It’s a good thing that the Minister of Communication, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr Bosun Tijani, has announced a strategic blueprint stating how his ministry intends to meet its “digital economy” obligations to Nigerians.
One can only hope it fits into the overall economic strategy of President Bola Tinubu, speaking of which leads to a call for comprehensive economic development plans that Nigerians can use to benchmark the performance of his administration.
This is not a call for the rehash of campaign manifestos. By now, reality would have dawned on the President and he would have realised that some “moonshine” ideas in his manifesto may not work.
The President must note that Nigerians don’t really fancy palliatives, but prefer fundamental and groundbreaking policies, with achievable targets, to set the country’s economy on a continuous course of breakthroughs.
First Republic Prime Minister, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, introduced the first five-year economic development plan, and Gen. Yakubu Gowon, who concluded it, introduced and completed the second economic development.
However, the palace coup of 1975 prevented Gowon from concluding the third development plan that he announced. This set Nigeria on the path of economic development.
The sense in a country taking the path of economic development plans for economic growth is in the ability of the economy of the defunct Union of Soviet Socialist Republics to overtake that of America in the closing years of the 1950s.
One piece of evidence is that the Soviet Union sent pilot and astronaut, Yuri Gagarin, to orbit the earth in 1961. America was only able to send its aviator and astronaut, John Glenn, on the same mission in 1962.
By the way, Alan Shepard was the first American, but the second man, to travel into space. But unlike Yuri Gagarin, he did not orbit the earth, though, in 1971, he became the oldest human being to walk on the moon at the age of 47 years!
In a country that has no clear-cut ideology, a national development plan is probably the only way to drive the people’s common economic aspirations. A government that can dream up realistic economic development plans for the good of the people should go ahead to formulate and implement the plans.
Nothing should hold back the hands of the Coordinating Minister of the Economy, who is the Minister of Finance, and the Minister of Budget and National Planning, from prescribing appropriate economic development plans for Nigeria.
Methinks if the government had introduced a comprehensive economic plan to break the cycle of poverty in Nigeria, the usually lethargic labour unions wouldn’t have bothered to ask for palliatives or threatened industrial actions.
You will notice that after President Tinubu ad-libbed that “fuel subsidy is gone,” the labour unions were a bit flat-footed even after the downstream sub-sector of the Nigerian oil industry unilaterally hiked the pump price of petrol.
And when the government collapsed the foreign exchange rate to one regime, the labour unions still took time to respond, especially when opinion leaders and the media seemed to endorse the move.
Everyone who thought the President had an economic ace up his sleeves waited, watching to see the next move. The public even accepted the excuse that maybe he needed to put his ministers in place before the fireworks would start.
That didn’t quite happen, though there seemed to be some flashes in the pan. The First Lady, Senator Remi Tinubu, almost put her foot in it when she went about her husband, who offered his services to Nigerians, not being a magician.
She made it look as if the President was doing Nigerians a favour; as if he was conscripted into the office of President. If she won’t help him, she should not add to his problems by committing avoidable gaffes and Freudian slips.
Not a few Nigerians thought that her cop-out indicated that they had been tricked by the President into a “one chance” bus. When you enter a “one chance” bus in Lagos, it means you entered into a set-up, from which you cannot escape without being scathed one way or another.
Some Nigerians, especially natives of the social media, told Mrs Tinubu how much they didn’t appreciate the unsolicited cop-out that she assumed on behalf of the President. The dictionary says that a cop-out is a way “to avoid or neglect problems, responsibilities, or commitments.”
Last week, the Federal Government was able to avert a nationwide strike by the labour unions by agreeing to speedily procure and help Nigerians adapt to vehicles that can use Compressed Natural Gas, distribute fertilisers to farmers, and provide cheap funds to micro and small scale enterprises, among others.
These should have been planks of a carefully thought-out economic development plan, and not forced out as part of an emergency stopgap palliative to avoid a strike occasioned by the government’s lack of adequate and appropriate responses to the hardships caused by its twin policies of subsidy removal and collapse of the foreign exchange windows.
Somehow, President Tinubu, whom some Nigerians thought came into office fully prepared and raring to go, is increasingly giving his apologists and admirers reason to doubt his prowess and can-do reputation.
He should redeem his image by acting swiftly, lest his ‘Renewed Hope’ mantra become a paper tiger. The patience of Nigerians is wearing thin. Nigerians won’t accept the court cases instituted against him by former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, and former Anambra State Governor, Peter Obi, as excuses for his slow dance.
An economic development plan is one low-hanging fruit that he can take advantage of, to raise the hopes of Nigerians. If he can ginger up his team to dream up an economic development plan, he will further worm himself into the hearts of Nigerians, walk himself into Nigeria’s political Hall of Fame and become a forever hero of the people.
If those who are already in his team can’t hack it, if they can’t get him the desired results, he should quickly look around the world and shop for Nigerians who have the requisite competencies to get the job done quickly.
The good part of it all is that it doesn’t take much to achieve the needful. All it takes is a willing heart: what Nigerians call “political will.” In order to prevent the President from “falling the hands” of his admirers, he should “up his game,” as they say it on the streets of Lagos which is not quite smiling at the moment.
An objective aspect of the economic development plan should be the growing of an army of local merchant class and the spawning of global brands that will effectively compete with current international brands.
The idea is to grow the Nigerian economy by growing Nigerian entrepreneurs. Hankering too much after Foreign Direct investors, agents of international monopoly capital, who will end up repatriating their dividends to their metropolitan economies, won’t cut the ice.
To put the economy in a good place for superlative performance, the President must review the template whereby the generating, transmission and distribution aspects of the electricity sector work in silos: whereas an electricity company can perform best if it operates as a composite.
Also, the economic development plans must be woven in a way that the Federal Government and state governments can integrate their plans.
