39.4m people may lose jobs to COVID- 19, Osinbajo panel warns
• Pandemic cuts N185b from monthly earnings • Buhari hails citizens’ resilience • Tasks ECOWAS on recovery plan
FROM the Vice President Yemi Osinbajo- led Committee on Economic Sustainability Plan came warning that about 39.4 million peo
ple might be unemployed by the end of 2020, if government failed to take preemptive measures. The panel also warned that
millions of other citizens might fall into extreme poverty before the coronavirus pandemic ends, as Gross Domestic Product
( GDP) slides to between minus 4.40 per cent and minus 8.91 per cent. According to the committee, the severity of the situation will depend
on the length of the lockdown period and strength of the country’s economic response.
In its report presented to
President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday, the Osinbajo panel predicated its position on the mandatory
nance system. I am strongly of the view that, in order to live more effectively with the challenge of development, corruption and insecurity, we need to begin to build a truer nation of more viable federating units that would have responsibility for addressing these issues.”
He said: “Restructuring means a new constitution, adopting a constitution that would be truly people’s constitution, and a constitution that would aim to address these national challenges. If the Executive and the Legislature buy into it, they would take steps to organise a Constituent Assembly that would be genuine representatives of different sections of this country and the Assembly will discuss and agree on the new constitution.
“I don’t think that the National Assembly, as it is presently constituted, can amend or create the constitution that the country needs. But because it is the National Assembly, the process is that they adopt legislation establishing the real Constituent Assembly that will be responsible for determining the new constitution. I do not see it having a proper role in determining the new constitution.
He said further: “A new, more proper constitution would determine the electoral cycle. If we proceed to have 2023 elections without the new constitution, you would just be repeating what exists at the moment. And everybody would agree that, at the moment, the country is not faring as well as it should be.
“I do not believe that the sort of constitution that would meet the need of this country emerged from the 2014 conference. It did go some way but it did not create the constitution that would address Nigeria’s challenges.
Anyaoku added: “What I am saying is the need to create a constitution that would address Nigeria’s challenges. If you look back at constitutions of 1960 and 1962, Nigeria was faring a lot better than it is now. If we had continued with that constitution, Nigeria, by now, would have been in a much developed and in a better state than we have now.
“We need to return to a truer federation, which it was at that time, because what we have now is more of a federation in name than reality. My idea of the truer federation for Nigeria is based on more viable federating units. The 2014 conference document did not produce more viable federating units.”
Pan- Yoruba socio- political organisation, Afenifere, said Nigeria is heading “nowhere on the road of progress except we return to the spirit of June 12 and not the symbolism we are holding at the moment. We have to return the faith of our people in the ballot box like June 12 and restructure the polity so we can make progress under federalism.”
It disclosed this in a statement signed by its leader, Pa Reuben Fasoranti, in commemoration of the 27th anniversary of the June 12, 1993 presidential election. Describing the election as a watershed in “our troubled polity,” it noted: “As we celebrate another anniversary of June 12, now, for the first time, at the national level, it’s perhaps the most auspicious moment to do a critical assessment of our journey on the democratic road.
“That it took us 26 years to give partial closure to June is a shame. While we acknowledge the official recognition that was done last year, we insist that repairing the damage the annulment did to the polity is more than holiday.
“Abiola promised HOPE in the land but we are under hopelessness in the land as we have regressed under all indices. ‘ Farewell to poverty’ was the slogan of Abiola’s campaign but we are the global headquarters of poverty today. The ongoing COVID- 19 has exposed how totally dysfunctional our society is. Gainful employment for our teeming youths has become a mirage. Our economy, rather than build on the enviable model instituted at independence, has become a contraption in which the quantum of our revenue is eaten up by corruption.
“The persistent ethnic cleansing in Nigeria, especially since 2015 in Agatu land and continuously in Southern Kaduna, and the seeming complicit posture of the government in this evil, marks a significant level in the unbundling of the shaky pillars of Nigeria.
“The present government has not only shown a lack of creative ability to fund governance through federalism but is piling billions of dollars in loans for that purpose with long- term debt burden on generations of Nigerians.”
On its part, the National Democratic Coalition ( NADECO) enjoined President Muhammadu Buhari to restore Nigeria’s federal system of government, as the ruling All Progressives Congress ( APC) promised Nigerians in 2015. It said: “The current centralist and unitary government that has occasioned inequity, unfair play, injustice, discrimination and disrespect for the rule of law within the skewed, warped and lopsided national structure are unsustainable and cannot endure any longer in Nigeria’s heterogeneous society.”
In a statement by SecretaryGeneral Mr. Ayo Opadokun, NADECO said the seeming disregard for the APC’S electoral promise constitutes a betrayal of public trust.
Similarly, Aare Onakakanfo of Yorubaland, Gani Adams, noted that Nigeria must be restructured into federating units, if it wishes to be from “bondage”.
“When the federating units are allowed to develop at their own pace, there will be mutual benefits and progress. The federating states will be geared towards achieving the best for the people at the grassroots. This is possible when there is healthy competition among the federating units. The issue of security and state police would be taken care of without fear or favour. That is how it is in other climes where democracy thrives,” he said in a statement by his Special Assistant on Media, Kehinde Aderemi.
Adams further expressed joy that part of the dreams of the Oodua Peoples Congress ( OPC) under his leadership was realised with the recognition of June 12 as Democracy Day.
Also, the spokesman of the Middle Belt Forum, Isuwa Dogo, noted: “Buhari must set aside his ethnic, religious and sectional approach to governance and revert to the 2014 conference report. Otherwise, what we call Democracy Day or June 12 is a ‘ 419 democracy and recognition’. Everything and anything this administration stands for is absolutely opposite to what democracy stands for. And for Nigerians to really appreciate that Buhari recognised June 12 as Democracy Day, he must begin to put in place the implementation of the 2014 National Conference recommendation.”
Dr. Kunle Olajide, Secretary General, Yoruba Council of Elders ( YCE), said: “Until Nigeria is able to find a sincere and committed leader, who will revert to the last conference report with a view to implementing its recommendations and restructure the country, June 12, as Democracy Day, means nothing.”
He nevertheless noted that the honour granted to Abiola by Buhari “was a good gesture” that would also rub off on “all those who lost their lives for June 12.”
But Alhaji Tanko, a former liaison officer to the late President Shehu Shagari, didn’t think there was much to celebrate about Abiola’s sacrifice and June 12. Abiola was not the first martyr of democracy in Nigeria, he said, noting: “Many Nigerians, especially the founding fathers of the country, started and paid the supreme price for democracy.”
He however advocated “three critical issues” that must be addressed for the country to move forward democratically. “There is a need to have viable political parties that would be owned and controlled by the people unlike the ones we have at present.
“We need a credible election system that will reflect the wishes of the electorate and not a situation, like we are seeing, where the courts decide the outcomes of election. There is also the need for Nigeria to have a sound and credible judicial system,” he said.
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar also admitted: “Just like the late Bashorun M. K. O. Abiola continues to be the symbol of the June 12 struggle, there are many others like the late Chief Alfred Rewane; my mentor, Tafida Shehu Musa Yar’adua, Alhaja Kudirat Abiola and many more too numerous to mention who lost their lives in order for us to have a democracy. Yet there are so many other heroes who remain unsung. They are Nigerians who have fallen victims of bad governance.”
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