Matthew Otoijagha
Following President Buhari’s democracy day speech, delivered last week Wednesday June 12, 2019 in Abuja, outlining his plans for the country over his next four years in office, there have been mixed reactions from Nigerians from various walk of life speaking their minds in response to the speech. While some Analysts and economic watchers have expressed reservation over the content of the speech, others see ray of hope in what the president has promised to do.
The President had in his speech he read at the first National Democracy Day celebration in Abuja, stated that he approved June 12 as the nation’s Democracy Day as part of the healing and reconciliation efforts for the annulment of the presidential election.
He also said his Administration was laying the foundation and taking bold steps in transforming the country and liberating the people from the shackles of poverty.
As a first step towards achieving that goal, the president promised to take steps to integrate rural economies to the national economic “grid” by extending access to small-scale credits and inputs to rural farmers, as well as credit to rural micro-businesses and opening up many critical feeder roads.
Secondly, for small-scale enterprises in towns and cities, the president also promised to expand facilities currently available so that the nation could continue to encourage and support domestic production of basic goods and reduce our reliance of imported goods as I will outline later.
He also promised that for the next four years, his government will remain committed to improving the lives of people by consolidating efforts to address these key issues as well as emerging challenges of climate change, resettling displaced communities and dealing decisively with the new flashes of insecurity across the country, and the impacts on food scarcity and regional stability.
We spoke to a few investors in the Nigerian stock market as well as market operators.
Reactiing to the president’ speech, Mr. Sunny Nwosu, former president, Shareholders Association of Nigeria stated that he would adopt a wait and see attitude and watch how the president will accomplish the task he has set for himself.
‘‘As for the president’s speech, a promise is just a statement. Let us look at the policy as towards the implementation of the president’s economic strategies. He said he would pull one hundred Nigerians from poverty lines. But the good thing is that he has accepted the fact that Nigerians are mostly poor people and he has also accepted the failure of his government succor to his dear country.
It is not the first time we are hearing this kind of statement, neither is it the second. Let us see how it works. Removing a hundred million people from poverty in what aspect? Is it by giving ten thousand naira each to people? I’m yet to fully comprehend how he intends to remove hundred million people from poverty.
I cannot make any projection as how he intends to accomplish that feat. However, action will speak louder than words. Restoring hope belongs to God, so let’s wait see how it works.
David Imafidon Adonri, of Trust and Investment Company Ltd, in his response to the same questions has this to say: ‘‘The president’s speech as it concerns the economy is alright. That alone indicates that there will be greater focus on the economy by this administration, but however, the speech did not go deeper into telling us how they are going to rescue the economy.
The speech the president gave was alright, but it cannot justify the realities that we see on the ground. I can only hope that the objectives of that speech can be translated into reality as soon as possible. For instance, Analysts and economic watchers were expecting the president to name members of his cabinet that will drive the agenda.
But that personnel that will drive the agenda are not on ground and then there are so many policy-gaps; policies both monetary and physical will have to be clearly presented to drive the objectives of the president to lift the economy and alleviate poverty. But we cannot see the initiative or policy direction; so the tendency is there for Analysts to see the president’s speech as empty.
Right now, I can only see policies, until those structures that will drive the initiatives are put in place. As a matter of fact, based on his first four years, there was lack of confidence in the economy, especially as it affects the capital market. Under his administration, the primary market and the secondary market were completely dormant.
No funds to drive the economy. Judging from the manner he has started the second term, the situation may get worse. Recall that the market went down soon after the president’s speech, which goes to show that the speech did not inspire confidence among investors. So, there is no cause for optimism so far that those objectives can be realized under this administration until we start seeing vital changes that will point the economy on a positive direction.
Otumba Dele Ajayi-Smith, former Council Member, Lagos Chambers of Commerce and Industries, in his comment expressed appreciation over the president’s good work since he became president in 2015.
‘‘Well, if the foreign investors are not having the idea of exploiting us it will help the economy, the stability of the country will be good for the security of investors. There is no doubt that now, Nigeria is investors’ destination and of course if there is no peace in Nigeria, investors will not be able to stay. So it has to be win-win situation. The industries local initiative must be boosted to be in business.
To be fair, Buhari did inherit a state treasury plundered by kleptocrats and an oil-dependent economy at a time when global prices of crude oil were plunging. His election pledge to diversify the economy and strengthen local production was a step in the right direction.
If you are in the agricultural sector for instance, a good investor should look out for you and partner with the local industries, as local resources can be used by the investors, they will be happy and the local investors would also be happy. If all these are fulfilled, there will be a lot of progress and peace in the country.
But, the reservation I have is that, we still have lot of weak citizens who want to make money from a bad source, from dubious means, from kidnaping, and all sort of things. They will not want to employ themselves gainfully.
The areas we should concern ourselves with is that these bad citizens are making life uncomfortable for the larger population and making local imitative difficult, not to talk of foreign initiative. This is because when foreign people come and you kidnap them, they will never come back again.
What analysts are saying about the present government depends on the way they look at it. Perhaps, I might not have to be speaking the same thing with you. For me, I am impressed by what this government has done so far.
In a very difficult period over the past four years, this man has been able to fight all the intimidations, and has still continued to do things that are useful, infrastructure is growing from strength to strength, roads are being developed and rail lines are being developed, and so many other things.
Over the last four years, the upper and lower houses of the national assembly were fighting him, it was like corruption fighting back. We are fortunate now that we going to have both houses of the assembly supporting the president in implementation of policies for the benefit of the masses.
Now that both houses are backing him, I expect things to move faster, many of the things he cannot do alone without approval of the law makers, will get quick approval and the country can move on the next four years. I expect so much more, and I believe that better days are coming for Nigeria.
Nicholas Ojinnaka, former MD, Guinea Insurance in his comment said: ‘‘You know that there is something they call subjective probability. Going by what he has done in the past, we don’t expect miracles from the president, going by his democracy day speech. We just want to see the president’s first action by his appointment of ministers. Let us know the level of people he will appoint as ministers, then we will know what to expect over the next four years.
Assessment of the policy direction of this administration through speech alone is premature. He should appoint his first eleven, then we can start judging from that. It is what people wrote for him that he is reading. He never did anything about Boko-haram. Without security, nobody will bring investment into this country. There is no strategic policy, no economic road-map.
Aruna Kebira in his submission said: ‘‘Do you know what Bob Marley said in his music? He said whenever there is an action, there is a reaction. After the president reeled out his policy-direction for the next four years what happened? The market went down. That means that nobody took the president speech with a pinch of salt.
‘‘Look, my people say that the person you see in the afternoon, you don’t need a lamp to recognize him at night. All the things he promised four years ago, what did he do? The economists and the people are saying that, that is the president’s way. It’s all political talk, all talk and no action. The speech has not inspired anybody.