Page 24 - Nile Explorer Issue 007

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to digitalise the Nigerian Television And secondly, we must insist that the
Authority, or devoted H37 billion to Abacha loots held back by various West-
renovating the National Assembly ern governments must be immediately
complex (which was built from the and unconditionally returned to Nige-
scratch at less than 20% of that amount). ria. We have a humanitarian crisis on
Today’ s Nigerian government is severe- our hands. Ibelieve that President
ly lacking in qualified hands. And noth- Trump is a reasonable man. He knows
ing proves this than the state of the that if nothing is done to avoid the
Presidency itself. To think that after foreseeable dislocation of African econ-
devoting fill} billion to the State House omies, the next wave of mass migration
Clinic in the last five years, it is virtually to the United States would not be from
useless as we face the most significant Mexico.
public health challenge of our national The worst thing we can do now is to
life. That is a pointer to the state of our wring our hands and look to outsiders.
federal government. Not now. The leadership in Abuja and
The second and perhaps more import- the rest of Africa cannot afford to be
ant thing is that we did not have to deal develop our household economy, before lethargic while the rest of the world is
with a worldwide pandemic of this we even seek outside funding. A situa- scrambling to save what they can of
extent (although we had the H5N1 tion where the Nigerian government their economies.
incident). always seeks outside funding, which, by In Nigeria, it is already clear that we

As it stands today, the world is too the way has to be repaid if ever granted, must abandon the 2020 budget and
preoccupied with its challenges to displays an inadequacy in the thinking come up with a more realistic budget.
prioritise Africa, and so we have to process of our leaders at the moment. Our oil benchmark is way off the mark.
prioritise ourselves. The issue of Nige- So, other than asking for debt relief, And we are certainly no longer in a
ria wanting to borrow $ 6.9 billion at what can we realistically do to protect position to budget N100 billion plus for
this time shows the almost delusory ourselves from the type of economic our legislatures and almost N5o billion
state of our government. No one has collapse that could lead to social for the Presidency (in truth, we were
that type of money to throw about upheaval in Nigeria? never in a position to do that).
China and America, previously our two Other African nations must likewise
largest creditors, have taken hits to their We can start from where we have the re—budget and reassign and reduce
economies to the tune of trillions of most influence, the global oil industry. expenditure. We can not spend on luxu-
dollars. If they could, they would To save our economy, Nigeria must ries when our necessities have exploded.
consider taking from us at this stage. engage in immediate shuttle diplomacy We are at a crossroads, and we need to
to get Saudi Arabia and Russia to settle
Why is it that the Nigerian government their differences and end the price war think and act our way into taking the
is always quick to want to borrow at that is affecting the price of oil almost as right road. History will forgive us if we
every instance? It shows a lazy mindset much as the pandemic. make the wrong decisions, but it
and an inability to take those sacrifices certainly will not forgive us if we take
necessary to get the economy into The Organization of Petroleum Export- no decisions ill the misguided belief that
shape. Worse still it proves that we do ing Countries (OPEC) cartel is more others will save us. If Nigeria does not
not, as of yet, have the ability to think vulnerable than Russia right now. Yes, save herself in this season of a global
outside the box for genuine solutions. Russia is also vulnerable, but so are we. emergency, we may find that a new
We cannot be looking to borrow huge Russia has an almost stable gas market world order will emerge and we will no
sums at the same time our officials are in Europe. We do not. So we are much longer be the Giant of Africa. We may
taking delivery of foreign made luxury more vulnerable. This price war is not not even be the Giant of West Africa if
cars. We cannot be considered a serious just affecting Nigeria and Angola badly, we do not take decisive action immedi-
country when we refuse to cut down on it is also affecting the valuation of ately. •
profligacy al1d instead seek outside help ARAMCO and delaying vital decisions,
to fund our inefficiencies. which are troubling signs. Article written by Atiku Abubakar. TheVice
Even in our own individual houses, Nigeria must bring her weight (like we President of Nigeria and presidential
candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party
when things get tight, the first thing we had done in the past) to bear to force an (PDP) in the 2o19 presidential election.
should do is cut down on unnecessary early cessation of hostilities so that oil
expenditure and then you look for prices could start
creative ways to generate funds and looking up.

24 | The Nile Explorer 006