Alliance for New Nigeria (ANN), national chairman, Dr. Joy Osi Samuel, has asserted that recycling of old politicians in governance were the main reason Nigeria has remained in the woods.
Accordingly, the party has promised to reverse the trend when it eventually forms the federal cabinet in 2019.
Dr. Samuel, who declared this yesterday while addressing party supporters in Abuja, he explained that the ANN is a political party that will do things differently from others, insisting that the nation has lost focus under the APC-led federal administration.
He disclosed that professionals in their various fields of endeavour who would not participate in politics were mobilised to champion the cause of Nigerians under ANN platform.
“As an opposition political party, we have a unique selling point that is different from others. Primarily, we are party of professionals who are tired of recycling of old politicians who don’t have anything to offer Nigerians in the last 20 years or more. ”
According to him, the destinies of Nigerians have been in the hands of wrong people rather than allowing Nigerians work out their own destinies, an anomaly, he said, would be corrected when the party takes over governance.
He further disclosed that some members of the party were the brain behind the ‘Not- Too- Young- To- Run’ bill, which was signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari, penultimate week.
“We are proving to Nigerians that they can own a political party which enables them to work out their own destiny rather than placing it in the hands of leaders who don’t mean well for them,” the chairman said.
How Buhari defies the odds
Most claims oozing from the opposition quarters are that the country is moving backward under President Muhammadu Buhari’s led federal administration. However, a 41-page document highlighting the successes in the economy, security and the fight against corruption indicates that the oppositions’ allegations are not tenable. Abdullahi M. Gulloma x-rays the document.
Opposition’s fang tears at Buhari’s ‘flesh’
For quite sometimes now, several attempts have been made to seriously undermine the reputation of President Muhammadu Buhari, who though hugely respected for his personal integrity, has been painted as responsible for the decline in the welfare of the people, increase in the level of poverty and hunger in the country.
This painting of a grim picture of the President and the administration he leads cannot be further from the truth, it is a tendency that is likely to grow more acute with the apparent strength of the opposition and corrupt people ahead of the 2019 general elections. Ironically, thousands of people, especially youth, have taken to farming to improve agricultural productivity, the President’s plan was to massively increase both agriculture and industrial production.
FG opens up
#Regrettably, despite its achievements, the administration, until now, remained committed and modest, and refused to blow its own trumpet. It specifically fails to provide enough accompanying evidence to authenticate its outstanding achievements. However, evidence from the ordinary Nigerians and reliable socio-economic statistics contradicts the claim that the President is mainly to blame for the current state of affairs in the country.
A recent document outlining policies and programmes of the Buhari-led administration since it assumed office three years ago, on May 29, 2015, buttressed the achievements of the administration. The 41-page document highlights successes in the economy, security and the fight against corruption – the three focused areas of the Buhari-led administration.
Benefits of peaceful Niger Delta
The administration, on assumption of office, prioritised peace in the Niger-Delta from where oil, which is the mainstay of the country’s economy, comes from, Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, visited the oil-producing communities, listened to the people and grievances and spelt out federal government’s commitment to the region as captured in the “New Vision for the Niger Delta.”
In the vision are answers to the 16-point demand submitted to the President by the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF). This vision gave birth to the Nigerian Maritime University in Delta State, establishment of modular refineries in oil producing states and resumption of work on abandoned projects in the oil-rich region, including the East-West Road.
The engagements with the Niger Delta and the Organisation of Oil Exporting Countries (OPEC) helped to raise oil revenues and ultimately in growing the external reserves, the Excess Crude Account (ECA) and the Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF). The engagement with OPEC involved rallying the organisation and non-OPEC members to discuss stabilisation of the global oil market in Doha and in Algiers. This led to an exemption from the OPEC production freeze and rise in oil prices.
These steps, according to the government, helped to kick out recession, brought about 1.95 per cent growth in the first quarter of this year, lowers inflation for 15 consecutive months from 18.7 per cent in January last year to 12.5 per cent in April and upped external reserves to $47.5 billion, the highest in five years.
In the same vein, exports in 2017 were 59.47 per cent higher than 2016, agriculture exports grew 180.7 per cent above the value in the previous year, raw material exports grew 154.2 per cent above the value of 2016, solid minerals exports for last year grew 565 per cent and last year saw exports of manufactured goods growing by 26.8 per cent.
According to the document, the new FX Window introduced by the Central Bank Nigeria (CBN) in April 2017 now sees an average of $1 billion in weekly turnover, and has attracted about $25 billion in inflows in its first year (and a total turnover of $47.14 billion), signalling rising investor confidence in Nigeria.
Cheeringly, 5 million new taxpayers were added to the tax net since 2016, as part of efforts to diversify and attract more revenues. Thus, tax revenue increased to N1.17 trillion in Q1 2018, representing a 51 per cent increase on the Q1 2017 figure.
The sum N2.7 trillion was spent on infrastructure in 2016 and 2017 fiscal years, representing an unprecedented allocation in the country’s recent history, while 14 moribund blending plants were revitalised under the Presidential Fertiliser Initiative (PFI), with a total capacity of 2.3 million metric tonnes of NPK fertiliser.
Revive fiscal policies
The government created a new forex window for investors and exporters, which has helped stabilised the market. The window has attracted more than $45bn in its first year of operation.
The Buhari administration has implemented a new debt management strategy which targets a ratio of 60 per cent to 40 per cent between domestic and external debt, the document said.
In the area of bond issuance in the international capital market, the federal government, last year, successfully issued $4.5bn Eurobonds with $4 billion out of that to finance deficits in the 2017 budget ($1.5 billion) and 2018 ($2.5 billion).
The Eurobonds were highly oversubscribed, and the country was able to issue a tenor of 30 years, the first time in its history.
A Diaspora bond to the tune of $300 million with a tenor of five-years was also issued for the first time to part–finance last year’s budget.
The N100 billion Sukuk issued to finance 25 road projects across the country, N10.69 billion debut Green Bond to fight climate change and the N8.126 billion raised from 11,366 retail investors through the Savings Bond since it was launched in March 2017 are key achievements of the administration in its drive to reflate the economy.
Importantly too, many states owing workers’ salaries got more than N1.9 trillion from the federal government to meet their obligations. This assistance came in the form of budget support facility (N606.55 billion), Paris Club refunds, infrastructure loans and loan restructuring for facilities with commercial banks.
The nation’s external reserves have doubled since October 2016, from $24 billion to $48 billion, while the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) has seen the injection of $1.15 billion into it under the Buhari-led administration, making that the first injection of fund since the initial establishment cash of $1bn in 2012.
Unlocking the potentials
The administration leveraged on its goodwill to attract multi-billion investments and loans from China and Morocco. The President’s April 2016 visit to China unlocked billions of dollars in infrastructure funding and construction has progressed on the 150km/hour rail line between Lagos and Ibadan.
The National Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (NERGP)
According to the government, the NERGP was initiated to restore economic growth, invest in Nigerians, and build a globally competitive economy by giving priority to agriculture, power, macro-economy, energy efficiency, transportation infrastructure and driving industrialisation through Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs).
The administration is supporting MSMEs with $1.3 billion from the Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN). The money was provided by the World Bank, German Development Bank, the African Development Bank (AfDB) and Agence Française de Development.
A power reform programme endorsed by the World Bank led to the launch of the N701bn Payment Assurance Programme to guarantee payments to generating companies and gas suppliers.
The Anchor Borrowers Programme
The Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP), championed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has raised local production of grains. This ensured the disbursement of N82 billion to 350,000 farmers of rice, wheat, maize, cotton, cassava, poultry, soya beans and groundnut. It has aided the farmers to cultivate about 400,000 hectares of land. Rice yields have doubled from two to three tonnes per hectare.
The Presidential Fertiliser Initiative, which involves a partnership with the government of Morocco, for the supply of phosphate, has resulted in the revitalisation of 14 blending plants across the country, with a total installed capacity in excess of 2 million MT.
The benefits include annual savings of $200m in foreign exchange, and N60bn annually in budgetary provisions for fertiliser subsidies.”
Ease-of-Doing-Business
The Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council implemented its 60 National Action Plan between February and April and it gave investors the platform to search for company names on the website of the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC).
Such investors can upload their registration documents directly to the CAC website without hiring lawyers to prepare registration documents. The country now has a simplified Visa on Arrival (VoA) process.
To also ease business, a joint physical examination of cargo has been directed to ensure one-point contact between importers and officials. The CBN, Nigeria Customs Service and commercial banks have been compelled to process Net Export Proceeds forms within 72 hours and Pre-shipment Inspection Agencies (PIAs) must issue Certificate of Clean Inspection (CCI) within three days.
The number of documents required for imports has been reduced from 14 to eight while the ones for exports have come down from 10 to seven. Now, terminal operators are mandated to finish container’s examination in 12 hours.
Since 2017, Executive Order on Improving Efficiency in business, promotion local procurement by government agencies etc has been issued. The Senate also passed the Companies and Allied Matters (Repeal and Re-enactment) Bill 2018 last month to give legal backing to some of the reforms.
The success of the Ease-of-Doing-Business Reform Programme resulted in Nigeria moving up 24 places on the World Bank’s Ease-of-Doing-Business rankings in 2017, and earning a slot on the List of 10 Most Improved Economies.
Breaking new grounds on infrastructure development
Infrastructural development
The administration is revitalising the country’s 3,500 kilometres network of Narrow-Gauge railway. A consortium led by General Electric (GE) and comprising Transnet of South Africa, APM Terminals of the Netherlands and Sinohydro Consortium of China, is working on the Lagos-Kano Railway Narrow-Gauge Line.
The reconstruction of the Abuja Airport runway was done within the scheduled six-week period (March to April 2017).
Already, the Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund (PIDF) under the management of the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) with a seed funding of $1.3 billion has been launched.
The NSIA in March invested $10 million to establish a world-class Cancer Treatment Center at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), and $5 million each in the Aminu Kano University Teaching Hospital and the Federal Medical Centre in Umuahia to establish modern diagnostic centres.
The Abuja Light Rail system has been completed and the first line will connect the city centre with the airport, with a link to the Abuja-Kaduna railway line.
Other projects completed are the Water Supply Projects and Dam/Irrigation Projects, Central Ogbia Regional Water project in Bayelsa, Sabke/Dutsi/Mashi Water Supply project in Katsina, Northern Ishan Regional Water Supply project, Kashimbila Dam, Taraba State, Ogwashi-Uku Dam, Delta State, Shagari Dam Irrigation Project, Sokoto State and the rehabilitation of Ojirami Dam Water Supply Project, Edo State.
On ecological projects, the document shows that more than 70 projects were completed across the six geo-political zones.
Some of the 25 road projects being funded by the N100bn Sukuk Bond are the Oju/Loko–Oweto bridge over River Benue to link Loko (Nasarawa State) and Oweto (Benue State) along route F2384, dualisation of Abuja–Abaji–Lokoja Road Section I, dualisation of Suleja–Minna Road in Niger State, dualisation of Abuja–Abaji–Lokoja Road, rehabilitation of Enugu–Port Harcourt dual carriage, carriage, dualisation of Yenegoa Road Junction–Kolo–Otuoke–Bayelsa Palm in Bayelsa.
Social Investment Programme
The Social Investment Programme (SIP) has over nine million beneficiaries drawing from its N140 billion purse. The 200,000 N-Power beneficiaries draw N30,000 stipends monthly. Another batch of 300,000 would soon become beneficiaries.
Currently, about 3,162,451 people in 26,924 cooperative societies have been registered for the Government Enterprise and Empowerment (GEEP) Scheme.
The sum of N15.183 billion interest-free loans have been issued across the country to 300,000 market women, traders, artisans and farmers. The Buhari-led administration is catering for 8.2 million primary school pupils through its Home Grown School Feeding Programme (HGSFP) in 45,394 public primary schools in 24 states.
The benefiting states are: Abia, Anambra, Enugu, Ebonyi and Imo in the Southeast; Akwa Ibom, Cross River and Delta (in the South-south); Osun, Oyo, Ondo and Ogun (South-west); Benue, Niger and Plateau (North-central); Kaduna, Katsina, Kano, and Zamfara (North-west); Bauchi, Taraba, Borno, Gombe and Jigawa (North-east). More than 87,261 cooks have been engaged under the scheme.
“The health aspect of the programme has seen over three million pupils de-wormed in six states. The de-worming programme is a bi-annual programme aimed at eradicating and reducing the burden of worms,” the document said.
Through its Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) scheme, 297,973 beneficiaries now get N5,000 monthly stipends nationwide.
Budgeting process/BVN/Efficiency Unit
Aside the activities of the anti-graft agencies, the aim of the Presidential Initiative on Continuous Audit (PICA) is to strengthen controls over government finances through a continuous internal audit of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs). Through the initiative, more than 50,000 ghost workers have been identified and N198 billion was saved in 2016.
The Bank Verification Number (BVN) has also saved the government a lot of money. All payments are done only into accounts with verifiable BVN. This helped to detect the 50,000 ghost workers using the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS) platform.
The creation of Efficiency Unit (EU) has promoted efficient use of government resources. It has resulted in saving N15 billion that would have gone into travel, sitting allowances and souvenirs and, maybe, private pockets.
TSA/Open Government Partnership and Whistle Blowing
In 2015, the President compelled the MDAs to close their accounts with commercial banks and transfer their balances to the CBN on or before September 15 of that year. By his action, he gave life to a policy launched in 2012 but the then administration lacked the political will to implement it. This policy resulted in the consolidation of over 20,000 bank accounts.
An average of N4.7 billion is saved monthly in banking charges. The era of some MDAs having idle cash in banks and still borrowed exorbitantly from banks is gone for good!
The government has not relented in shutting corruption doors once discovered. One of such led to its signing on to the Open Government Partnership (OGP). In 2016, the President was at the International Anti-Corruption Summit organised by the United Kingdom (UK) Government where he pledged that Nigeria would join the international transparency, accountability and citizen engagement initiative. He fulfilled his promise in 2016 when the Nigeria became the 70th country to join the OGP.
Again, the anti-corruption drive brought about the Whistle Blowing Policy, which within its first two months of operation, yielded over $160 million and over N8 billion in recoveries of stolen government funds. The figures have since grown. N13.8 billion was recovered from tax evaders. In May, the government paid N439.2 million to 14 whistleblowers who gave specific tips on tax evasion. There have also been N7.8 billion, $378 million and £27,800 in recoveries from public officials targeted by whistleblowers.
The National Economic Council (NEC) under the chairmanship of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo carried out an audit of key federal revenue generating agencies and discovered that N526 billion and $21 billion was underpaid to the Federation Account between 2010 and 2015. The audit to cover the period until June 2017 is ongoing.
The PICA said it uncovered 54,000 fraudulent payroll entries thus saving N200 billion.
A more transparent NNPC
The Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) was indicted by the independent global reports for being opaque. One of the first steps the Buhari-led administration took was to reconstruct the corporation’s opaque accounting structure. This led to the closure of more than 40 bank accounts.
Now, the NNPC publishes its financial reports monthly and the operational deficits have been reduced by not less than 50 per cent.
The administration has also resolved the shadowy oil swap deals that had cost the country billions of dollars and left it at the mercy of a few rich Nigerians. The government has also introduced third party financing to eliminate direct funding of cash calls.
It has eliminated the Offshore Processing Agreement (OPA) through the introduction of the Direct Sales and Direct Purchase (DSDP) scheme with reputable off-shore refineries. This has yielded annual savings of $1 billion.
The Petroleum Industry Governance Bill (PIGB) put together by the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources has now been passed into law by the Senate, after 17 years of failed efforts.
In 2016, the federal government exited the Cash Call arrangement with Joint Ventures (JVs) with International Oil Companies (IOCs), which put pressure on government’s finances. The failure to fund them resulted in more than N6 billion arrears as at December 2015. The reforms have led to the negotiation of the debt arrears owed the IOCs from $6.8 billion to $5.1 billion with a long-term repayment plan agreed.
International affairs
The international community has warmed up to the Buhari-led administration in the last three years. The President has enlisted the support of multilateral institutions, such as the World Bank and IMF, security agencies, Western countries and other friendly nations to source, locate and repatriate stolen assets.
He has met key world leaders, including President Donald Trump, with the United States government promising to supply 12 Super Tucano Aircraft to Nigeria. Soon, Nigeria would begin the full implementation of the principles of the OPEN contracting data standards.
Recalled that Buhari sensitised governments in the Middle-East on the need to repatriate stolen assets and repatriate the suspects for trial at home. In January last year, Nigeria and UAE signed Judicial Agreements on Extradition, Transfer of Sentenced Persons and Mutual Legal Assistance on Criminal Matters.
Last year, the federal government and the Swiss government signed a Letter of Intent on the Restitution of Illegally-Acquired Assets forfeited in Switzerland. Under the agreement, the Swiss government has repatriated $322 million Abacha Loot. The cash is being warehoused in a Special Account in the CBN and it will be deployed towards the SIP.
Insurgency lost steam
Although some may not agree because there are still pockets of attacks, gone were the days when some parts of the country were captured by the insurgents. On his assumption of office, the President relocated the Nigerian Military Command Centre to Maiduguri in May 2015, leading to the rescue of more than 13,000 persons, including 106 of the Chibok schoolgirls, 105 of the Dapchi schoolgirls abducted in February, and others abducted by the Boko Haram insurgents.
The seriousness with which the administration has pursued the anti-terror war has led the U.S. government to announce an additional $40 million for humanitarian assistance in the North-east region.
The Boko Haram’s operational and spiritual headquarters, “Camp Zero” in Sambisa Forest, has been captured. The Army has arrested Usman Mohammed, also known as Khalid Al Barnawi, the leader of the Ansaru Terrorist group and one of the most wanted terrorists in the world, on whose head the U.S. placed a $6 million bounty.
No doubt, there is a good argument to suggest that the policies of the Buhari-led administration have actually done much to sustain the country’s socio-economic development.
