The Monthly N400B Nigeria Must Not Fritter Away On ECOWAS’ Intervention In Niger -By Isaac Asabor

It is not calumnious to say that when former President Muhammadu Buhari took office in May 2015 that Nigeria’s GDP was $594 billion according to the Nigerian Export-Import Bank (NEXIM), an export credit agency. As also gathered from an opinion article titled, “Why Nigeria’s economy retrogressed under Buhari”, written by Mr David Adonri, a Stockbroker and the Managing Director/CEO of Highcap Securities Limited, and published on the online edition of Vanguard Newspaper of June 13, 2023, which says, “At the end of his tenure in May 2023, the country’s GDP had fallen to $460 billion according to reliable sources. Inflation rate in May 2015 was 8.7%. It galloped to 22.22% in April 2023.

Monetary Policy Rate, MPR, was 13% in May 2015. It increased to 18.5% in May 2023”, the need for an economic adviser on the expediency of reviving Nigeria economy was uncalled-for as it was very crystal clear that the state of the economy was, and still is, in a mess.

Given the foregoing, it is sagacious that those who are charged with the constitutional responsibilities of managing Nigeria’s economy from different spheres of public office should prudently and patriotically be seen to be managing public funds in order to meaningfully impact on the growth of the economy and the collective wellbeing of citizens.

Against the backdrop of the grim reality and the precarious state of Nigeria’s economy, it was not shocking to see some Nigerians exuding confidence and reposing hope in President Bola Tinubu’s vow at his swearing-in on May 29, 2023, for promising to expand the economy by at least six percent a year, lift barriers to investment, create jobs and unify the exchange rate, while also tackling rampant insecurity. In fact, in his inaugural speech, the President indicatively assured Nigerians that he has what it takes to revive Nigeria’s economy which has been in turmoil as Nigeria has continued to be struggling with massive debt, foreign exchange pressures, a depreciating currency, and record-high inflation.

With the look of things, particularly against the backdrop of the wobbling state of the economy, not a few Nigerians were cheerful and hopeful that things would surely get better when President Tinubu recently announced that over 1 trillion naira ($1.32 billion) has been saved in just over two months of scrapping the costly subsidy on petrol and the unification of the country’s multiple exchange rates.

However, the good news seems to have turned to ashes in the mouths of not a few Nigerians as they are apprehensive that the president and his ‘Paddy-Paddy’ political allies in the executive and legislative arms of government may acquiesce with him to deep hand into the money saved from the gains made from the removal of the oil subsidy to support ECOWAS in its interventionist efforts in Niger due to the fallout of the coup that recently occurred in the country.

Reasoning with facts that are inherent in the apprehension been expressed by not a few Nigerians since the leadership of ECOWAS in its reaction to the coup that occurred in Niger in the month of May, whereupon members of the sub regional issued a seven-day ultimatum to the Nigerien military to restore constitutional order and reinstate ousted President Muhammed Bazoum into office, once can conclude that their apprehension is not misplaced as Nigeria has in the past acted as “Father Christmas” by sponsoring virtually every project which ECOWAS undertook.

In fact, it was gathered from the online edition of the online edition of the Guardian newspaper of July 29, 2020 in its news story titled, “Nigeria contributed $1.17bn to ECOWAS in 16 years” that “Nigeria has paid more than 1,177 billion dollars to ECOWAS as its Community Levy contribution within the period 16 years.

“According to documents from a presentation by the ECOWAS Commission to Parliament at Plenary during its Virtual Second Extraordinary Session, Nigeria paid 853,310,564 UA (West Africa Unit of Account) for the period under review.

“The West African Unit of Account (WAUA) is the authorized currency used in ECOWAS. The exchange rate for July obtained from ECOWAS shows that one Unit of Account equals 1.3799633 dollars.

“Nigeria’s payment represents 40.42 per cent of the total payment of 2,913,088,908 dollars payment made by all the 15 member states, and is higher than payments made by 12 other countries put together except Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire.

“Ghana paid about 508,577 million dollars, Cote d’Ivoire 347,262 million dollars, while Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Gambia, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo paid a total of 879,711 million dollars.

“Ghana’s payment represents 17.45 per cent of the total sum, Cote d’Ivoire 11.9 per cent, while the cumulative payment by the other 12 countries represents 30.1 per cent”.

It was also gathered that within the period under review that Guinea Bissau paid the lowest amount of 6, 204 million dollars, representing 0.2 per cent of total community levy proceeds in the 16 years under review, and that the Community levy was adopted in 1996 by the Authority of Heads of State as the major funding for ECOWAS after the initial contribution regime seemed ineffective.

Going by the above, if all countries had paid their complete levy, Nigeria alone would have paid more than 1,842 billion dollars, representing 49.64 per cent of the total Community Levy accruable to ECOWAS.

Analyzing Nigeria’s financial involvement from the foregoing perspective, it is little wonder that the House of Representatives, sometime in July last year, resolved to review the benefit and contribution of the ECOWAS to Nigeria’s social and economic development.

At a plenary session, the lower legislative chamber mandated the committees on inter-parliamentary relations and ECOWAS parliament and foreign affairs to investigate Nigeria’s financial contribution to ECOWAS for 10 years period.

As part of the investigation, the committees will determine if the country’s financial contribution to ECOWAS is justifiable or not.

The resolution was reached following the adoption of a motion of urgent public importance sponsored by Awaji-inombek Abiante from Rivers.

While moving his motion, the Rivers legislator said Nigeria does not benefit “immensely” despite its more than $1.177 billion contribution to ECOWAS.

“In 16 years, Nigeria has contributed more than $1.177billion to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) as its community levy, and this is the highest contribution by any member state since inception,” he said.

“Nigeria has immensely contributed to the ECOWAS- power supply to member states, medical interventions and peacekeeping efforts in member states including the Gambia, Mali, Sierra Leone, Guinea Bissau, and Liberia among others.

At this juncture, it is expedient to urge President Bola Ahmed Tinubu not to push him to magnanimously contribute financially towards the restoration of Mohamed Bazoum back to power as ECOWAS at its second extraordinary summit in Abuja yesterday resolved to deploy a standby force to Niger in order to restore sanity in the West African country.

It is pragmatic to opine that this call is not in any way misplaced as the accruing gains from the removal of subsidy is exclusively meant for the betterment of Nigeria and Nigerians. After all, the president in his Democracy Day speech to Nigerians said the decision to remove the subsidy “Is one decision we must bear to save our country from going under and take our resources away from the stranglehold of a few unpatriotic elements.” Given the foregoing, it is expedient to urge the government under the leadership of Mr. Tinubu not to use the gain that would accrue from fuel subsidy removal for any different project other than the purpose it was meant for.

To justify this contextual call, it is germane to recall that Nigerians have been told and assured that the subsidy removal will save Nigeria N400 Billion monthly as Nigeria consumes 66.5 million liters of PMS daily, and that it will free up resources for other sectors of the economy, even as it will ensure more private sector participation in the production and importation of petroleum products which will open up the market, and allow government to focus on other key sectors of the economy.

Ostensibly to buttress the projection to be realistic, the President in July said Nigeria has saved over 1 trillion naira ($1.32 billion) in just over two months by scrapping the subsidy on petrol and the unification of the multiple exchange rates.