Former
Nigerian Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, on Friday said it was doubtful whether
Nigeria has indeed exited recession.
Mr. Abubakar made this known in his
keynote address while picking the Silverbird’s 2017 man of the year award in
Lagos Friday.
“Last year,” Mr. Abubakar said, “we
celebrated the fact that we exited our first recession in 25 years. To me, that
celebration was premature.
“After contracting for five
consecutive quarters, Nigeria came out of recession in the second quarter of
2017 with a GDP growth rate of 0.55 per cent. In the third quarter, we fared
better with 1.40 per cent.
“While this looks somewhat like we
exited the recession, the reality is that when you factor in our population
growth rate of 2.3 per cent, which is one of the highest in the world, have we
really exited a recession? Technically, yes, but in reality, it is doubtful.”
The former vice president remarked
that Nigeria is going through a lot of challenges in the area of unity, economy
and security.
“These challenges are actually
symptoms. They are not the ailment. And as any doctor will tell you, you cannot
get genuine long-lasting relief if you treat symptoms. You have to target and
treat the root cause of the disease.
“What is happening in Nigeria is
that as a nation, we are caught up in a modern-day Malthusian Trap. For years,
our population has been growing faster than our Gross Domestic Product,
bringing us to a point where we have an ever-increasing population competing
for resources that are not keeping pace with population growth.
“It may sound simplistic, but if
Nigeria can assemble a leadership focused on getting us out of this Malthusian
Trap by gradually reversing the trend where population growth exceeds GDP
growth, many of these challenges we are currently facing will slowly but surely
fade away,”
In February 2018, he said, Nigeria
has just overtaken India as the world’s capital of extreme poverty according to
the World Poverty Clock. He argued that there are more extremely poor people in
Nigeria than there are in India, a country that has six times Nigeria’s
population.
“When
people do not have jobs and the means to start a business are beyond their
reach, they are incrementally much more likely to engage in criminal behaviours
like terrorism, kidnapping, militancy and armed robbery,” he noted.
“According to the African
Development Bank, in 2017, 18 African countries grew their Gross Domestic
Product above 5%. Nigeria, which was number one in 2014, was not amongst these
nations. We must figure out what has happened in the intervening years between
2014 and 2018 and fix what went wrong.
“What happened to brilliant
initiatives like the YouWIN programme which gave Nigerian youths the training
and funding to start their own businesses?”
THE NEED TO
RESTRUCTURE
The former vice president also
argued that Nigeria needs to be restructured, in order to fix “Nigeria’s broken
systems and not just a campaign gimmick that we fish out of our magic hats and
deny after we have gotten what we want.”
“Let me say this: The Restructuring
that I, Atiku Abubakar, envisions, will see no state receive less money from
the federation account than it currently does. I hope that will ease the
anxieties of some who oppose restructuring. Restructuring will not cheat you.
It will free you.
“When I was in government, we
reduced recurrent expenditure by introducing the monetisation policy and by
privatising many government enterprises, especially those that were consuming
resources without generating revenue. Those policies have been bastardized
today and we have seen a ballooning of our recurrent expenditure and shrinkage
of our capital expenditure. We must return to the basics.”
Mr. Atiku noted that the nation
cannot spend 70 per cent of its budget on recurrent expenditure at a time
Nigeria has more unemployed or underemployed people than the entire population
of the Republic of Cameroon.
He said, “Many of you in the
audience and those of you watching from home may be surprised to know that when
I was a teenager, the Saudi Royal Family came to Nigeria for medical tourism
and precisely to the University College Hospital, Ibadan.
“Can
you imagine how I feel that now that I am an adult, Nigerians, and especially
our leaders, are Africa’s number one medical tourists.
“We have to enact laws to prevent
leaders from diverting public funds from the public health sector to the
treatment of the elite in the best hospitals abroad. If you can afford it from
your own private resources, then pay for it. But do not make the tax payer pay
for it.
“We are in critical times, and as I
conclude, I want to urge a paradigm shift in Nigeria. Our elite are treated in
Europe. Big Brother Naija is being broadcast from South Africa and Nike is
unveiling our FIFA World Cup Jersey in London. Is this the extent to which we
have outsourced Nigeria? As far as I am concerned, if it concerns Nigeria, it
must be done in Nigeria, not abroad. Not abroad.”
On the security around the country,
the former vice president said he feels the pain of the people of Borno, Benue,
Taraba, Adamawa, Plateau, Kaduna and now Zamfara, saying it is time to end the
killings.
“I feel your pains on the recent
deaths you have suffered and the time has come for all Nigerians to say
together, no more! These senseless killings must end!” he said.
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