift; and tied to this is the high level of destitution and crime in our urban centres. So rather than worry about giving a five thousand naira monthly stipend to the vulnerable, the focus should be on how we can empower small-holder farmers, implement a value chain approach to the development of our Agriculture while moving the dynamics of the Agriculture sector from Farm-gate to factory-gate, leveraging access to credit, fertilizers, all year round irrigation, extension services and the building of Agro-Allied Industries in identified Agric-Belts. Furthermore, beyond Agriculture, there are over 12 Million registered SME’s in Nigeria, with less than half of these operational due to a lack of access to credit and other economic infrastructure such as electricity. So rather than invest 3 trillion naira on a preventive giving scheme, why not set-up a Development Finance framework to empower over a million MSME’s? If one million MSME’s are empowered and are able to create at least 2 new jobs each, that is another 2 million jobs added to the economy with productivity gains added, representing a boost to our Gross Domestic Products.
SO WHY INSIST ON THE 5 THOUSAND NAIRA STIPEND?
It’s a promise, if implemented, may derail this government from achieving anything worthwhile, rather than hyper-inflation, which may, in fact render the naira totally useless. We have seen the result of bogus schemes such as this. Remember the the Robert Mugabe's programme which returned land to poor uneducated black farmers who did not have the capacity to maximise the potentials of the land. This populist policy threw the Zimbabwean Economy into the deep recession, which the Country is battling till date. Let's not start a wild scheme in Nigeria. #LetsFaceFacts
