Okenyi Kenechi
President Muhammadu Buhari does not have any plans for Nigeria, except, perhaps the North. That is true. And he does not want to have a plan for the country except the North. Also true. When I say the North, I don’t mean the poor North but the elite North who are after political appointments, Oil blocks and cattle colonies for their cows.
Northern Nigeria is a cesspool of illiteracy, diseases and drug abuse. It is also dragging the whole country back and has been holding her down from meeting the expectations of the citizenry for half a century. The elites have not only made sure that the ordinary Northerner does not have access to basic necessities like education and health. They are digging holes that will engulf the whole region in the process. If there is one fact that shows that political appointments do not benefit the masses but a few elites, look no farther than the core North.
The past administration of President Goodluck Jonathan built Almajiri schools in the North in a bid to bridge the educational gap between the North and South. However, the administration of Muhammadu Buhari has abandoned those schools in pursuit of 18th-century lifestyle in the name of Ruga. Cows’ welfare has now become the most important and most desired policy of the administration.
In the 21st century when the world is using tech to solve its problems, Nigeria conducted an election using an abacus. Despite the fact that billions were budgeted for the electronic transmission of votes. So instead of talking of tech colonies, tech routes, etc, it is cows that we are discussing.
Under the Buhari’s administration, Nigeria became the world’s poverty farm. Not even during the civil war did Nigeria achieve such a feat. According to the World Lab Poverty Clock, from June 2018, 6 persons cross the poverty line every single minute in Nigeria. This fact prompted world economic Forum to outline three approaches the country must follow to escape poverty; Invest in girls’ education, invest in health and well-being, expand economic opportunities and embrace technology. None of the approaches listed includes the resettlement of wandering Fulanis from the whole Africa in Nigeria which was what Ruga plans to achieve.
Here are things which are supposed to worry president Buhari but are not:
The chronological annual GDP growth in Nigeria
2011…………. 5.31%
2012…………. 4.21%
2013…………. 5. 49%
2014…………. 6.22%
2015…………. 2.79%
2016…………. – 1.58%
2017…………. 0.82 %
2018…………. 1.93%
The chronological average inflation rate in Nigeria.
2013…….. 8.5%
2014……..8.05%
2015……. 9.01%
2016……. 15.7%
2017…….16.5%
2018…… 12.4%
2019…… 14.27%
These indices support the fact that the Buhari led administration is a monumental disaster. These figures are what is supposed to drive nationwide discourse, debates and policy shift, academic researches but no, it is Ruga.
When the government seems to talk, it regurgitates the usual rhetorics of blaming past administrations. However, when the PDP came in 1999, the Power sector had the following stats:
Generation = 1.57 GW
Transmission = 1.5 GW
Distribution = 1.37GW
When the PDP left in 2015, they left the following stats:
Generation = 10.06 GW ( upgraded by 8.43)
Transmission = 7: GW ( upgraded by 5.5)
Distribution = 5.05 GW (upgraded by 3.680
Total upgrade 17.61 GW with ongoing projects at various stages of completion that they handed over. Right now, Nigeria generates a little over 4: GW.
Other complex Key performance indices (KPIs) used as metrics to measure the performance of governments are in the negative after increasing fuel prices, creating new taxes and increasing foreign debt portfolio.
In 2018, Nigeria had 11 poor ratings from continental and Global ratings which signified the failure of the “know-how “ and “how-to” in running things to obtain results according to Professor Asonumaka Wakama George.
The ratings as enumerated by the professor includes but not limited to:
- Annual Corruption Perception Index
Nigeria’s corruption perception worsened between 2016 and 2017 according to the annual Corruption Perception Index, CPI, by Transparency International. Nigeria slipped by 12 positions in the country rankings, from 136 in 2016 to 148 in 2017. The rankings are from 1 to 180, with 180 indicating the country having the worst perception of corruption.
- International Press Freedom Index
Nigeria’s ranking in the international press freedom index has witnessed steady declined since 2015. The country is currently ranked 122 out of 180 countries according to the 2017 edition of the annual survey. The country fell from 111 in 2015 to 116 in 2016 and has fallen again to 122 in 2017, entering the “red zone” for press freedom.
- Rule of Law Index
Nigeria was downgraded by the World Justice Project (WJP) 2017/2018 Rule of Law Index. The country currently ranks 97 out of 113 countries, dropping one position from the previous ranking. The index measures the adherence to the rule of law across 113 countries worldwide.
- RMB’s Africa Investment Attractiveness Index
Nigeria has fallen from the top 10 in the Where to Invest in Africa 2018, Rand Merchant Bank’s (RMB) Investment Attractiveness Index. Nigeria fell from No 6 on the list to number 13. The Investment Attractiveness Index balances economic activity against the relative ease of doing business.
- Global Retail Development Index
Nigeria’s global ranking in retail development dropped from the 19th position recorded in 2016 to 27 out of 30 countries surveyed in 2017. Nigeria’s total sales from the retail sector dropped from $125bn in 2016 to $109bn in 2017. The Global Retail Development Index measures retail investments based on all relevant macroeconomic and retail-specific variables in developing countries.
- World Economic Forum Networked Readiness Index
Nigeria dropped seven places to rank 119 in the Networked Readiness Index ranking conducted by the World Economic Forum. The NRI is an indicator that measures a country’s ICT development by its ability to implement and take full advantage of ICTs.
- Global Competitiveness Index (GCI)
Nigeria’s ranking dropped to 127th in 2016 GCI analysis. Nigeria deteriorated by 3 places from 124th in 2015-2016 to 127th in 2016-2017 ranking released by the World Economic Forum (WEF). The GCI index measures the set of institutions, policies, and factors that set the sustainable current and medium-term levels of economic prosperity. The drop in ranking is attributed to two core pillars, the macroeconomic and financial market efficiency.
- Ernst and Young’s Africa Attractiveness Index
Nigeria declined to the 17th position on Ernst and Young’s Africa Attractiveness Index (AAI) 2017. This is a two-step decline from the AAI 2016 ranking. The 2017 report revealed that the number of new FDI projects in Nigeria declined to 51 in 2016 from 53 in 2015.
- World Internal Security and Police Index
Nigeria Police ranked bottom in Africa and 127th in the world, making the country with the worst police in the world according to the 2016 World Internal Security and Police Index (WISPI) released by the International Police Science Association (IPSA) and the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP). Nigeria was followed by countries like the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Uganda, and Pakistan and the report attributed Nigeria’s low rank to the rising cases of terrorism, corruption and the low number of police. The WISPI ranks the police based on 16 indicators around their ability to address internal security issues in their countries across four domains – capacity, process, legitimacy and outcomes.
- Worst Electricity Supply
Nigeria was ranked the second-worst nation in electricity supply according to a World Economic Forum report released by The Spectator Index on the 15th of January, 2018. Nigeria suffered a power to 3,851 megawatts according to the ranking which puts only Yemen ahead of other countries like Nigeria, Haiti, Lebanon and Malawi.
- Nigeria Ranked Low on Budget Transparency Index
Nigeria slipped into 90th place behind Zimbabwe and Afghanistan in the global Open Budget index released on Thursday. Nigeria’s score on the open budget index dipped from 24 in 2015 to 17. In Africa, Nigeria currently ranks 23 behind Rwanda, Zimbabwe and Liberia. Among the African countries, South Africa led on the index and was closely followed by Uganda, Senegal, Ghana, Namibia, Kenya, Morocco, and Egypt, in that order.
The Open Budget Index assesses the comprehensiveness and timeliness of budget information that governments make publicly available.
According to BudgIT, the federal government of Nigeria provides her citizens with insufficient budget information making it difficult for taxpayers to understand how elected officials utilise available resources. In addition, it argued that the country’s budget process takes very little feedback from the public, and the final budget document does not reveal how the meagre feedbacks are used “Nigeria’s low rank can be connected to the failure of the federal government to produce the mid-year review.
Also, the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and the Budget Implementation Reports were published late while the content of all budget documents produced in Nigeria falls short on the minimum acceptable global standards as itemised in the Global Initiative for Fiscal Transparency Framework.
Despite all these, our major concern is Ruga? Ruga for the herd-of-state.
Despite the killings and destruction by the militant herdsmen for whom the president wants states to issue lands to, Nigeria is nowhere to be found in the Global cattle business fact sheet.
In the Top 10 Nations Cattle inventory 2017.
- INDIA 303MILLION.
- BRAZIL 226MILLION.
- CHINA 100MILLION.
- USA 93MILLION.
- EU 89MILLION.
- ARGENTINA 53M.
- AUSTRALIA 27M.
- RUSSIA 18MILLION.
- MEXICO 16MILLION.
- TURKEY 14MILLION.
B. TOP 10 MILK EXPORTERS.
1. NEW ZEALAND $4.4B.
2. GERMANY $2.6B.
3. NETHERLANDS $1.9B.
4. FRANCE $1.5B.
5. The USA $1.4BILLION.
6. BELGIUM $1.2B.
7. AUSTRALIA $852M.
8. BELARUS $637M.
9. UK $569MILLION.
10. SAUDI ARABIA $556M.
C. TOP 10 BEEF EXPORTING NATIONS 2016.
1. AUSTRALIA $5.6B.
2. The USA $5.2BILLION.
3. BRAZIL $4.3BILLION.
4. INDIA $3.7BILLION.
5. NETHERLANDS $2.7B.
6. IRELAND $2BILLION.
7. NEW ZEALAND $1.9B.
8. CANADA $1.5BILLION.
9. URUGUAY $1.4B.
10. GERMANY $1.3B.
None of these countries made it a national policy to create colonies for cows. They were purely private sector driven. However, if the government wants to take lands, it knows where it should be looking.
In Nigeria’s land surface area ranks Niger State has larger landmass than the whole Sout West minus Lagos while Kogi which is the 13th largest in terms of landmass, has more land than the entire South East. These states have also volunteered to provide lands for the programme but it was quickly suspended after states in the South rejected it.
The President and his advisers should study what led to the Central African Republic’s civil war and maybe then, he will stop looking for crises where none exists and focus on the business of proper governance and lift the country from the ditch it drove her into.
- Niger State 76,363KM²
- Borno State 70,898KM²
- Taraba State 54,473KM²
- Kaduna State 46,053KM²
- Bauchi State 45,837KM²
- Yobe State 45,502KM²
- Zamfara State 39,762KM²
- Adamawa State 36,917KM²
- Kwara State 36,825KM²
- Kebbi State 36,800KM²
- Benue State 34,059KM²
- Plateau State 30,913KM²
- Kogi State 29,833KM²
- Oyo State 28,454KM²
- Nasarawa State 27,117KM²
- Sokoto State 25,973KM²
- Katsina State 24,192KM²
-
Jigawa State 23,154KM²
-
Cross River State 20,156KM²
- Kano State 20,131KM²
- Gombe State 18,768KM²
- Edo State 17,802KM²
- Delta State 17,698KM²
- Ogun State 16,762KM²
- Ondo State 15,500KM²
- Rivers State 11,077KM²
- Bayelsa State 10,773KM²
-
Osun State 9,251KM²
-
Federal Capital Territory 7,315KM²
- Enugu State 7,161KM²
- Akwa Ibom State 7,081KM²
- Ekiti State 6,353KM²
- Abia State 6,320KM²
- Ebonyi State 5,670KM²
- Imo State 5,530KM²
- Anambra State 4,844KM²
- Lagos State 3,345KM²
