By Onyiorah Paschal Chiduluemije
President Muhammadu Buhari is at it again. I heard, yes I heard, but it is now true, that, sooner than later, he will be submitting a bill to the National Assembly seeking what he calls the Economic Emergency Powers. Like one will ask, what is that all about? Or, better still, what does that suppose to mean? Here, of course, is the big question begging for reasonable answers.
Now, according to a report, “in the bill, the executive will be asking for the President to be given sweeping power to set aside some extant laws and use executive orders to roll out an economic recovery package within the next one year”. Hmmm… Nawao!
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In short, it appears needless to say that this is where the actual problem associated with this bill lies. No doubt, “a sweeping power to set aside some extant laws and use executive orders…” for whatever reason(s) and for whatever situation(s), all for use by President Muhammadu Buhari, is, to say the least, the last prayer that Nigerians should venture to ask God to grant them. Certainly the reason for this submission is not far-fetched.
The point being that President Muhammadu Buhari, from all indications, has not so far shown to have the democratic temperament and to be nearly friendly with the existing enormous powers of the President at his disposal, much less of when more “weapons”(powers) are added to his arsenal. God forbid bad thing!
Like Baron de Montesquies would aptly submit in his book Espiritdes lois that “power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”, there is no gainsaying that conferring emergency economic powers on President Muhammdu Buhari at this point in time he is not only clueless but also evidently groping in the dark, will definitely amount to assisting an already aggressive leopard to develop its fangs and that, in itself, will be too bad a decision. Besides, who will be surprise if by tomorrow (going by his endless blame game addiction) President Buhari happens to wake up from the left hand side of his bed and whimsically decides to invade and attack people’s warehouses in the illusion that one of the causes of the continuous increase in prices of food stuffs/items and other commodities in the market owes more to the loads of goods packed in people’s warehouses – as he was allegedly reported to have done during his short-lived military regime.
Beyond that, now looking critically at this assertion that one of the reasons the so-called economic team (chaired/led by Vice- President Osibanjo, a lawyer – not an economist – remember) wants an immediate increase from 15% to 50% mobilization of contract sum is not unconnected with “the pace the government wants to move in turning the
economy around and in the provision of critical infrastructure”.
Though sensible as this remark may sound, it does appear that this line of thought is utterly anchored on a fallacious premise. Left to good reasoning, there is practically nothing to make anybody consider the current 15% of contract mobilization sum “undesirable”.
Truth is that, one of the empirical reasons the economy is abysmally immersed in doldrums, as it were, is not about the issue of 15% mobilization of contract sum. Rather, the reason has basically to do with Mr. Buhari’s conspicuous inertia in the area of contract renewal, award and implementation across the length and breadth of the country,
ever since he assumed the mantle of leadership of Nigeria on May 29, 2015. As it were, this obnoxious development implies that contractors no longer have work to do and appear not to have been settled the debt owed them, either. Little wonder that the corollary of all this has culminated in the unabated mass sack of workers, especially company
workers, here and there.
Meanwhile, it is pertinent to note that any attempt by the National Assembly to vest President Muhammadu Buhari with such a sweeping power to set aside some extant laws in order to “enable” him to use raw executive orders for whatever reason, as he apparently craves for, or even raise the mobilization of contract sum for him under any guise,
will definitely impact negatively not only on his political opponents, but also on the very principles of fairness which his actions and inactions so far have demonstrated his ample aversion to them. As already well-established, and most likely to happen again and again, his parochialism and disgusting religious inclination will at the end of the day ensure that only his Hausa-Fulani people will have sole access to winning Federal government contracts if by mistake the National Assembly grants him 50% new regime he seeks.
Similarly, it need not be belaboured that the recent calls by Alhaji Aliko Dangote and Emir of Kano, Lamido Sanusi Lamido, on the Federal government to sell our national assets in order to address the current economic recession is not unconnected with part of the Hausa-Fulani secret economic agenda and/or script being orchestrated to be played by Muhammadu Buhari . In fact, it smacks of no surprise that the same call has equally been re-echoed by the Northern governors hiding under the auspices of APC Governors Forum.
Yet another big fantasy, probably shared by some feeble minds, is the false hope that vesting President Muhammadu with economic emergency powers will avail him the opportunity of invoking a magic wand to be used in luring foreign investors into the country. As seemingly impressive as this tall dream is, liberalizing Nigeria’s visa policies
such that will make visas available to foreign visitors and tourists alike within 48 hours does not only appear to be risible, but also it does provide insight into this government’s crass wild goose chase.
For goodness’ sake, how can investors come into a country which recent United Nations’ report has it that its citizenry are now more divided along ethnic and religious lines than any other time in the annals of history? Or, how can investors come into a country that its President once reportedly told them that all its citizens are corrupt, with the exception of him – Muhammadu Buhari? And this is even considered in isolation of the earlier warning reportedly issued by the government of the United States of America to her visiting and resident nationals in Nigeria to carefully keep off from no less than 20 out of 36 states of Nigeria, due to ample evidence of potential danger of violence.
It therefore follows that arguments about granting President Muhammadu Buhari the emergency economic powers that will enable him reform the Nigeria’s visa policies in such a way that will in turn “help” in addressing the biting economic recession in the country are neither here nor there.
If indeed it appeals to President Muhammadu Buhari to rescue the country’s economy from the present mess, the solution, methinks, does not lie in seeking emergency economic powers or even crying over spilt milk – as encapsulated in his incessant crocodiles lamentation on the general state of affairs in the country (for the sake of which he was voted into power to correct). In part, therefore, the solution lies in his recently reported plan to inject billions of dollars into the economy.
However, this must exclude his resolve to borrow from multilateral agencies, the IMF and its ilk, bearing in mind that doing so will only mortgage the future of generations yet unborn. In the same vein, this must not include, either, Buhari’s religious inclination towards a renewed partnership with Ismlamic Development Bank and other Arab financial organizations – bearing in mind also that Nigeria is a secular society.
More importantly, the government should as a matter of urgency release all the monies it keeps confessing it has recovered from looters of our treasury as well as the trillions of naira that have reportedly accrued from the Single Treasury Account (TSA), with a view to injecting them into our moribund economy.
Meanwhile, simply leaving these huge accumulations to be wasting in the Central Bank of Nigeria or merely admiring the fact of having them saved there while the citizenry are famished does not make any sense and will not even bring any applause to anybody in the long run, either.
The National Assembly must not therefore venture to consider President Muhammadu Buhari’s so-called Economic Emergency Bill. Let him make do with the powers he has for now and quickly return Nigeria to where he met it, if only he can no longer do any other thing.
Onyiorah Paschal Chiduluemije – a Journalist – writes from Abuja via:
duluemije4justice@yahoo.com & can be contacted @ 08052250171
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