It is high time the APC started looking forward

Someone in the APC will soon have reasons to blame Jonathan for his wife’s inability to get pregnant.  Well, that was actually intended to be a joke, but with the way things are going, it is obvious that the APC doesn’t want to take any responsibility for its inefficiency.

It is well-known that the inefficiency of the last PDP government contributed to the parlous state of our economy today – the inefficient fight against Boko Haram, the inability to save for the rainy day and widespread corruption all contributed. However, contrary to what the APC would want us to believe, some recent events have little or no bearing with the last administration.

Even after the Ministry of Agriculture attributed the current tomatoes scarcity to a pest called tuta absoluta, the Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, still attempted to link the scarcity to Boko Haram. Apparently, in a bid to rope in the last administration, which was accused of been ineffective in the fight against Boko Haram, into the scarcity.

But the truth, some say, will always stick out. This season’s maize has also been found to be infested by a pest called army worm. This even made an old woman in my neighborhood to ask if God has cursed us with these pests.

The point here is that the government should take full responsibility for these current scarcities and ensure that such never happens next season. By trying to push blames, we might be postponing the evil day.

Who will the government blame if this food scarcity gets worse? Just the other day, the National Research Institute for Chemical Research just told us it now has a vaccine for tomato pest. Apparently, the minister never heard about this vaccine when he talked about getting a private organization to deal with the tomato pest. As a scientist, I know that the development of a vaccine takes time. So, how come we are just hearing of this vaccine? Does the vaccine have international certifications? I hope this vaccine is effective and doesn’t exacerbate the tomato disease?

Do we blame the last administration if there is an outbreak of tuberculosis in Nigeria? Audu Ogbeh just told us that most of those cattle roaming our streets are infected with tuberculosis. And we are still debating over grazing reserve?

Should we still blame the last administration for the recent scarcity of cooking gas (LPG)? Recently, logistic problems in ports have caused the price of cooking gas to increase by almost 45 percent. Now, remember that cooking gas comes from the Bonny LNG plant, and it’s independent of dollars, as it were.

I’m sure when Nigeria is finally announced to be in recession, the last administration will be blamed. Though you can argue that they should share in the blame, but had the decisions now taken by government been taken last year, the recession could have been averted.  The removal of fuel subsidy and the introduction of a flexible exchange regime could have postponed the evil day.

Now that the CBN is talking about introducing a flexible exchange regime, nobody knows, for sure, what the guidelines are. The Bank hasn’t been forthcoming with modalities concerning this. For an economy about entering into a recession, such delay is dangerous. Who do we blame for such delay?

This delay by government has resulted in massive market distortion in the last few days. Who do we blame for this?

It is now clear that had the ministers been appointed immediately the President was sworn in, the economy could have been better off. A clear policy direction would have saved this country from the coming recession. The policy directions are not even very clear today.

I hear that some people say that recession is not such a bad thing. Well, wait till it comes. It is a dreadful thing, to say the least. Even those Chinese lenders that have been romancing with us might not want to give us loans anymore. The IMF might turn out to be our last resort. If this happens, Buhari would no longer have any say on the Naira.

I’m not absolving the PDP from blame, though. And I am not saying in looking forward, that Buhari should stop fighting corruption. However, he should make his fight against corruption as transparent as possible, and not to look like a witch-hunt.

On a final note, the APC should get serious. I have always argued that legal impediments would make it hard for government to factor into this year’s budget some of the nation’s stolen funds. Recent report on recovered assets confirms my position – 78 billion naira is chicken feed when compared to a 6 trillion naira budget.

The APC should stop talking about the past and look forward. The campaigns cannot linger into the second year of this administration.