Nigerian politics, economy and security in 2018

Jide Ojo

jideojong@yahoo.com 08077787701

It’s five days to the end of 2018. In my estimation, though
there are scores of issues that made news this year, there are
three of them that got higher mention. They are politics, economy,
and security. There is no gainsaying that it has been a topsy-turvy
year for the country.

Being the eve of our sixth general election in this Fourth
Republic, politics dominated the airwaves and cyberspace. The
Independent National Electoral Commission on January 9, 2018
released the official timetable and schedule of activities for the
forthcoming general election which is down to some 52 days. In the
outgoing year, as part of preparations for the polls, INEC has
registered a total of 91 political parties and through its
Continuous Voter Registration which was suspended on August 31,
2018, had been able to register 84.2 million registered voters.

The commission in the outgoing year conducted two off-cycle
governorship elections in Ekiti and Osun states as well as several
bye-elections and court-ordered re-runs. The polls were largely
adjudged credible. The most controversial election held this year
by INEC was the September 22 Osun governorship election which was
declared inconclusive thereby necessitating a supplementary
election in five polling units in the state on September 27. Many
political watchers believe that the supplementary election was not
free and fair.

Unlike the 2015 constitution amendment that was aborted, this
year, President Muhammadu Buhari was able to sign five out of 12
constitution amendment bills presented to him. The constitutional
alterations have a bearing on our elections. For instance, the
Not-Too-Young-To-Run bill signed to law by President Muhammadu
Buhari lowers the qualification age for the office of the President
from 40 to 35 and that of House of Representatives from 30 to 25
years. It is instructive to note that in Ghana, the qualification
age for parliament is 21 years.

Unfortunately, while the President signed some of the
constitution amendments, in an unprecedented manner, he withdrew
assent on four different occasions on the 2018 Electoral Act
amendment bill. This is very disheartening! The funding for the
2019 elections also came late as the President either forgot or
chose not to include the N189bn required by INEC for the conduct of
the polls in the 2018 budget. It was not until July that the
President deemed it fit to ask for virement for the sum of N242bn
meant for INEC and security agencies involved in the conduct of the
election. The National Assembly approval for the fund eventually
came in November and it is believed that the funds are being
released to relevant agencies by now.

The party primaries conducted between August 18 and October 7,
2018 in many of the political parties cannot stand the test of
electoral integrity. They were defined by imposition of candidates,
violence and inducement of party delegates. Some deaths were also
recorded. This shows that internal party democracy has yet to be
rooted in our politics. The campaigns have been on since the
November 18 peace accord, spearheaded by Gen. Abdulsalami
Abubakar-led National Peace Committee, was signed by most of the
presidential candidates on December 11 and 12.

In a deft political move, President Buhari decided to recognise
June 12 as Nigeria’s new Democracy Day while also affirming Chief
MKO Abiola as the winner of the annulled 1993 presidential
election. He also conferred the highest national honour of Grand
Commander of the Federal Republic posthumously on Abiola.

In the area of the economy, it has been a mixed fortune. The
year birthed amidst lingering fuel scarcity which had started from
November 2017. The situation was so acute that many could not
travel for the Christmas and New Year celebrations with their loved
ones. Thankfully, a repeat of that unsavoury experience was averted
when oil marketers recently threatened to go on strike to press
home their demand for the payment of their outstanding fuel
subsidy. Regrettably, Nigeria is still importing refined petroleum
products. While the 2018 budget was presented to the National
Assembly on November 7, 2017 and was signed into law by President
Buhari on June 20, 2018, the N8.83tn 2019 budget was just presented
to the National Assembly last Wednesday, December 19, 2018. This is
rather unfortunate.

However, it stands to the credit of this administration that it
has been able to complete some of the projects initiated by
previous administrations. Some of them include the Abuja Light Rail
Project, the new Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport Terminal as well as that of
Port Harcourt International Airport. Many road projects are also
receiving attention. On December 14, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo,
on behalf of the Federal Government, launched another economic
blueprint aimed at accelerating human capital development by 2030.
Truth be told, Nigeria’s economy is still in the doldrums with
worsening poverty and unemployment. Nigeria is now the headquarters
of the country with the highest number of poor people while
unemployment has moved from about 18 per cent to 23 per cent.

The outgoing year has witnessed a lot of labour unrest thereby
leading to a drop in productivity. As I write this, the Academic
Staff Union of Universities is on strike likewise their polytechnic
counterpart. Though the Federal Government has grudgingly acceded
to N30,000 new minimum wage for workers, the President has yet to
sponsor an executive bill that will give the proposal any legal
backing. While it is true that power generation has hit about 7,000
megawatts, transmission is still at about 5,000MW. This is grossly
inadequate as the country’s economy is still being largely run on
private generators. The government’s anti-corruption war is on
course with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission claiming
to have secured over 600 convictions and recovered over N500bn in
the last three years of this administration. However, as someone
said, there is a perception that while the President uses
“insecticides” on his corrupt political enemies, he uses
“deodorants” on his corrupt cronies.

The government still faces a Herculean task of making the
country secure. In February this year, about 110 Government Girls’
Science and Technical College, Dapchi in Yobe State were abducted
by suspected Boko Haram insurgents. Though about five of them died,
all others except Leah Sharibu were returned by their abductors.
There has also been a spike in the attacks by the insurgents in
recent times with the Nigerian military suffering heavy casualties.
By far, the most worrying security challenge of 2018 is the
herders-farmers clashes which led to loss of lives and
displacements of hundreds of thousands of people. According to a
report made public on December 17, 2018, Amnesty International said
more than 3,600 people had been killed in clashes between farmers
and herders in Nigeria since 2016, Over 2,000 of those deaths
occurred this year alone! There has also been exponential increase
in banditry especially in Zamfara State, Birnin Gwari in Kaduna
State as well as many states of the federation. Just last week,
unknown gunmen assassinated a former Chief of Defence Staff, Alex
Badeh, on his way to Abuja from Keffi in Nasarawa State.

It is heart-rending that Nigeria, for the fourth consecutive
year, occupies the third position among the countries worst hit by
terrorism globally. Apart from 2014 when it was ranked fourth,
Nigeria has remained in the unenviable third position in the Global
Terrorism Index ranking since 2015. There have been several calls
for President Buhari to sack the military chiefs, all to no avail.
It is quite disconcerting that despite the huge budgetary and
extra-budgetary allocations to the defence ministry including the
December 14, 2017 $1bn approved by National Economic Council for
the fight against insurgency, the country is still largely unsafe.
This has had adverse effect on farming and foreign direct
investment thereby posing great danger to food security and
economic prosperity.

As we go to the polls on February 16 and March 2, 2019, it is
left to Nigerians to vote wisely. This is not the time to be aloof;
it is time to be involved. Those yet to collect their PVCs should
go and get them while those who have collected theirs must come out
to vote for the candidate of their choice. Despite these daunting
challenges, I believe that next year holds better prospects for
this suffering motherland.

Follow me on Twitter @jideojong

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