The Presidency rejected a Financial Times article that criticized President Muhammadu Buhari’s handling of the nation’s economy and security.
The article, titled “What is Nigeria’s Government for?” was written by David Pilling, the Financial Times’ African editor, and was published on January 31, 2022.
Pilling wrote in the article that Buhari had “overseen two terms of an economic slump, rising debt, and a calamitous increase in kidnapping and banditry,” and that Nigeria had “sleepwalked closer to disaster” under him.
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According to the article, “nearly all of the space on the British Airways flight between London and Nigeria’s administrative capital of Abuja, one of the airline’s most profitable routes, is taken up by flatbeds.”
The unfortunate few who make their way to the back economy section must trudge through row after row of business class.
“Clearly, there is a lot of money to be made in Abuja’s power corridors.”
Nigeria’s economy may be on its back, but the political elite flying to and from London will also be on their backs.
“Many members of government will change next year, but not necessarily the bureaucracy that supports them.”
Campaigning has already begun for presidential elections in February 2023, which will bring to a close the eight-year administration of Muhammadu Buhari, under whose somnolent watch Nigeria has slid closer to disaster.
“Buhari has presided over two terms of economic stagnation, rising debt, and a calamitous increase in kidnapping and banditry the one thing you’d think a former general could control.”
Candidates for his replacement, mostly recycled old men, are already counting their money in preparation for a costly electoral marathon.
It is estimated that it costs $2 billion to elect a president. Those who pay will expect to be reimbursed.
“There are a few candidates who appear to be promising. Nigerian optimists’ hearts would beat a little faster if Yemi Osinbajo, the technocratic vice-president, miraculously made it through the campaign thicket and emerged as president.
“However, that may be underestimating the depth of Nigeria’s quagmire.”
The issue is not so much with who leads the government as it is with the nature of government itself.
“Nigeria’s administration is fuelled by oil, but not its economy; non-oil activities generate more than 90% of output.”
However, for decades, the business of government – whether military or, since 1999, democratic – has been to control access to oil revenues and earn patronage by distributing gasoline dollars to federal and state supplicants.
“Aside from oil, the government generates a pittance of revenue, far less than other African countries.”
Because service provision is so dire, no one who can afford to pay taxes is willing to do so.
Nigerians with money avoid the system. They send their children to private schools, use private hospitals, have their own private security, and generate their own electricity. The state borrows more and more to fund its meager capital expenditures and service its mounting debts. Government, like a giant leech at the top of the political body, exists primarily to fund itself.”
In response, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said in a letter to the Financial Times yesterday that the article left out Buhari’s government’s “security gains.”
“We wish to correct the incorrect perceptions contained in David Pilling’s article ‘What is Nigeria’s Government For?’ published in the Financial Times (UK) in January,” the letter stated.
“A caricature of a government sleepwalking into disaster (What is the purpose of Nigeria’s government? January 31, 2022) is predictable from a reporter who flies in and out of Nigeria on the same British Airways flight he criticizes.
“He cites rising banditry in my country as evidence of such slumber.” He ignores the security gains made over two presidential terms.
“At the time of the inauguration, the terror organization Boko Haram controlled an area the size of Belgium; now, they control no territory.”
“The first comprehensive plan to address decades-old clashes between nomadic herders and sedentary farmers – experienced across the Sahel – has been implemented: pilot ranches are reducing the competition for water and land that drove previous tensions.”
“Banditry arose as a result of such clashes.” “Criminal gangs took advantage of the insecurity, flush with guns that flooded the region following Libya’s Western-caused implosion.”
