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Nairaland Forum / Nairaland / General / Politics / Fashola, Buhari And An Administration Bereft Of Ideas. By Reno Omokri (487 Views)
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Fashola, Buhari And An Administration Bereft Of Ideas. By Reno Omokri by Ofido(m): 4:26am On Nov 15, 2016 |
Just two days ago on the 11th of November,
2016, Raji Fashola, Nigeria’s super minister
of power, works and housing, who is more
famous for spending ₦78 million on his
website in 2014 (an amount then worth
$500,000) said that the 7% GDP growth
Nigeria enjoyed under the Jonathan
administration was solely the result of high
oil prices rather than any policy of that
administration.
Said Fashola, “I say this in the context of
those who are tempted to lay some claim to
any form of credit about why our economy
was growing at seven percent for almost a
decade, and I say very very clearly, without
mincing words, that I don’t think that
anybody can fairly lay claim to any economic
policy that drove that growth.
“It was growth that was driven by high oil
prices. If we agree that infrastructure is the
driver of growth, when you get high oil prices,
what do you do with it? So, where are those
towers, where are those bridges, where are
those highways?
The only part of the above statement that is
true is the part where Mr. Fashola says “I
don’t think”. Yes sir, you do not think.
Because if you did you would know that the
oil and gas industry, by the admission of
even Mr. Fashola’s boss, President Buhari, is
only 15% of Nigeria’s GDP. This fact which is
well known to Mr. Fashola is also
corroborated by the World Bank and the
International Monetary Fund.
So yes, high oil prices would have a positive
impact on the Nigerian economy but it cannot
be the sole reason why we enjoyed 7% GDP
growth under President Jonathan.
After all during former President Olusegun
Obasanjo’s eight years in office oil price was
very low and were below $20 for a while yet
that Peoples Democratic Party government
did not deliver excuses, instead, they delivered
consistent annual 5% GDP growth.
Going by Mr. Fashola’s logic, the present
administration which is enjoying an oil price
that is presently $45 per barrel ought to at
least match President Obasanjo’s record. But
here we are, at a recession.
You, see, the truth is that no matter how high
oil prices are, if you do not have sound
economic policies, you cannot have economic
progression.
So what are the economic policies of the
Jonathan era that drove Nigeria’s massive 7%
GDP growth year in year out while Jonathan
was on the saddle?
What is beneath the ground cannot make a
nation great. The only way a nation can be
great is by what is between the ears of her
people. Educating the citizenry is the fastest
way to achieve economic growth because
education makes you GROW through life
while illiteracy makes you GO through life.
President Jonathan began the practice of
giving education the highest sectoral
allocation in the budget.
In the 2011 budget, N306.3 billion was
allocated to education, in 2012 N400.15
billion, in 2013 N426.53 billion, in 2014,
N493.2 billion and in 2015 N492. 34 billion
was allocated for education.
Never in the history of Nigeria has any
government consistently shown such
commitment to education.
Such was President Jonathan’s commitment
to education that even though primary and
secondary education is the preserve of the
states, the federal government intervened to
reduce the 10 million children out of school in
Northern Nigeria by building 165 brand new
almajiri schools.
By building 12 new federal universities and
165 almajiri schools and renovating 507
additional secondary schools all over Nigeria
through the Universal Basic Education
Commission, the Jonathan administration not
only increased access to education, the policy
also had the intended side effect of putting
hundreds of thousands of youths to work
which stimulated the economy and
contributed to GDP growth.
Another policy of the Jonathan administration
that added to GDP growth was his deliberate
effort to expand access to opportunity
through the YouWIN program. The Youth
Enterprise with Innovation in Nigeria
(YOUWIN) scheme was a business plan
competition that provided training and
funding of between $6000-$80,000 to youths
to start or grow existing small, medium and
even large scale businesses with the proviso
that beneficiaries were to compulsorily
employ other youths.
Mr. Fashola may also want to have a chat
with the GIS Project Director in the Ministry of
Finance, Mr. Dennis Chukwu, who revealed in
Lokoja, Kogi State, on the 5th of September,
2016 during the Career Development and
Entrepreneurship Skills Training for
beneficiaries of the Graduate Internship
Scheme that the GIS scheme had benefited a
total of 41,000 Nigerian graduates during the
Jonathan administration by giving them the
opportunity to earn experience and money
that put them in good stead to either start
their own businesses or get employed at a
level that they would not have been qualified
for had they not had the opportunity provided
by the GIS.
In 2010 President Jonathan Promised to
Revive Nigeria’s Railways. By 2012 The
Nigerian Railways Corporation began
operating a Lagos to Kano service at the cost
of just ₦1500. In 2013 rail lines were revived
from Lagos Port Direct to Kaduna. By 2014,
the Enugu-Port Harcourt lines were revived
along with several others including the
Makurdi-Port Harcourt rail.
By 2015, the Abuja-Kaduna rail which was
recently commissioned by President Buhari
was completed BY THE JONATHAN
ADMINISTRATION!
Not only did work on these projects provide
jobs to tens of thousands of Nigerians, by the
time they were finished these rail lines eased
transportation of goods and services all over
Nigeria.
Mr. Fashola, this was a policy that added to
our GDP growth.
On April 23, 2010, President Jonathan signed
the Local Content Law, that he had promoted,
into law. This law had the effect of forcing
the oil majors in Nigeria to employ only
Nigerians for certain specified jobs in the oil
industry and to use only Nigerian contractors
for certain contracts.
Because of this law, Shell Petroleum
Development Company awarded its first ever
deep pressure pipeline contract to an
indigenous Nigerian company, SCC Nigeria
limited to the tune of $50 million in 2011.
Total also awarded a multi-million
dollarcontract to Nigerdock, an indigenous
firm, to fabricate platforms and top sides for
its off shore operations.
When Nigerdock delivered on the project in
June this year, the Executive Secretary of the
Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring
Board (NCDMB), Mr. Patrick Daziba Obah said
“I am proud to say that this laudable
achievement is a direct result of the
enactment and implementation of the
Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content
Development Act of 2010 and the
overwhelming support that the Government
has given and has continued to give to the
development of Local Content in the Oil and
Gas industry”.
This is another policy that led to the steady
GDP growth of the Jonathan era.
In agriculture, the Jonathan administration
has a policy known as the e-wallet policy fir
fertilizer distribution which cut out the middle
man and sent texts to farmers on where to
pick up fertilizer after payment was deducted
from their e-wallet. The administration also
banned the importation of rice an act that
attracted Olam Farms to come to Nigeria to
build the largest rice mill in Nigeria in
Nasarawa state. Olam farms invested $130
million in the Nigerian rice industry.
Because of these policies, Nigeria’s food
import bill reduced from ₦1.1 trillion in 2011
to ₦648 billion by 2012 (the figure has now
skyrocketed back to pre-Jonathan levels
because the Buhari administration reversed
Jonathan’s ban on rice importation for
reasons best known to it).
Another policy which drove GDP growth under
Jonathan was the policy of 70% Tariff on
imported cars to dissuade Nigerians from
continuing to spend $3.4 billion annually on
importing foreign cars.
This policy forced Nissan, Kia and Hyundai to
establish assembly plants in Nigeria for the
manufacturing of partially made in Nigeria
vehicles. President Jonathan ordered federal
government ministries, departments and
parastatals to patronize these vehicles along
with cars made by Innoson motors.
This policy had the effect of attracting over
$150 million foreign direct investment into the
Nigerian automotive industry and prevented
hundreds of millions of dollars from leaving
Nigeria to purchase imported cars.
Time would not permit me to talk of the
Nagropreneur program or the fact that under
Jonathan not only did CNN Money project
Nigeria as the world’s third fastest growing
economy but that the United Nations
Conference on Trade and Development
named Nigeria the number 1 destination for
foreign direct investment in Africa.
I also would not have the time to write about
how the Jonathan administration added 1.3
million jobs in 2013 alone (per the National
Bureau of Statistics, the same agency that
revealed that Nigeria lost 4.58 million jobs in
the first year of the Buhari administration).
So, in conclusion, no Mr. Fashola, high oil
prices may have contributed to GDP growth
during the previous administration but it was
ideas that drove growth under Jonathan and
it is lack of ideas not low oil prices that is
stifling growth under President Buhari.
This is more so when you consider that US
President elect, Donald Trump, has not even
been sworn in, yet today, he named some
members of his cabinet. That is real change,
not the reverse change promised by someone
who waited for six months after historical swearing
in before naming his cabinet consisting of an
Agriculture minister who studied French and
other misfits! That is what is to blame for
your recession Mr. Fashola. That and not low
oil prices.
Reno Omokri is the founder of the Mind of
Christ Christian Center in California, |
Re: Fashola, Buhari And An Administration Bereft Of Ideas. By Reno Omokri by Ofido(m): 4:26am On Nov 15, 2016 |
Re: Fashola, Buhari And An Administration Bereft Of Ideas. By Reno Omokri by NaijaFutbol: 5:46am On Nov 15, 2016 |
On point |
Re: Fashola, Buhari And An Administration Bereft Of Ideas. By Reno Omokri by blackpanda: 6:12am On Nov 15, 2016 |
OP try to employ the use of paragraphs so that your write up can actually be legible. I can bet you that that one that is screaming "on point!" up there did not even read past the second line. |
Re: Fashola, Buhari And An Administration Bereft Of Ideas. By Reno Omokri by dunkem21(m): 6:20am On Nov 15, 2016 |
Patriotic, come and comment |
Re: Fashola, Buhari And An Administration Bereft Of Ideas. By Reno Omokri by mrvitalis(m): 7:47am On Nov 15, 2016 |
This man keep showing us why Jonathan failed, U just showed u lack basic economics knowledge...and he is trying to form smart GDP was growing during Jonathan time but what was the real sector growth?? Using obasanjo governments just proves his dummer than i thought, what was our wage bill then? ? ... What was our dollar demand? ? No he will never put this factors into consideration because it will expose him And please someone should tell this guy that recurrent expenditure is not really allocation really.. What's important us capital expenditure... This guy is dumb |
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