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ECONOMIC REFORM PROGRAMMES AND
ECONOMIC REALITIES
By Jide Ayobolu,
jideayobolu@yahoo.co.uk
Aug 16, 2006
The Obasanjo led government has attributed all
the achievements of his administration to the successful implementation of
the various aspects of the economic reforms which were imposed on
Nigerians without any formal debate or explanation whatsoever, as to, why
the government thinks that is the best kind of economic package Nigeria
needs. This kind of approach has been the bane of successive governments
in the country, they think they know what is best for the people without
feeling the pulse of the nation, and gauge the mood of the country in
fashioning out an acceptable economic programmes for the betterment and
upliftment of the socio-economic conditions of the people and the economic
development of the country. However, with the benefits of hindsight, it is
obvious that the economic reform programmes are no more than misanthropic
policies that have impacted very negatively on the people and the
country’s political economy. According to the UNDP report, over 70 per
cent of the entire Nigerian population live on less than $1 per day, also,
less than 39 per cent of the population have opportunity of using portable
water supply, while almost all the entire population cannot boost of
uninterrupted power supply, with apparent infrastructural decay and
glaring institutional underdevelopment.
Again, a damning report on Nigeria’s economic
growth by the heritage foundation and wall street journal
was released recently. In it, the bodies ranked Nigeria 146th
out of 157 countries listed. In fact, in sub-Saharan Africa, the report
rated Nigeria above only one country, Zimbabwe. The indices for the
rating, according to the report, were taken from data supplied by the
affected countries to the World Bank. Botswana, which topped the Africa
list, was rated 30, while Chile led the Latin America and the Caribbean.
South Africa came second in Africa and got 50th position in the
entire assessment. But Hong Kong is the world’s best, according to the
report while Singapore is second. Ireland came third, Luxembourg, forth,
while Iceland and the United Kingdom (UK) tied at the fifth position.
Estonia came seventh and Denmark eight, while the U.S., Australia and New
Zealand tied at the ninth position. North Korea came last with Iran, Burma
and Zimbabwe following in depressing list of poorly-managed economies
Haiti is Nigeria’s neighbour in the 147th position.
The research document pointedly questions
Nigeria’s often trumpeted giant strides in the areas of economic
management. In the preface to the publication, the report referred to the
devastating impact of lack of economic freedom in Nigeria when it remarked
that education had been given a severe blow as a consequence of the
conditions for the country to exit the Paris Club. The report stated that,
“in Nigeria, the quality of public schools is so wretched that the people
living on less than a dollar a day pay a small fee to give their children
better education through an unsanctioned privately-run schools. The same
behaviour can be found in five other very poor cities in Asia and Africa”.
The 2006 index of economic freedom measures 161 countries against a list
of 50 independent variables divided into 10 broad factors of economic
freedom. Low scores are more desirable, the higher the score on a factor,
the greater the level of government’s interference in the economy and less
economic freedom a country enjoys. The 10 determining factors are: trade
policy, fiscal burden of government, government intervention in the
economy, monetary policy and capital flows and foreign investment. The
report continued: “per capita income remains low, and corruption, poor
infrastructure and periodic labour strikes undermine economic growth and
investment. Most of the population is engaged in small-scale farming,
which accounts for over one-third of formal sector (GDP). The oil sector
also accounts for about one-third of yearly GDP but provides over 70 of
the federal government revenues and 90 percent of exports”. It added,
“Despite stronger efforts to hold government officials accountable for
illicit activities, corruption remains common at all levels of government
and in the judiciary. Much of economic activity is carried on in the
informal sector, Nigeria’s government intervention score is 0.5 point
worse this year. As a result, its overall is worse this year, causing
Nigeria to be classified as a repressed country.
Apart from this, In 2003, in a research
carried out by some scientists and published in new scientist magazine
stated that the happiest group of people can be found in Nigeria, but many
Nigeria pooh-poohed the report, saying that it was impossible for a nation
with Nigeria’s acute social and economic problems to be home to the
world’s happiest people. According to Adrian White, an analytical social
psychologist at University of Leicester in the United Kingdom and designer
of the first ever World Map of Happiness, Nigeria does not even
come close to being the country with the world’s biggest population of
happy people. Rather, he says Nigeria is number 120 on a list of global
happiness featuring 178 other countries.
The question to ask therefore is that, why the
sudden drop from the first position to 120 in about three years? The
simple answer is that things are not just working in the country, the
education sector is in a shambles, today in the country health centers are
worst that mere consulting clinics, the solid mineral development is
virtually non-existent, agriculture has taken a back-burner, roads in the
country are in a deplorable state of disrepair and are indeed highways of
death, housing is only for the very affluent in the country, the
environment is nothing to write home about, tourism and aviation are still
at the pristine level of development, power supply is not only erratic,
but also epileptic as people and companies now use generating sets and
transformers, dreams have been shattered, hopes forlorn and opportunities
squandered. The various institutions, processes, structures and procedures
of governance and democracy are been etiolated and destroyed, instead
power is over-concentrated in the hands of a few people in the corridors
of power which is not good for democracy.
With all these problems it stands to reason
that the so-called reforms are not working, they are not having a positive
and appreciable impact on the people and the national economy. Today, in
the country the twin problems of poverty and unemployment have deepened
alarmingly and there seems to be no solution in sight, the more the
government implements the economic reforms, the more the people are
impoverished, this is because, the programme was not designed by Nigerians
to genuinely solve the real economic problems confronting the country. The
programmes were designed by the Brettonwood institutions without the
interest of Nigeria at heart, to gradually, but systematically milk the
economy dry and tie it to the apron strings of metropolitan countries.
And, once Nigeria is perpetually subservient to the international finance
capital, it cannot do anything on her own, it becomes economically
underdeveloped and her people suffers. So, the government will do well to
take a close at the economic reform programmes with the aim of
re-appraising it to make fundamental changes that will put smiles on the
faces of Nigerians. From the foregoing, it is very clear that that the
so-called reform programmes as presently implemented are not what the
country needed to bail the country out of the morass of economic decay.
Also, the 1999 constitution of the federal
republic of Nigeria, section 16(1a) says the state shall, “harness the
resources of the nation and promote national prosperity and an efficient,
a dynamic and self-reliant economy”. Section 16(1b) states that the state
shall, “control the national economy in such manner as to secure the
maximum welfare, freedom and happiness of every citizen on the basis of
social justice and equality of status and opportunity”. Section 16(2c)
stipulates that the state shall direct its policy towards ensuring that,
“the economic system is not operated in such a manner as to permit the
concentration of wealth or the means of production and exchange in the
hands of few individuals or of a group and section 16(2d) directs that the
state shall direct its policy towards ensuring that, “suitable and
adequate shelter, suitable and adequate food , reasonable national minimum
living wage, old age care and pensions, and unemployment, sick benefits
and welfare of the disabled are provided for all citizens”. The government
is not doing any of these and the 1999 constitution is the supreme law of
the land, the essence of governance is to ensure the greatest happiness of
the greatest number without neglecting the interests of the minority,
therefore, the government should return to the path of sanity to truly
move the country forward.
By
Jide Ayobolu
No 19 Gongola Street
Garki 2
Abuja-Nigeria.
ECONOMIC REFORM PROGRAMMES AND ECONONIC
REALITIES
The Obasanjo led government has attributed all
the achievements of his administration to the successful implementation of
the various aspects of the economic reforms which were imposed on
Nigerians without any formal debate or explanation whatsoever, as to, why
the government thinks that is the best kind of economic package Nigeria
needs. This kind of approach has been the bane of successive governments
in the country, they think they know what is best for the people without
feeling the pulse of the nation, and gauge the mood of the country in
fashioning out an acceptable economic programmes for the betterment and
upliftment of the socio-economic conditions of the people and the economic
development of the country. However, with the benefits of hindsight, it is
obvious that the economic reform programmes are no more than misanthropic
policies that have impacted very negatively on the people and the
country’s political economy. According to the UNDP report, over 70 per
cent of the entire Nigerian population live on less than $1 per day, also,
less than 39 per cent of the population have opportunity of using portable
water supply, while almost all the entire population cannot boost of
uninterrupted power supply, with apparent infrastructural decay and
glaring institutional underdevelopment.
Again, a damning report on Nigeria’s economic
growth by the heritage foundation and wall street journal
was released recently. In it, the bodies ranked Nigeria 146th
out of 157 countries listed. In fact, in sub-Saharan Africa, the report
rated Nigeria above only one country, Zimbabwe. The indices for the
rating, according to the report, were taken from data supplied by the
affected countries to the World Bank. Botswana, which topped the Africa
list, was rated 30, while Chile led the Latin America and the Caribbean.
South Africa came second in Africa and got 50th position in the
entire assessment. But Hong Kong is the world’s best, according to the
report while Singapore is second. Ireland came third, Luxembourg, forth,
while Iceland and the United Kingdom (UK) tied at the fifth position.
Estonia came seventh and Denmark eight, while the U.S., Australia and New
Zealand tied at the ninth position. North Korea came last with Iran, Burma
and Zimbabwe following in depressing list of poorly-managed economies
Haiti is Nigeria’s neighbour in the 147th position.
The research document pointedly questions
Nigeria’s often trumpeted giant strides in the areas of economic
management. In the preface to the publication, the report referred to the
devastating impact of lack of economic freedom in Nigeria when it remarked
that education had been given a severe blow as a consequence of the
conditions for the country to exit the Paris Club. The report stated that,
“in Nigeria, the quality of public schools is so wretched that the people
living on less than a dollar a day pay a small fee to give their children
better education through an unsanctioned privately-run schools. The same
behaviour can be found in five other very poor cities in Asia and Africa”.
The 2006 index of economic freedom measures 161 countries against a list
of 50 independent variables divided into 10 broad factors of economic
freedom. Low scores are more desirable, the higher the score on a factor,
the greater the level of government’s interference in the economy and less
economic freedom a country enjoys. The 10 determining factors are: trade
policy, fiscal burden of government, government intervention in the
economy, monetary policy and capital flows and foreign investment. The
report continued: “per capita income remains low, and corruption, poor
infrastructure and periodic labour strikes undermine economic growth and
investment. Most of the population is engaged in small-scale farming,
which accounts for over one-third of formal sector (GDP). The oil sector
also accounts for about one-third of yearly GDP but provides over 70 of
the federal government revenues and 90 percent of exports”. It added,
“Despite stronger efforts to hold government officials accountable for
illicit activities, corruption remains common at all levels of government
and in the judiciary. Much of economic activity is carried on in the
informal sector, Nigeria’s government intervention score is 0.5 point
worse this year. As a result, its overall is worse this year, causing
Nigeria to be classified as a repressed country.
Apart from this, In 2003, in a research
carried out by some scientists and published in new scientist magazine
stated that the happiest group of people can be found in Nigeria, but many
Nigeria pooh-poohed the report, saying that it was impossible for a nation
with Nigeria’s acute social and economic problems to be home to the
world’s happiest people. According to Adrian White, an analytical social
psychologist at University of Leicester in the United Kingdom and designer
of the first ever World Map of Happiness, Nigeria does not even
come close to being the country with the world’s biggest population of
happy people. Rather, he says Nigeria is number 120 on a list of global
happiness featuring 178 other countries.
The question to ask therefore is that, why the
sudden drop from the first position to 120 in about three years? The
simple answer is that things are not just working in the country, the
education sector is in a shambles, today in the country health centers are
worst that mere consulting clinics, the solid mineral development is
virtually non-existent, agriculture has taken a back-burner, roads in the
country are in a deplorable state of disrepair and are indeed highways of
death, housing is only for the very affluent in the country, the
environment is nothing to write home about, tourism and aviation are still
at the pristine level of development, power supply is not only erratic,
but also epileptic as people and companies now use generating sets and
transformers, dreams have been shattered, hopes forlorn and opportunities
squandered. The various institutions, processes, structures and procedures
of governance and democracy are been etiolated and destroyed, instead
power is over-concentrated in the hands of a few people in the corridors
of power which is not good for democracy.
With all these problems it stands to reason
that the so-called reforms are not working, they are not having a positive
and appreciable impact on the people and the national economy. Today, in
the country the twin problems of poverty and unemployment have deepened
alarmingly and there seems to be no solution in sight, the more the
government implements the economic reforms, the more the people are
impoverished, this is because, the programme was not designed by Nigerians
to genuinely solve the real economic problems confronting the country. The
programmes were designed by the Brettonwood institutions without the
interest of Nigeria at heart, to gradually, but systematically milk the
economy dry and tie it to the apron strings of metropolitan countries.
And, once Nigeria is perpetually subservient to the international finance
capital, it cannot do anything on her own, it becomes economically
underdeveloped and her people suffers. So, the government will do well to
take a close at the economic reform programmes with the aim of
re-appraising it to make fundamental changes that will put smiles on the
faces of Nigerians. From the foregoing, it is very clear that that the
so-called reform programmes as presently implemented are not what the
country needed to bail the country out of the morass of economic decay.
Also, the 1999 constitution of the federal
republic of Nigeria, section 16(1a) says the state shall, “harness the
resources of the nation and promote national prosperity and an efficient,
a dynamic and self-reliant economy”. Section 16(1b) states that the state
shall, “control the national economy in such manner as to secure the
maximum welfare, freedom and happiness of every citizen on the basis of
social justice and equality of status and opportunity”. Section 16(2c)
stipulates that the state shall direct its policy towards ensuring that,
“the economic system is not operated in such a manner as to permit the
concentration of wealth or the means of production and exchange in the
hands of few individuals or of a group and section 16(2d) directs that the
state shall direct its policy towards ensuring that, “suitable and
adequate shelter, suitable and adequate food , reasonable national minimum
living wage, old age care and pensions, and unemployment, sick benefits
and welfare of the disabled are provided for all citizens”. The government
is not doing any of these and the 1999 constitution is the supreme law of
the land, the essence of governance is to ensure the greatest happiness of
the greatest number without neglecting the interests of the minority,
therefore, the government should return to the path of sanity to truly
move the country forward.
By Jide Ayobolu
No 19 Gongola Street
Garki 2
Abuja-Nigeria.
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