By
Dr. Anthony Philips
There is a town crier video recently released about how President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s government had increased the monthly allocations to the states of the Federation. He claimed that there had been an increase of N2 billion monthly allocations to each state since the removal of the subsidy. He went ahead to mention the amount previously received by the six South-West states plus Kwara and Kogi and promised to reveal allocations to the other states sooner than later.
Below are the eight states mentioned, and in no particular order:
- Oyo State: previous N6.43 billion now N8.485 billion
- Lagos State: previous N12.392 billion now N14.97 billion.
- Osun State: previous N3.793 billion now N5.085 billion.
- Ondo State: previous N6.963 billion now N8.59 billion
- Ekiti State: previous N3.604 new N5.234 billion
- Ogun State: previous N3.0183 billion now N5.019 billion
- Kwara State: previous N3.912 billion now N5.266 billion
- Kogi State: previous N4.215 billion now N6.401 billion
The reeling out of such figures is meant to be a propaganda vehicle to expose the governors as hypocrites collecting money from the Federal Government and diverting it. It is scapegoating the governors. But at the same time, it joins and enjoins the populace to heap the blame for non-performance and the hardship suffered by the people at the doorstep of the state governments.
The video was intended to rope in the governors as tinubu’s scapegoats and shut them up.
This ridiculous propaganda narrative of a circulating video is not about the reality of the state of our nation. The Federal Government is only using its propaganda machine to blackmail the governors to stop them from talking. It is on a collision course with the state governments to protect itself from its wrong policies.
If the Federal Government wants to audit the accounts of the state governments, it might as well open up the entire budget of the Federal Government and let the whole nation know what was apportioned for what items on the budget.
The increase in the allocation is meant to cushion the effects of the high inflation rate that resulted from the Federal Government’s irrational policies. That means that the money allocated to the states can be used to take care of the aspect of the economy affected mostly by the depreciation.
The digression here is that the Federal Government claims to have accumulated wealth being distributed to states and other agencies but not utilized for the purpose it was meant for. This is not only absurd, but also a fallacy in respect of the people’s outcry about hunger in the land.
Trading blames is an old trick to shift the burden of blame for mismanagement of the economy from the Federal Government. It is Tinubu’s kettle of fish that the Federal Government gave money to the states.
Also, if he had allocated so much to the states, how much has he spent on his own expenditure and both chambers of the National Assembly? Pushing this kind of narrative to blackmail people who attempt to talk truth to power is not only myopic and undeserving but wicked.
The concept of palliative is criminally fraught with corruption. There is no question about who led this nation to the gallows. We are here because the Federal Government made the wrong turn at this critical moment in the life of our nation.
Our people are gullible. Before you know it, they will swing the other way and shift their focus. They would have provided the leeway Tinubu is looking for to divert attention away from the fact that the policy choices he made were irresponsible and reckless and, therefore, he should be held accountable for the current economic crisis. His recklessness was boundless by the fact that he had no remedial policies to ameliorate the likely unanticipated consequences of his hire purchase policies of the World Bank and the IMF.
Tinubu embraced the expansion of government as against the trimming of the budget when it was obvious that the nation’s economy was in crisis. He continued to increase recurrent expenditure and borrowed money to pay for the deficit. He removed subsidy without counter-measures to ameliorate the deficit. He prolonged the border closure when the nation could not produce enough goods and services to compete. Predictably, demand outweighed supply and this further increased inflation nationwide.
The local businesses continue to use the excuse of currency devaluation for the high prices even in food production.
His administration has failed to tackle insecurity. The number of casualties daily from kidnappings and attacks by insurgents has continued to climb steadily.
Mr. President should stop feeling sorry for himself because he asked for the job. He should rise to the occasion. Governors are accountable to their states while Mr. President is accountable to the Nigerian Federation. This is not the time for politics of blame trading. Squarely Mr. President is responsible for this unnecessary economic crisis.
Being handed a deficit budget is not a reason to crash the economy. He could have shrunken the debt ceiling by now if he had the courage to go after those he accused of stealing the oil revenues. Instead the buck was passed on to the overburdened public to bear the brunt of the debt. When the ship of the nation appeared to be sinking, Mr. Clueless made a u-turn and returned the subsidy. And we have refused to ask which way Mr. President is going now.
My prayer is that we don’t end up in the ditch because it is not enough to turn back but he needs to understand the terrain to be able to navigate it.
ANTHONY PHILLIPS WRITES FROM LAGOS
