Prepare for fresh recession – TheNigerialawyer

The Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF) has told Nigerians to
prepare for another cycle of economic recession by mid-2020. The
forum also advised new and returning governors not to rely on
external borrowing as a means of solving the economic challenges
that they might face in their states.

Outgoing Chairman of NGF, Governor Abdulaziz Yari, who gave the
warning yesterday at an induction for the governors, said the
recession may likely last up to the third quarter of 2021. Yari,
who is also the outgoing governor of Zamfara State, said this was a
wake-up call for the new state chief executives to prepare to face
the challenges, especially now that President Muhammadu Buhari has
signed the national minimum wage law, which pegged the minimum
workers’ salaries at N30,000.

“This scenario is a wake-up call for all of you to come amply
prepared to face these kinds of challenges, especially since we are
expecting the possibility of another cycle of recession by the
mid-2020. “This may last up to the third quarter of 2021.

Your good spirit of stewardship will make you contain the
situation should there be one. “Also as members of the National
Economic Council, you must work hand in hand to boost the economy
in tandem with the global best practices,’’ the governor said.
According to him, the new and returning governors should look
inward on how to boost their revenue generation base, especially
their internally generated revenue (IGR) to enable them execute
people-oriented projects and reduce overdependence on the
Federation Account.

“Ours has been a challenging experience of managing state
economies that are totally dependent on accruals from the
federation account rather than exploring viable alternatives to run
the economy. “For most of the states, internally generated revenues
are nothing to write home about,” the governor noted. He told the
governors that it may not be smooth ride for them, noting that the
achievements recorded by their predecessors between 2011 and 2014,
was because of a relatively high oil price of between $100 and $114
per barrel.

“However, by the mid- 2014, the price of crude oil, which is
sadly the main driving force of government’s expenditure, dropped
to $75 per barrel. It, therefore, became very difficult for many
states to even pay salaries of their workers,” he added. Yari noted
that there was no better time to pay more serious attention to the
issue of economic diversification than now when the world is moving
away from carbon fuel to biofuel and electronic vehicles. “It is
expected that by year 2030, most vehicles in advanced countries
would be powered by electricity, which is green friendly, with low
carbon emission.

When this happens, it will spell doom for our economy if we have
not diversified,” he further warned. According to him,
diversification of the economy would entail shifting away from
reliance on export commodity and focusing on sustainable growth and
genuine development to achieve industrialization.

He, therefore, challenged the new and returning governors to
seek a way of boosting their economic base and to utilise them
effectively for execution of projects that would touch the lives of
the people. “You must not forget the high expectations of our
people on us; now that the democracy is maturing day in day out,
the challenges of governance and service delivery are more
demanding. “It is also a source of worry to all reasonable
observers that in all modern economies, it is the public that drive
the government by supporting it through payment of their taxes as
and when due. “In our situation, the reverse is the case. It is
very unfortunate that our people have a very negative attitude to
payment of taxes in full, including corporate agencies,” he
stated.

He called for strengthening of the nation’s tax laws to make
them very effective, and expressed the confidence that if necessary
measures were put in place, Nigeria would succeed in tackling
unemployment, reduce poverty and ensure food security with a robust
economy. In an interview with newsmen, Bala Mohammed,
Governor-elect for Bauchi State, said that the inductees should see
themselves as those called to duty and work toward delivering the
dividends of democracy to the people. “I listened to the
development partners and what the vice president said, government
is a collective responsibility.

Government is a trust and we should rediscover ourselves. “We
should know that we are privileged out of 200 million, 74 of us
have been elected as governors, as deputy governors, as president,
as vice president, we must be able to deliver, to leave legacies
and landmarks,” he said. On his part, the Governor- elect of Imo
State, Emeka Ihedioha, said he would look at ways of improving the
IGR of the state. He said he was looking forward to running an
inclusive government that would factor in all shades of
opinion.

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