A senior lawyer in Lagos, Ademola Owolabi, has accused the national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, of being a populist in the fight against Coronavirus pandemic in Nigeria.
The lawyer said while Mr Tinubu’s political mileage, thoughts, statements, and advices cannot be lightly dismissed, he suffers from the burden of populism.
“Those who have been unfortunate to dismiss his views can ask the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). To have been in charge of Lagos State since 1999 is not a light matter.
“Correspondingly, the burden placed on him by history is that his position at all times must be carefully considered and if need be, debated by his hordes of experts at his beck and call.
“It is with the above in mind that one is left wondering why would the Asiwaju advised the Federal Government to print more Naira note and compete with the United States in currency printing.
“Yes, the economy is bad and has been further afflicted by the COVID-19 global pandemic which is threatening the global economy. It is seducing to embrace populism – a political system that ignores sound economic perspective by panders to the untrained impulse of the masses: the end result is always disastrous”, Mr. Owolabi told POLITICS NIGERIA.
He added: “Indeed, the political journey of Asiwaju Tinubu can be viewed from political populism. For example, the creation of 37 additional local councils in Lagos State has done nothing to improve the lots of Lagosians except that it allows the Leader to fix some of his political jobbers into offices.”
“The Federal Government – even under his government (as a co-owner of the Buhari/Osinbajo government) refuses to recognise those political squirts being referred to as Local Council Development Areas. The monthly allocation from the Federation Accounts still goes to the twenty constitutionally recognised local councils.
“As such, tasks and functions reserved for the Local Governments have been taken over by the Lagos State Government which makes the argument for the 37 LCDAs untenable.
“To the issue of printing more naira notes, the Asiwaju was only speaking the language of the masses: titillating populism. Print more naira notes. Put more naira in peoples’ pockets. They all sound nice but unhelpful.
“Firstly, there is no shortage of naira notes in Nigeria. The issue is simple: due to the combination of factors (some self-inflicted by this government, others inherited), the economy lies prostrate. Nigeria is broke, poor and broken.
“Its agricultural sector has been laid wasted by protracted herdsmen/farmers violence. As such, without COVID-19, our food production has dwindled. Secondly, the Boko Haram insurgency in the North East is a drain-pipe on the human and material resources of Nigeria. The failure to end that war or negotiate a ceasefire has ensured that food production from the North East has been lost.
“Thirdly is the over-bloated governance structure of bi-camera legislature, thirty-six feeding bottle states, several ministers and a whole lot of government offices that feed fat on the national patrimony. It is the need to feed these MDAs that consistently ensured that more than 70 percent of our earnings is spent on recurrent expenditure leaving nothing worthwhile to build the much-needed infrastructure.”
He continued: “Rather than printing more naira notes which will simply chase unavailable goods and cause hyperinflation as we have seen in Zimbabwe and Uganda under Roberts Mugabe and Idi Amin – which led to generational poverty; we should do the following:
“One, end the herdsmen’ violence across Nigeria so that the farmers can access their lands and farm produce. No responsible government will allow such violence to go on or treat it with kid gloves. A case in hand is that of the Presidential spokesman who told the disparate people of Benue to vacate their lands for cow!
“Two: the Federal and States’ Government must cut wages of the political class. Cutting wages may not be enough, we must go a step further to take a critical look at whether we need a Bi-camera legislature? Do we need thirty-six states and the attendant cost of maintaining them? Can we have 18 states? Do we need hordes of ministers and commissioners? A lot of government agencies are not adding up, can we ask them? There may be job losses but creating more tables of inefficiency has not helped. Why not prepare a robust severance package for those who will be eased out rather than maintaining a bloated/ghost workforce that has simply added to the problem of doing business in Nigeria?
“If we love the masses as the populists claim, then, we must do things that secure their tomorrow even if we will suffer some pain today. I do not see the way out of this present arrangement where sound economic policies are subsumed under political expediency.
“My third advise is that the Federal Government must have the political will to solve the question of Igbo and minority marginalisation. It is foolhardy to keep calling Nnamdi Kanu and his IPOB members terrorists while the same government is rehabilitating captured Boko Haram members who wilfully took arms against Nigeria and Nigerians. I do not think or believe the Igbos are in support of dismembering Nigeria. However, where a constituent part of Nigeria feels aggrieved, common sense demands that we address that matter and strengthen the union. ”
“Printing more naira does not help. In Venezuela, similar advise was given and taken. That nation was brought to its knees. There must be an end to populism. Let us end this piece by quoting Albert Einstein: not everything that counts can be counted; and not everything that is counted, truly counts!”
I think Bola Tinubu was right. He suggested ways to temporarily address challenging economic issues/problems brought in by coronavirus. The writer is proffering some recommendations which hangs on long term effect whereas we need some economic instruments to temporarily hold at bay the tragic consequences that coronavirus might cast on us.