Please, Go Tell Senator Godswill Akpabio… -By Tony Eluemunor

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu must be the world’s unluckiest President if the Number Three Citizen, does not know the truth about the economic doldrums the nation is squirming under…or worse still, preferred to hide the bitter truth.   Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, said February 21, 2024, that state Governors have received N30bn each to reduce economic hardships, so the problems should have been over.

Hear him: “An “unverified report” indicated that state governors received N30 billion each from the Federation Account to ameliorate inflation and the high cost of food in their respective states” apart from the N2 billion released to governors out of the N5 billion loan it offered to each state as a palliative to cushion the effect of the removal of fuel subsidy”. Akpabio’s: “every state government should utilise the funds received towards ensuring that food is available in the country.”

That is enough to make someone eat his heart out. If the Senate President does not realise that Nigeria is fast losing the economic war facing it, a war in which government handouts to certain individuals would be of no help, then Nigeria has no Senate President and President Tinubu has lost all the inputs he should expect from the

head of the Legislature. Runaway inflation is ravaging the land. Did Akbabio expect the state Governors to buy food stuff, the cooking utensils, the dinning set furniture, clothes, medicaments, shoes, farming implements, meet the transportation and every other thing EACH individual is in need off? And when did palliative-giving become a government’s chief economic policy? And for how long will the handouts continue? What would they achieve?

What really is the trouble with the Nigerian economy? Any teenager could reduce it to three basic things. One, lack of the electricity to power the industries and mum and pop businesses to improve the economy’s productive base and provide employment that would pour tax revenue to the government. Two, the humongous dollar outlay for the purchase of just one item; petrol.   Three, the Fulani herdsmen and kidnappers-fueled national insecurity that is killing agriculture as farmers have abandoned their farms and to have a farm plantation is to render oneself open to kidnappers.

As only the Federal government has the capacity, let alone the responsibility, to mint the policies that have nationwide impact, this ball is in its court. If an Akpabio cannot tell the President the simple truth, then President Tinubu is to be pitied. A young Akpabio probably danced to the Mili Vanilli “Blaim It On The Rain” music track in the 1990s. The lyrics: “Gotta blame it on something, Blame it on the rain that was falling, Blame it on the stars that didn’t shine that night, whatever you do, don’t put the blame on you”.

Akpabio must have taken this to heart; he even blamed “COVID-19”. To add to the shame, the Deputy Senate President, Barau Jibrin, noted that “the worsening economic situations are not peculiar to Nigeria but is worldwide”; the United Kingdom, the U.S. “name it. So, it is not peculiar to Nigeria. The Russia-Ukraine war and the Middle East crisis have created a situation where prices of goods and commodities all over the world have gone up”.

Haba, Deputy Senate President, haba! Economists measure inflationary rates using Consumer Price Index. How could the Russian-Ukraine war kill Nigerian economy and cause runaway inflation when in Russia the inflation rate from 1997 to 2024 shows little changes, 2021, 6.69%, 2022, 13.77%, 2023, 5.28%, and this 2024, 6.34%. Ukraine? Oh, that would make you weep. The National Bank of Ukraine, in January, revised its inflation forecast for 2024 downwards from 9.5% to 8.6%. The bank predicts inflation will stand at 5% by the end of the first quarter before rising to 6.6% in the second quarter and 8.8% in the third quarter. From another report: “Consumer price inflation in Ukraine averaged 14.1% in the ten years to 2022, significantly above the Eastern Europe regional average of 7.7%.”

The UK? Its National Office of Statistics; “The CPIH annual inflation rate was 5.1% in Jan. 2004. Down from 5.2% in Dec. 2023, which was the highest rate since Nov 1991 when it was 6.5%”.   And the US? Prices increased by 3.1% in January 2024 compared to 6.4% a year ago. But Nigeria? Headline inflation rate was 29. 9% in Jan. 2024 from 28.92 the previous month. Food inflation was 35.93% in Jan. 2024 from 39.93 in Dec 2023. Oh, I nearly forgot that the Deputy Senate President mentioned the Middle-East crisis. The Israeli Consumer Price Index fell from 3% in Jan. 2003 to 2.6% in 2034. And Nigeria is even worse off than Palestine where inflation rate jumped to 19% in Jan 2024 from 15.2% the previous month, the highest hike since 1998 – the highest increases came from transport (38.6%) food and non-alcoholic beverages (32.2%) alcoholic beverages and tobacco; 27.1%.

Now, CBN Journal of Applied Statistics Vol. 3 No.1 43 Threshold Effect of Inflation on Economic Growth in Nigeria posits: “It is widely believed that price stability promotes long-term economic growth, whereas high inflation is inimical to growth”. So, it is clear Nigeria is sinking and the Senate leadership is deodorizing the ugly truth.

“A refinery that goes unused is little more than scrap metal and used pipe. And those who run a marketing system need oil to pass through it. Otherwise, they, too, have nothing but financial losses. The intensity of those needs vary at different times but the underlying imperative is a constant of the industry”. That came from the first page of chapter six, page 114 of Daniel Yergin’s “The Prize, the Epic Quest for Oil, Money and Power”. That is why NNPC is a drain on Nigeria. That President Mohammadu Buhari, a Federal Commissioner for Oil in the 1970s could watch Nigeria’s four refineries die under his eight-year watch as both Oil Minister and President, condemned Nigeria into the present mess. But it is Tinubu’s duty to proffer solutions now.   This is no time for useless excuses.