…Seeks cut in cost of governance, spending $311 million loot on infrastructure

By Clifford Ndujihe

ONE of the nation’s political parties, the Liberation Movement, LM, has urged the government to up its game in the battle against the raging COVID-19 pandemic, lamenting that current efforts lack bite.

The party in a statement by its Acting National Publicity Secretary, Dalan CBN Dalan, said  ”the response to COVID-19 by the Presidential Task Force, PTF, the Economic Sustainability Committee, Federal Ministry of Health, The Nigerian Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, and the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development in Nigeria revealed the lack of deft in crisis management.

Since the index case in Nigeria in February 2020 till date, the response has been abysmal. The Economic Sustainability Committee appears aloof, while the Presidential Task Force has been sheepishly regurgitating the World Health Organization’s predictive contagious model terminologies without an independent or home-grown resilient response model.

The Nigerian Centre for Disease Control appears to be interested in fulfilling the predictions of the COVID-19 scripters.

”As it is today, nobody can tell where we are headed, when the country will be out of the woods. There can’t be a solution in sight when the cause of the pandemic is still a controversy.”

To design a resilient response and repositioning the Nigerian economy to gain economic advantage from the pandemic, the party urged the media to stop publishing COVID-19 daily death toll because the fear of death kills faster than death, and especially as death tolls from malaria, cancer, etc, are not published daily.

It also urged adoption of a proactive model by applying chaos and systems thinking methodologies of ”Diagnosis, Prevention and Prescription.

”We must independently establish the nature of the virus or what is killing people. Nigeria has a good recovery rate or survivors of COVID-19. What drug(s) was used to cure the people that contracted the illness? Establish the underlying antibodies of the survivors. This becomes the baseline or the underlying order for addressing the COVID-19 crisis.

”How do we keep people from contracting the virus, while we go about our normal businesses? How can we boost our immune system, while fostering the use of face mask, encouraging washing hands with soap and applying sanitizers, etc.? This is a smart approach than the lock-down with its counterproductive to livelihoods and the economy.

”Develop the home-grown lasting cure by engage the traditional science or traditional medicine to develop the drug. Standardize the cure or drug and its usage such that any clinic can administer the drug.”

The LM said the Economic Sustainability Committee must seize the opportunities in this crisis to reposition the Nigerian economy to gain advantage by being proactive about the policy options, cost of governance, monetary policies, solid mineral fossil and renewable energy development, transforming the agriculture industry, etc.

READ ALSO: COVID 19: Ignore WHO, go for local cures, Reps tell FG

”A resilient response is to enact policies for business stability, job and assets security. A deliberate policy to ensure large and small businesses remain afloat during this crisis is the solid foundation for sustaining and revamping the economy. Direct cash grants should be made to companies no matter how little to encourage business owners to stem the tide of the economic downturn.

”The cost of governance remains immoderate. The recent budget adjustment is not only unrealistic but also tactless. The revenue projection was reduced from N8.42 trillion to N5.08trillion while projected expenditure remains N10.28 trillion from N10.59 trillion thereby increasing the deficit from N2.17 trillion to N5.20 trillion. While households and most businesses have adjusted living and operating expenses, governments remain spendthrift with the unbridled appetite not to reduce recurrent expenditure. The Economic Sustainability Committee should conciliate with the National Assembly and mandate where feasible all relevant agencies to prune down recurrent expenditure. This crisis offers the best opportunity to correct all anomalies in the budgeting process including salaries and wages of public and civil servants,” the party added.

”We strongly believe that the recent $311 billion Abacha loot repatriated should be used to fix and build refineries, capital injection to the economy, education and healthcare facilities. These are vital strategic assets for repositioning the economy to gain advantage from this COVID-19 crisis.

The recent crash in oil prices is a strong signal that in no distant future crude oil will not be a prized commodity. Deliberate actions and steps should be taken to develop solid minerals and renewable energy, while avoiding the mistakes made on crude oil development and management.”

Vanguard