Comfort from Senate in time of rage across the nation

The National Assembly could not have captured the present wave of rage across the country better than the homily by the President of the Senate Dr Bukola Saraki, in his welcome address to Senators last Tuesday.Welcoming them from their scheduled end of first legislative year vacation, Saraki hit the right chords when he dwelt on the economic privations that have become the lot of Nigerians from all stations of life. The merit of the homily rests in the balance it provided between the debilitating state of affairs in which the country skidded even avoidably into a recession, and the prospects of a way out of the problem. The icing on the cake is his outline of a template, on which to build a new super economy, that will invent the future for the country, and take her into winning ways.

Rightly relevant to the present mood of the country is the expectation in the speech that a reasonable portion of N6 trillion provided for spending in the 2016 budget will end up in the pockets of Nigerians. To buttress his point, Saraki referred to the United States of America which under the Herbert Hoover administration launched the “Buy America’ policy, and is the forerunner to the wide swathe of protectionist policies by successive governments of that country for local businesses. He went further in the speech to cite the cases of other countries - especially China which vigorously protects its local industries, but has turned Nigeria into an off shore ‘China Town’ market where all forms of junk and muck that are fit only for Chinese trash sites, are now dumped, ostensibly with the connivance of unscrupulous Nigerians.

Due to the dragon-like economic invasion by the Chinese, many Nigerian businesses - whether operating in the organised private sector (OPS) or the unsung informal sector, have largely become orphans in their own country. Classical economic history teaches that the key to the economic breakthrough of the major European powers from the earliest days of the Industrial Revolution, was in the policy of looking inwards to protect their underbelly economies, and the practice is still in vogue among them. Even the latest economic drama of BREXIT which is the catch phrase for the exit of Britain from the European Union, is fuelled by selfserving economic considerations of that country.

In Saraki’s words, “if government is obligated to patronizes local businesses, wealth will be created, local industries would grow, productivity would increase and we would begin to see real reduction in mass unemployment”. Nothing could be closer to the truth if the task of pulling the country out of its present state of economic drift must be arrested. In context the aim is to address the worst forms of privations such as mass poverty, rising cost of living, increase in retrenchment and job losses.

For instance it is easy to appreciate how many billions of naira will be available to Nigerian businesses and jobs saved, if there is a presidential order from Buhari that henceforth, all furniture purchases in all federal government offices, hospitals and schools nationwide, should not only be sourced locally, but comprise a preponderance of local material. That will indeed be the day!

While it may have become fashionable to blame all the country’s woes on the fall in the price of oil in the world market, a bigger issue is how to think out of the box and reposition Nigeria towards making her resilient in the face of future economic shocks as are presently her.Given the nature of the dynamics of a nation’s life, political, economic and social challenges shall remain the order of the day for as long as humanity exists. The best approach for any government therefore is to establish a protocol for sustainable progression of the nation, towards ever improving conditions of living as well as opportunities for the citizenry to meet their legitimate daily needs.

Without doubt the President The limited gains in the economy front is not for want of efforts at changing the order but that of limited impact of the efforts. Among its numerous initiatives is the situation whereby just last week the cabinet held a top level retreat in the Presidential Villa at which penetrating insights into the economy were drawn by government officials and selected experts Buhari has demonstrated the commitment of the administration to the aforementioned objective as can be appreciated from his pronouncements and the visible efforts of the administration so far. The dividends from the commitment of the executive arm under him have manifested in areas like containment by the gallant Nigerian military of the vicious insurgents in the northeast of the country as well as militants in other areas, along with the fight against corruption. But the same cannot be said for the economy, which is the backbone of the polity.

The limited gains in the economy front is not for want of efforts at changing the order but that of limited impact of the efforts. Among its numerous initiatives is the situation whereby just last week the cabinet held a top level retreat in the Presidential Villa at which penetrating insights into the economy were drawn by government officials and selected experts. This was just as far reaching recommendations were made at the forum. Good vision. Good work. Good talk.

Yet at this point the African proverb which observes that “a deluge of words no matter how huge, cannot fill a basket” comes in. In the context of the fore going the homily from the Senate drops into clear perspective as a welcome tonic for a hurting Nigerian nation. As the cliché goes “it is not what happens to a man that matters but how he takes it”. The time has come for concrete action by the administration as Nigerians are not ready for anything else as at now.

In the light of the past missteps by the executive in the economic front, the message from Saraki betrays a lacuna which is the absence of stakeholder collaboration in the effort to rescue the soul of Nigeria’s economy. It is easily recalled that for a greater part of the first legislative year of the Eighth National Assembly, the institution was subjected to serial excoriation by elements in the executive leading to some members of the public advancing unprogressive considerations like part legislature for the country. Other areas of seemingly contrived distraction were the invidious budget padding scandal and the court battles waged against the leadership of the federal legislature.

In a show of putting all of such twists and turns behind, and marching forward, the Senate President said in the address that “there is no other time in our history than now when the business of government needs to be conducted with great inclusiveness”. This is a clarion call for the executive to facilitate the interplay of all stakeholders in the economy.

Just as the true strength of a chain is in the weakest link, so the potency of the Nigerian economy does not rest only with the Dangotes, Adenugas and Julius Bergers. Until the cattle herder without whose efforts there will be no suya, and the Kalabari fisherman in the creeks of the Niger Delta are happy, so long shall the country’s woes remain unresolved. It is therefore in the interest of these and others that the words of comfort in Saraki’s homily matter.