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Editorial: President Buhari, Stop The Reckless Borrowing

UNFAZED by public dismay and the admonition of experts, the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), with the enthusiastic support of the National Assembly, is plunging Nigeria deeper into debt at a reckless rate. His latest lunge for external borrowing hit a benumbed public, via a request to the pliant parliament for approval to borrow another $4.05 billion and €710 million in external loans. Ostensibly, the loans are for infrastructure, health, education, agriculture, human capital development, and COVID-19 response projects. Amid reports of debt servicing gulping almost all revenues, lack of accountability, revenue leakages, and limited impact of past borrowings, the headlong debt acquisition should be halted.

Unproductive national debt lowers national savings and income. It ignites higher interest payments, leading to large tax hikes and spending cuts, decreases the ability to respond to problems and greater risk of a fiscal crisis. Instead of binge borrowing, the Buhari regime can reduce the cost of governance, drastically plug revenue leakages, widely broaden the tax net, and sell off loss-making moribund state-owned enterprises.

Experts say a large debt encourages inflation, and if inflation is high, the debt will be serviced, and ultimately, paid off with cheaper naira. Equally exasperating is the vigorous support of the parliament for his debt addiction. Lawmakers treacherously fail to subject loan approval requests to rigorous scrutiny or caution. They do not exercise effective oversight over revenue-generating agencies despite reported massive leakages and unremitted income.

Between them, they are saddling current and future generations with unsustainable debts. Buhari cites his current request to borrow $4.05 billion and €710 from multilateral and private lenders as an addendum to the approved 2018-2021 borrowing plan. He said the funds would finance “key projects in each of the six geo-political zones,” including his pet project, the Kano-Niger Republic railway that is expected to gulp $1.96 billion, Lagos-Ibadan rail line modernization, Kaduna Bus Rapid Transport, and hybrid solar power infrastructure for the NASS complex.

Within days, rather than prepare to scrutinize the request, the Senate, through the chair of its committee on media and public affairs, Ajibola Basiru, was defending the loans and dismissing public apprehension. He argued that the loans were not new and were justified since they would fund “critical infrastructure and prepare our country for the future.” This assertion and Buhari’s promise of job creation are hotly disputed. Indeed, many cannot see any significant benefit from the debts taken so far. Simultaneously, the government is raising another $4 billion via the Eurobond issue.

Meanwhile, the debts are piling up with alarming rapidity while public revenues are becoming increasingly precarious. The Director-General of the Debt Management Office, Patience Oniha, said total public debts rose from N32.91 trillion in December 2020 to N35.46 trillion by June, this year. Buhari inherited a $10.31 billion external debt in 2015 and by March 31, this year had raised it to $32.85 billion. In naira, the external debt was 38.60 percent by June.

As this newspaper and leading economists have repeatedly argued, debts can be useful when taken with caution and applied judiciously to fund critical infrastructure; applied to projects that can generate revenue to repay or used in the short term to stimulate a flagging economy and revive productive, job-creating and export-boosting activities. Borrowing to fund consumption and bureaucracy, however, is particularly unwise.

Like the World Bank/IMF, the chairman of Buhari’s Presidential Economic Advisory Council, Doyin Salami, has again deplored the current debt profile as unsustainable. The government’s previous comforting debt-to-GDP ratio has spiked to 35 percent; the real marker of imminent disaster lies in the debt service-to-revenue ratio that averaged 97.7 percent from January to May this year. Borrowing to pay salaries, run an oversized, unproductive bureaucracy and maintain parasitic public officials in luxury is courting bankruptcy. Debt servicing has risen beyond the targets, hitting N3.01 trillion January-May, which is 53.8 percent of the total projected for fiscal 2021.

Buhari must change course before he drives Nigeria over the precipice. The NASS should be responsible. First, deficits must be slashed. Recklessly, between 2018 and June 2021, the government earned N12.79 trillion but spent N28.14 trillion, leaving a deficit of N15.35 trillion; expenditure is too high and should be drastically reduced by shutting down redundant agencies and stop creating new cost centers such as agencies, universities, and polytechnics.

Government should also maximize its revenue potential and block leakages: 60 agencies failed to remit revenues in defiance of the law. Banks withhold stamp duties worth billions and leakages cost losses of about N14 trillion annually, according to a former Budget Office director-general, Bode Agusto.

You cannot provide infrastructure with debt alone The UNDP prescribes a mix of domestic and foreign direct investment, public-private sector partnerships, private enterprise, and credit to close the infrastructure gap assessed at $3 trillion by the African Development Bank.

Buhari’s fixation on borrowing for all railways projects is self-defeating. Rather, the NASS should repeal the 1955 Railway Act to overthrow the federal monopoly and liberalize the sector to facilitate local and foreign investment. This also applies to the ports, airports, steel assets, and the oil and gas downstream. The EAC recommends that federal and state governments should radically improve the ease of doing business through new and improved legislation to attract investments and FDI that fell to $875 million in Q2 2021, the lowest since 2016.

Corruption, which PwC says bleeds over 30 percent from GDP, should be tamed. Losses from the chaotic Apapa Ports and their access roads should be eliminated as a priority. Loans should be directed at viable long-term projects that will stimulate production, jobs, and yield revenues, and at short-term quick wins instead of the prevailing political sharing culture that directs spending at unviable projects based on sectional, religious and private interests.

The NASS should be alive to its responsibilities by minutely scrutinizing all loan approval requests, assessing their value to national interest and repayment capability, and demanding strict accountability on all past, current, and future borrowing. Buhari and lawmakers should bequeath a viable job-creating economy to the youth and coming generations, not a mountain of poverty-inducing debt.

Article By:
Punch Editorial Board

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Jose Peseiro – Quick Facts About Super Eagle’s New Head Coach

The Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) on Wednesday the 29th of December after a video conference announced, Portuguese, Jose Peseiro as the new head coach of the Nigerian national team.

Peseiro is to take over from Austin Eguavoen who had been serving as the interim manager of the national team following the sacking of Gernot Rohr on December 13, 2021.

“After careful consideration of a memo presented by Chairman of the Technical and Development Sub-Committee, the Executive Committee endorsed a proposal for the appointment of Mr Jose Peseiro as the new head coach of the Super Eagles, following the end to the relationship with Mr Gernot Rohr,” the NFF said in a communique.

However, Peseiro would not immediately assume full responsibility for his new role as head coach, instead, Eguavoen would continue as coach of the Super Eagles until after the AFCON tournament which is slated to kick-off on the 9th of January in Cameroun. Peseiro would instead serve as an observer to Eguavoen at the AFCON tournament.

“…the Committee resolved that Mr. Augustine Eguavoen named the interim Head Coach, will lead the Super Eagles to the AFCON 2021 in Cameroon with Mr. Peseiro only playing the role of Observer.”

“It was unanimously agreed that the AFCON is a good avenue for Mr. Peseiro to launch a working relationship with Mr. Eguavoen, who will revert to his role as Technical Director (hence Mr. Peseiro’s immediate boss) after the AFCON.”

NFF boss, Amaju Pinnick, had earlier revealed that he consulted Roma coach, Jose Mourinho, over the choice of manager for Super Eagles. Mourinho recommended his namesake and countryman, Jose Peseiro.

Quick Facts About Jose Peseiro

The Super Eagles coach was born José Vítor dos Santos Peseiro on 4 April 1960 in Coruche, Portugal.
He had a 15-year playing career, playing for a long list of local clubs as a forward.
Jose Peseiro served as the assistant manager to Carlos Queiroz at Real Madrid in the 2003/2004 season.
His job as Nigeria’s head coach is his first time coaching an African national team.
His first job in Africa was as the coach of the Egyptian club, Al Ahly (2015/2016).
He won the Egyptian Premier League with Al Ahly in 2015/2016.
Jose Peseiro resigned from his last job as head coach of the Venezuela national team in August 2021 due to unpaid wages. He was appointed in February 2020.
He was the head coach of the Saudi Arabia national team from 2009 to 2011.
Some top-tier European clubs Peseiro has coached include Panathinaikos, Sporting CP, Rapid București, and FC Porto.
He led Sporting CP to the UEFA Cup Finals in 2004/2005.

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Lai Mohammed Identifies Seven Errors In The Leaked Lagos Panel #EndSARS Report

Since the Lagos State Judicial Panel report on the #EndSARS protest and the events at the Lekki tollgate on the 20th of October, 2020 found it way to the internet, there have been several reactions to it. While Nigerians, including the international community, have called on government to implement the recommendations of the panel’s report, the Federal Governmet had been largely quiet until now.

Yesterday, the Federal Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, came out to reinstate the belief of the Federal Government that the alleged Lekki tollgate massacre is nothing but a script written by those who seek to discredit the President Buhari administration.

He maintained this damning assertion while pointing out several flaws in the report which according to him, proved that the report was another witch hunt. The minister motioned to at least seven missteps of the panel in the report which has now questioned the credibility and thoroughness of their investigations after more than one year of sitting,

Here are seven ‘inconsistencies and errors’ in the controversial #EndSARS panel report that Lai Mohammed highlighted in his press briefing on Tuesday:

1. Ballistic Report

“The report threw away the testimony of ballistic experts who testified before it. The experts said, inter alia, in their testimony: ”The Team finds that from the medical data examined, including the
timeline of arrival at a medical facility and the nature of the injuries sustained by the victims, who were taken to the 5 medical facilities, that no military grade live ammunition (high-velocity) was fired at the protesters at Lekki Tollgate on 20th October 2020, within the timeframe of reference (18.30- 20.34hrs).

“That the GSW (Gun Shot Wounds) injuries (4 in number between 19:05 and 19:45 hrs), which were
examined by the Team, can be safely identified as being discharged by either low-velocity caliber and/or artisanal/12-gauge firearms (artisanal firearms are locally-fabricated weapons). What is however
certain is that had the military personnel deliberately fired military-grade live ammunition directly at the protesters; there would have been significantly more fatalities and catastrophic injuries recorded. This was clearly not the case.”

2. Forensics

“The same panel that said it deemed as credible the evidence of the Forensic Pathologist, Prof. John Obafunwa, that only three of the bodies on which post mortem were conducted were from Lekki and only one had gunshot injury went on to contradict itself by saying nine persons died of gunshot wounds at Lekki!”

3. Victim Testimony

“The man whose evidence (that he counted 11 bodies in a military van where he was left for dead before he escaped) was found to be crucial by the panel never testified in person. Rather, the video of his ‘testimony’ was played by someone else. It did not occur to the panel to query the veracity of the testimony of a man who said he was shot and presumed dead but still had time to count dead bodies inside a supposedly dark van at night!”

4. Bloodstains and Bullet Casings

“The panel said trucks with brushes underneath were brought to the Lekki Toll Gate in the morning of Oct. 21 2020 to clean up bloodstains and other evidence, but still found bullet casings at the same site when it visited on Oct. 30th, 2020. It said soldiers picked up bullet casings from Lekki Toll Gate on the night of Oct. 20th, 2020, yet claimed that policemen came to the same spot to pick the same bullet casings on Oct. 21st, 2020!”

5. Absent Families of the Victims

“The panel was silent on the family members of those reportedly killed, merely insinuating they were afraid to testify. Even goats have owners who will look for them if they do not return home, not to talk of human beings. Where are the family members of those who were reportedly killed at Lekki Toll Gate? If the panel is recommending compensation for the families, what are their identities and addresses? Who will receive the compensations when no family members have shown up to date?”

6. Victims List

“How can a Judicial Panel convince anyone that the names of some casualties of the Lekki Toll Gate incident listed as numbers 3 (Jide), 42 (Tola), and 43 (Wisdom) are not fictitious names.? Why did the Judicial Panel feel compelled to concoct a ”massacre in context” as a euphemism for ”massacre”? A massacre is a massacre. What is ”massacre in context?'”

How did a man who reported seeing the lifeless body of his brother himself end up being on the list of the panel’s deceased persons?

7. One-Sided Report

“The report never mentioned cases of police personnel who were brutally murdered or the massive destruction of police stations, vehicles, e.t c during the Endsars protest. Does this mean that the panel didn’t consider policemen and women as human beings? The report didn’t make any recommendation on the innocent people whose businesses were attacked and destroyed during the protest in Lagos. I think it was too busy looking for evidence to support its conclusion of ‘massacre in context’.”

News

Islamic Cleric, Gumi Builds School For Herdsmen; Calls On FG To Follow Suit

Controversial Islamic cleric, Sheikh (Dr.) Ahmad Gumi has revealed that he has established a school for herdsmen in the forest as a way of encouraging them to drop their violent ideologies and follow the path of peace and nation-building.

According to the sheik, the school which is located at Kagarko Grazing Reserve near Kohoto Village in Kaduna State is named Sheikh Uthman Bin Fodio Centre and was built by Sheikh Gumi funded Mosque Foundation Limited, Kaduna.

The Muslim preacher who has been accused of being a “bandit sympathizer” has also called on the Federal Government to follow his lead also said that the bandits and killer herdsmen have shown willingness to end the killings and kidnappings if they can have access to basic education and other amenities.

He said: “If the center which is designed to educate the herdsmen is replicated everywhere in the Country, Nigerians will live in peace. Instead of spending billions on military hardware to fight the bandits, Nigeria should spend such money on schools and teachers. I have spoken with the bandits and they have expressed willingness to drop their arms and embrace peace if their children can be given education and other social amenities.

“What motivated me to start this project was to solve the insecurity problem we have from the root because every crime has its perpetrators and perpetrators are drawn from a pool so we want to go there and dry the pool and we found out that education is the best cure.

“If they are educated, they will not be doing what they are doing. So, we say we must take education to the grassroots and we embarked on the project to also be an example for others, local government, state, and federal and rich individuals even cooperative societies to come together and make sure that we are directed across the forest to know what we can do to carter for nomads; it does not cost much, very little and it will help to educate them and we will live peacefully with them.

“What we have here is a center containing six classrooms that can be used for primary, secondary schools and at various times you can teach all categories at all times and the place will be engaged for 24 hours because the herdsmen usually take their cattle out by 10am and bring them back by dawn or sunset so they have 2 hours before they take their cattle away and we have 2 to 3 hours because we like to put some solar light so that they can read 8, 9, 10 in the night so that the herder can go and come back.

“We have schools, we have hospital and also showing them how to grind the foliage which they can use to feed their animals, some of them don’t need to go out because those things are so cheap and farmers are throwing those things away, soon farmers will start charging for it. If we can duplicate this everywhere Nigerians will live in peace.”