What will be Buhari’s legacy? (1)

“But far more numerous was(is) the herd of such,
who think too little and who talk too much.” John
Dryden, 1631-1700. (VANGUARD BOOK OF
QUOTATIONS, VBQ, p 245).

“Fed Govt to cut 2016 Budget; increase Debt
ration”—Minister of Finance. Emeka Anaeto,
Economy Editor, VANGUARD, June 10, 2016.
In the report, Nigerians learnt that about
N900bn will be reduced from the capital budget
for 2016. There was no mention of how much
reduction will be made in the recurrent
expenditure. A few days earlier, the Vice-
President, flanked by Governors Ajimobi of Oyo,
Aregbesola of Osun, and El-Rufai of Kaduna
States had launched the School Meal Project
from which 5.5 million primary school kids are
to benefit in the first phase. It was among a lot
of ill-conceived and badly conceptualized
promises made by the President as the
candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC,
in the last election. It was not the only one.
On the same June 9, 2016 when the Minister for
Finance, bowing to the dictates of economic
reality, was announcing the fifteen(15%)
reduction, the VP was again launching another
project – the recruitment of 500,000 teachers by
the Federal government. In a statement
released by Mr Laolu Akande, Senior Special
Assistant to the VP, “besides their monthly take
home pay estimated at about N23,000 per
month, the selected 500,000 graduates will also
get computer devices…”.
Given the situation in the oil producing areas of
the country, as well as the shortfall in taxes
collected for 2016 so far, it is likely that the
N900bn reduction in capital appropriation will
not be the last cut this year.

Furthermore, the
revenue from crude oil exports for the next two
months, July and August, are already well-known
to government, as well as those who make it
their business. With exports less than 1.2 million
per day, even at US$50 per barrel, another
drastic revenue decline is easily predictable. If
ever there is a government which had been
following the Biblical injunction of the right hand
not knowing what the left hand is doing, this is it.
The VP and the Finance Minister apparently work
for different governments.

The issue of 500.000 proposed teachers will be
the major focus of attention in this series
because it demonstrates the risks President
Buhari is running with the people who surround
him and, who having encouraged him to make
ill-considered campaign promises, are now
desperate to go ahead in the attempt to fulfill
promises which should never have been made in
the first place. Meal project first.
Launched on Thursday, with only three APC
Governors present, the project, as conceived,
was supposed to be financed sixty per cent by
the Abuja with forty per cent counterpart
funding by the states – including PDP states
whose party never made the promise. To begin
with, it is certain that nobody in the APC political
organization or government can produce a
written statement or a taped recording of Buhari
telling Nigerians that the burden of financing the
promise would be shared between Abuja and the
states. The electorate had every right to assume
that Buhari and his advisers (if he had any)
should have done their home work before
making the promise. At the very least, the voters
should have been told how much the project
would cost. No estimates were provided even at
the launching. Buhari is now embarking on a
project whose cost estimates are either unknown
or shrouded in secrecy by the Federal
Government. Obviously, nobody in that
government has a calculator or knows when to
use one. Permit me to help them out.

At a very modest one hundred (N100) per child,
the project will cost N550 million per day. In a
month of twenty days, the bill will total up to
N11 billion and in a year of nine months, at least
N100 billion will be required to fund it. One
looks in vain for the provision in this year’s
budget for funding the remaining seven months
of this year.

Not surprisingly, virtually all the states have
disclaimed the project. Even those who attended
the launching, like Ajimobi, have promised to
implement the project partially – inevitably
setting in motion a groundswell of opposition
from parents and kids who are left out of the
project. Most PDP states have simply thrown the
hot potato back to the President. Nobody will, or
should ask them any questions if by December
all the kids nationwide are not being fed free
food. The promise was made by Buhari and he is
the one obligated to redeem it.

Unfortunately,
any “so-called economist” (to use Buhari’s
dismissive term), knows that the project as
designed was seriously defective. It will create
more problems than it would solve.
For a start they have not even published the list
of the 18 states which would be the first
beneficiaries of this give-away programme.
Litigation would halt the project on its tracks
once the list is published. I will certainly go to
court to stop it if Lagos State is left out. I expect
others whose states are excluded to do the
same. What sort of a father is that who has
thirty-six starving children would bring food to
the table and tell eighteen to eat and the rest to
watch and wait? For what reason?

With over 24 million primary school kids
nationwide, it beats the imagination how the
President and the APC could imagine that they
could select 5.5 million from only 18 states as
beneficiaries of the scheme. It is simply unfair to
the rest and there is absolutely no way that the
selection will not be politicized and corrupted.
Whatever happened to the principle of equal
treatment under the law in a democracy? If the
Federal government cannot feed all the kids,
then the project should be shelved or cancelled
outright.

Meanwhile, is it the same Federal government
which cannot pay salaries and entitlements
amounting to N167 billion which now wants to
add N11 billion per month to its burden by
offering free food? We have heard people in this
government talking. But, have they thought
before talking? Each passing day, the history of
Buhari’s legacy is being written. With projects
such as this, I fear for the President.
Lastly, one of the Governors flanking the VP
claims to be feeding 250,000 children, at an
estimated N500 million a month from a monthly
allocation of less then N20 million from Abuja.

Osinbajo should ask the Governor how he is
performing the magic; especially since his public
servants are on half salary and still owed four
months arrears…

That is bad enough. The 500,000 teacher
misadventure is worse. To engage 500.000
teachers and pay them N23,000 basic salary per
month alone calls for additional N11.5 billion per
month or N138 billion per annum. In April, the
Federal government’s share of revenue came to
approximately N140 billion, against an existing
monthly wage bill of N167 billion. To that deficit
the dreamers in Aso Rock want to add N22
billion per month on two projects alone. A house
built on sand is on firmer ground than these
projects – which will not work. Mark my words.

By December, Lai Mohammed and Femi Adesina
will be called upon to explain why they failed.
They should start writing their excuses now – or
warn the President that he courts disaster with
these projects.

STANDING ON THE GRAVES OF AGATU:
BEFORE CRISIS BECOMES DISASTER – 5
“A nation can be judged by the way it treats its
animals.”
Ghandi
I don’t totally agree with the greatest leader
India had known. I strongly believe that the best
test for any nation consists of how it treats its
children and aged. And, on both counts Nigeria is
failing woefully. Governments in Nigeria at all
levels treat pensioners worse than dirt. Even
with an old man as President, there has been no
change in the way pensioners are made to
suffer. APC change has completely overlooked
them. As for the kids, Agatu children tell the
entire story. More than a week after publishing
the picture of Agatu kids on this page, nobody
had called to find out what they can do to help.

Recently, I watched as churches and other
organizations piled urban kids with more gifts
than they could carry. Few of the children
attending a Celestial Church in Lagos Island could
lift their “burdens”; the same with other
churches. Nobody had called to offer assistance.

Nobody, not even the Federal or State
government gave a thought to Agatu kids.

Agatu
is only good for mention by erudite
commentators having axes to grind against
somebody. But, help? Nothing!
That shows who we are as a nation and as
individuals….

Source: Vanguard