President Muhammadu Buhari
African
President Muhammadu Buhari
African Ministers Commend Buhari’s Economic
Policies
The Economic Recovery and Growth Plan of the Buhari
administration got a thumbs-up over the weekend in Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia from the African Ministers of labour, Employment and
Social Affairs just as they hailed the efforts of the Minister of
Labour and Employment, Sen. Chris Ngige at championing the cause of
the continent at the Governing Board of the International Labour
organization (ILO) since his election in 2017.
The Ministers who gathered for the 3rd Biannual Special
Technical Committee on Social Development, Labour and Employment
under the auspices of the African Union Commission deliberated on
the theme, “Poverty Eradication Through Strategic Investments at
National and Regional Levels Towards Social Development, Labour and
Employment in Africa”, a subject aligned to the “Africa Agenda 2063
for Prosperity,” already adopted by the Heads of State and
Government of the African Union.
Speaking on the theme of the conference as the lead discussant
in a paper entitled, “The Efforts of the Nigerian Government
Towards the Eradication of Poverty In Nigeria, the Minister of
Labour and Employment, Sen. Chris Ngige told the gathering that the
economic development agenda of the Buhari administration was
tailored towards a concurrent growth of the three-tier federal
structures of national, states and local governments in line with
the diversity of the nation. The session held between April 1 –
Friday, April 6, 2019.
He said the battered economy which the administration met in
2015, slipped into recession in the first and second quarter of
2016, prompting an aggressive economic recovery plan with big
emphasis on agriculture and food security.
Said the Minister, “the effects were dramatic. We boosted
agriculture and raised the capacity of the nation to feed herself,
to the extent that importation of rice for example, dropped by 95%.
The same goes for sorghum. This decisive inward look was pivoted on
the elastic efforts of government which the Central Bank of Nigeria
piloted through the Anchor Borrowers Programme in agriculture.”
On social investments, Ngige said the Home Grown School Feeding
Programme has been complementing the free education policy at the
primary and junior secondary school levels while stemming the
incidence of school dropout which he identified as precursor to
child labour. The programme he added has captured about N10 million
school children in 25 states of the federation.
Identifying poverty, disease and ignorance as an evil triad that
must be fought together, he further gave insight into other social
investment programmes such as the N-Power under which the Federal
Government has employed 500,000 graduates, the N-Build where 50,000
are engaged, the N-Agro, N-Knowledge, N-Health, and N-Build where
hundreds of thousands are also employed.
He also informed the gathering of the Government Enterprises and
Empowerment Programme which makes interest-free loans available to
small businesses as well as the National Cash Transfer programme
(Conditional and Unconditional) to over 1million vulnerable and
poor Nigerians, besides the thousands already benefitting from
similar programmes by the National Directorate of Employment
(NDE)
According to the minister, the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan
would have been impossible without the anti-corruption measures
such as the Treasury Single Account (TSA) and the whistle blowing
policy which government put in place, thus, shutting down leakages
and easing the recovery of stolen funds as well as the efforts of
the anti-corruption agencies primed for zero-corruption agenda of
the government.
Ngige summarized that the efforts of the Buhari administration
in the last four years has charted a new course for Nigeria with
the results of that giant strides made manifest in core sectors of
agriculture, anti-corruption , employment generation,
infrastructural development and war on insurgency . He warned,
“Africa will remain the hewers of wood and fetchers of water,
(quoting late Emperor Hallie Selassie of Ethiopia) if drastic
measures are not taken by the leaders to fiercely tackle myriads of
teething underdevelopment scourge assailing the continent.”
Similarly, a co-discussant and the Chairperson of Business
Africa, Mrs. Jackline Mugo called for a common front to solve
Africa’s numerous challenges. She also pushed for a change in
Africa’s social dialogue as it relates to labour and employment so
as to fully tap the full benefits of the African population, which
she termed her wealth. Mugo further said Africa can leapfrog from
its present commodity dependency if each of the fifty-four
countries is able to concentrate on the production of a single
product and achieve an optimal international competitive advantage.
“You can imagine what it means to have over fifty products from
Africa,” arguing it was the route the Asians took.
In another move, the Ministers have nominated Nigeria as one of
the Titulars for Africa in the Governning Board of the ILO. Nigeria
emerged from West Africa due to her performance since 2017 when
Africa put her forward as a Deputy Titular. The Ministers further
took particular note of the leading voice which Nigeria’s Minister
of Labour and Employment has given to Africa, the very fact that
made the ILO elevate him to head government side of the Tripartite
even as a Deputy.
Iliya Rhoda Ishaku
Assistant Director, Press