Olisa Metuh and the Peoples Democratic Party are not doing much honour to the institution of opposition in a democracy. Of course, the fears of an opposition that may lack focus and grit were well speculated in the aftermath of the jettisoning of the PDP by the Nigerian electorates at the May 29th Presidential election in preference for Muhammadu Buhari, candidate of the All Progressives Congress. As things unfold, it would seem that concern has crystallised into a demeaning reality for the erstwhile ruling party and its spokesperson.
Perhaps, Metuh, in a desperate bid to array the PDP as a resourceful opposition party, decidedly adopted the vuvuzela approach to providing opposition. An unfortunate choice as it were, Metuh’s right to ventilate his opinions and perspectives can’t possibly be questioned. The immorality of a rejected, once upon a time ruling party, cautioning and counselling its successor governing party, is even for the purpose of argument conceded to Metuh and his party here, but what shouldn’t be acceded in this regard is Metuh’s penchant for deliberate misinformation, orchestration of brazen lies and a criminal insistence on assaulting the Nigerian national psyche with his consistent reminders of the grand ineptitude of the rejected administration of the immediate past presidency of the PDP led government of Dr Goodluck Jonathan.
Metuh’s latest upbraid of the government of President Muhammadu Buhari leaves much bile in its trails. Essentially, this is not much for the delinquent ground on which Metuh stands but for railing at PMB’s administration through his orchestration of a fraudulent scenario swap.
The shamelessness of this, in the first instance, questions the intent of Metuh’s vitriolic against Buhari. In his latest condemnation of the governing Party, the PDP spokesperson declares that the Buhari’s administration lacks clear-cut fiscal policy direction.
In a well circulated statement, Metuh raised issues relating to the ‘economy rapidly falling over the last four months due to the absence of clear-cut fiscal policy direction’ and an economic team to deal with the domestic and global challenges associated with a developing economy.’
After much rigmarole in a laborious attempt to justify the inappropriate intents of the statement, Metuh vaingloriously made to exhibit what he described as the ‘Policy frameworks and populist economic projects laid by the PDP administration’.
At the mention of the so called policy framework, one would have expected a detailed and robust outline of the successes of the fiscal policies of the erstwhile Jonathan’s government by Metuh but alas, the statement highlighted agricultural and associated projects.
One can easily dismiss that deceptive reference to the last government’s achievements in the agriculture sector as mere exhibitionism. But we leave the matter for another day so just we can properly attend to the validity or otherwise of the lack of fiscal policies by the Buhari’s government.
The shame of it is the inconsequential buffeting of the Buhari’s administration for a lack of economic direction because an economic team was yet to be constituted. One wonders if Metuh understands the basic definition of ‘fiscal policy’. Not with the so many economy affecting fiscal policies the Buhari’s administration has continued to roll out in the onerous effort to redeem a legacy battered economy inherited from the Jonathan’s government in tow with its World Bank driven Economic Team.
Buhari’s administration was not four weeks old when it published a list of 41 items banned from accessing the Nigerian official foreign exchange window. Now, what do you call that? It’s obvious Metuh did not see this as a profound, strategic fiscal initiative to abate the possible erosion of the value of the national currency, the Naira, one of the economic malaise inherited from the Jonathan’s government that administered the country when for over a period of 21 months, crude oil price oscillated between a $100 low and $147 high plus building the nation’s foreign debt stocks from under $2 billion at the end of the late President Umaru Yar’Adua’s administration to more than $8 billion on the exit of Jonathan from government.
Before leaving office, Jonathan approved the devaluation of the Naira twice between November, 2014 and February, 2015, falling rapidly from N160 to N200 to a dollar. The foreign reserve that should have served as buffer in stabilising the Naira was so pilloried within this same period that it spiralled down from a high of $49 billion to a low of $27 billion when Nigerians voted Jonathan out of power.
All these in the face of an economic team! Interestingly, that $27 billion Foreign Reserve suddenly shot up to $31billion in the first two weeks of Buhari’s government.
Today, the just about four months old Buhari administration has stabilised the Naira at N197 to a dollar despite the price range of crude oil swinging between lows of $43 low to $60. The President has gone on to assure his confidence in the economy and the national currency by insisting that he has a zero tolerance for any suggestion of devaluation. On the fiscal policy leg of this position, what Buhari is saying essentially is that devaluation is a major fuel to inflation and he won’t approve of it despite subtle blackmail by elements and institutions sauced in capitalist economic orientation.
And what can be a more insightful fiscal policy than the recently implemented Treasury Single Account? Beyond the deployment of the TSA as an effective tool to block leakages and limit corruption, it is, indeed, a final solution to the liquidity headache that the Central Bank of Nigeria has had to contend with eternally and the dilemma of the Federal Government having to pay interest on its own fund. This is explained briefly:
It has been established that Nigeria’s Money Deposit Banks prefer to invest in Federal Government Bonds and Treasury Bills as a way of finding safety for monies in their vaults rather than lend to the active sector. Of course, at maturity, interest is paid on the instruments; however, what has been observed is that the bulk of money used in investing in the bonds and treasury bills is Federal Government funds in the more than 20,000 accounts domiciled in different Nigerian banks.
And the innovative solution to the national embarrassment of States owing their workers several months’ salaries. How do we describe that? Fiscal or what? Recall that in the last months of Jonathan’s presidency, his government, through its Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Finance Minister, who was also the head of the Federal Government Economic Team, publicly revealed that the Government had to borrow some N500 billion from commercial banks to pay Federal Government staff their salaries.
Things have changed since May 29, the Federal Government under Buhari has refused to resort to borrowing from commercial banks to pay workers salaries, yet workers have not been owed one day more of their work time. And the more exciting update to this is that Buhari has ordered that all outstanding claims of Federal Government workers should be properly profiled and paid within a seven-day period. Now, the Federal and State Governments have been saved from the odious embarrassment of debtor-boss States, all thanks to Buhari’s fiscal policies.
Is it not also instructive that at a time when the Federal Government could have easily excused the refund of monies spent by some federating States on road infrastructures as was the norm during Jonathan’s presidency that the Federal Government through the National Executive Council approved the refund of N535.5 billion to the affected States. Someone should tell Metuh that this is a fiscal policy aimed at re-flating the economy.
I guess Metuh should be brought up to speed with Nigeria’s economic direction under Buhari since it is apparent he has not been following work in progress in this new Nigeria. In alignment with the promise to socially intervene in the economic situation of 25 million very poor Nigerians, the Federal Government has publicly asserted that it would, indeed, pay those in that class N5000 every month. This is known in economic term as a tendency for economic social orientation, some will clearly call it a social welfare state.
The same Federal Government has also affirmed its election promise that it would provide a meal a day for Nigerian pupils in primary schools; this has exciting multiple prospects for the economy at large. This summarises Nigeria’s economic direction.
And by the way, the stock market is in consistent rebound, Metuh had made a refrain of the stock market recording a bearish run because of a lack of fiscal policies, the PDP spokesperson forgets that under Jonathan, the stock market fell by more than 800 per cent on the aggregate.
Nigeria’s economy is no longer about those esoteric terms that bear no relevance to the practical productive existence of Nigerians. Nigeria has taken off on a welfare socialist course, a course that makes the mass of Nigerian people the centre of government policies and activities. The course that had eluded Nigeria as a corporate entity since independence now realised under the Buhari presidency. The way to go! The shame on Metuh!
Niyi Akinsiju, a public affairs analyst, writes from Lagos.
Trending
- Importance of legislature to a democracy, by Salihu Moh. Lukman
- New Rotary District Governor places priority on girl-child education, youths
- Erotic Monday Night: Sex therapy for my therapist, by Tiwa Says
- Anthony Joshua quits mum’s modest £175k flat
- Man United offer Rasmus Hojlund in swap deal for Osimhen
- Bolton land Nigerian starlet
- Lionel Messi anchors 2024 MLS All-Star team
- Nigerian trailblazer Pearl Ijeoma Okoro elected to Rotary Foundation Board of Trustees