By Mike Ebonugwo

The administration has done creditably well —Presidential Spokesman

IT was an impromptu street parliamentary gathering of a sort. Scene was the Ogba Bus-stop in Lagos. As usual a heated debate was going on at one of the news-stands in the area with most of the participants speaking with voices raised to underline their point and conviction. Under discussion was a news report quoting acting President Yemi Osinbajo as saying that the All Progressives Congress, APC-led Federal Government spent much of 2016 clearing the mess it inherited from the previous administration while at the same time putting the relevant building blocks in place and laying a solid foundation for a more prosperous Nigeria the citizens deserve.

“That is a very lame excuse for non-performance,” argued one visibly angry gentleman waving a fist at no one in particular. “Imagine after two years of coming into office, they are still laying foundation when Nigerians are suffering everyday as a result of economic recession? Which one is their own sef? How many years will it take them to make us begin to feel that we did not make a mistake by voting them into office?” he queried rather rhetorically.

“Naim good for una,” responded another participant with a disapproving frown. “What you are seeing now is the change you people voted for. So, I don’t know why you are complaining. Imagine, since this government came into office, prices of most essential goods and services have been going higher and higher, many companies have folded up and unemployment is the order of the day,” he submitted with feeling.

Essential goods and services

But taking a diametrically opposing view to this, one other participant had quipped thus: “The problem with you guys is that you have not taken time to read Osinbajo’s speech to understand what he’s saying. The man was simply saying that this government inherited a lot of problems which they have been trying to solve to make it easy for the new things they are introducing to begin to work well in this country.

“It’s like what happens when you buy a banged up Tokunbo car. You get the mechanic, rewire, panel beater and even painter to work on it. And before you know it, it’s almost like a new car. Take the anti-corruption war for instance. Because of it many people are now afraid to steal government’s  money as they risk being arrested by the EFCC and going to jail…” The debate went on and on….  And it has been going on at different quarters, especially since the President Muhammadu Buhari administration marked its two years of existence on May 29, 2017, with Nigerians from all walks of life baring their minds on what the administration had done or failed to do.

Yet Femi Adesina, the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to President Buhari, continues to maintain that the administration had done more than enough in the last two years to justify its change-oriented mandate and he has also flaunted some convincing evidence to back up all claims on what he said are the glaring achievements of the administration. It is a position he understandably shares with Osinbajo who, in his Democracy Day Speech, submitted thus: “Our administration outlined three specific areas for our immediate intervention on assumption of office: these were Security, Corruption and the Economy”.

According to him, in spite of enormous challenges, the administration had made appreciable progress in the realisation of its objectives. With particular reference to security where he believes the administration has scored quite high, especially in caging the Boko Haram monster, he said: “But with new leadership and renewed confidence our gallant military immediately began to put Boko Haram on the back foot. We have re-organised and equipped our Armed Forces, and inspired them to heroic feats; we have also revitalised the regional Multinational Joint Task Force by providing the required funding and leadership.

“The positive results are clear for all to see. In the last two years close to one million displaced persons have returned home; 106 of our daughters from Chibok have regained their freedom after more than two years in captivity, in addition to the thousands of other captives who have since tasted freedom. Schools, hospitals and businesses are springing back to life across the Northeast, especially in Borno State, the epicentre of the crisis. Farmers are returning to the farms from which they fled in the wake of Boko Haram. “Finally, our people are getting a chance to begin the urgent task of rebuilding their lives.”

He also did not fail to mention the administration’s much-publicised war on corruption, saying that so much has been achieved in that regard. “In the fight against corruption,    we have focused on bringing persons accused of corruption to justice. We believe that the looting of public resources that took place in the past few years has to be accounted for. Funds appropriated to build roads, railway lines, and power plants, and to equip the military, that had been stolen or diverted into private pockets, must be retrieved and the culprits brought to justice. We have expanded the coverage of the Treasury Single Account, TSA. We have introduced more efficient accounting and budgeting systems across the Federal Government. We have also launched an extremely successful Whistleblower Policy,” he said.

On the big question bordering on how the economy has fared during the two years the administration has been in charge, he was gracious enough to admit that the challenge is quite big even as he assured thus: “…This administration’s work on the economic front has been targeted at a combination of short-term interventions to cushion the pain as well as medium to long term efforts aimed at rebuilding an economy that is no longer helplessly dependent on the price of crude oil.

“Those short-term interventions include putting together a series of bailout packages for our state governments to enable them bridge their salary shortfalls – an issue the President has consistently expressed his concerns about. We also began the hard work of laying out a framework for our Social Intervention Programme, the most ambitious in the history of the country,” he said.

Part of the intervention programmes include the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Anchor Borrower Programme, ABP, and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture’s Soil Map initiative designed to aid fertilizer application. According to Adesina, the combined programme has substantially raised local production of grains in 2016 (yields improved from two tonnes per hectare to as much as seven tonnes per hectare, in some states) and produced  a model agricultural collaboration between Lagos and Kebbi states. Nigeria’s rice imports fell from 580,000 MT in 2015 to 58,000MT in 2016 on account of this, he said.

According to him: “The  Presidential Fertilizer Initiative (which involves a partnership with the Government of Morocco, for the supply of phosphate), has resulted in the revitalization of 11 blending plants across the country. The benefits include annual savings of US$200 million in foreign exchange, and N60 billion annually in budgetary provisions for Fertilizer subsidies. The scheme has also made it possible for farmers to purchase fertilizer at prices up to 30 percent cheaper than previously available”. In the event, farmers can now buy a bag of fertilizer at N5,000 instead of N9,000 as was previously the case.

Vanguard Features understands that through the introduction of the programme huge successes have been recorded in rice and grain productions, particularly in Kebbi, Kano, Jigawa, Ebonyi and Sokoto states, and in the process empowered and encouraged the emergence of a generation of young millionaire farmers in these states.

Adesina would also want doubting Thomases to take note of the administration’s  single-minded commitment to upgrading and developing Nigeria’s Transport Infrastructure. According to him: “The Buhari Administration has demonstrated a single-minded commitment to upgrading and developing Nigeria’s Transport Infrastructure.

Narrow-gauge  railway

“Road projects are ongoing across every state of the country; many of these projects had been abandoned in recent years because of mounting debts owed by the Federal Government to contractors. The administration is also pushing ahead with the revitalisation of Nigeria’s 3,500km network narrow-gauge railway. In March 2017 a consortium led by General Electric, and comprising Transnet of South Africa, APM Terminals of the Netherlands and Sinohydro Consortium of China submitted the sole bid for the concession of the Lagos-Kano Railway narrow-gauge Line. (Transaction Advisers were approved for the project in 2016). In May 2017 the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved the commencement of negotiations with GE to conclude the concessioning.

In addition, Abuja’s Light Rail system will also go into operation (test-run) in 2017. The first line to be launched will connect the city center with the Airport, with a link to the Abuja-Kaduna Railway Line. The test-run will start in November 2017, ahead of full commencement of operations in Q1 2018. The Buhari Administration successfully completed the reconstruction of the Abuja Airport runway within the scheduled six-week period (March – April 2017).”