Nigeria’s economy is in a recession. The objectives of the current action-plan include shoring up the value of the Naira; creating more jobs; boosting our foreign reserves; reviving the manufacturing sector; and improving energy supply. Essentially, the proposed measure will be asking the National Assembly to give the Executive sweeping powers to set aside some extant laws and use executive powers to roll out an economic recovery package within the next one year.
By Hon. Josef Omorotionmwan
If the truth must be told, Nigeria today is on the edge of a precipice – with its economy hanging perilously on the balance.
The situation is so precarious that President Muhammadu Buhari will be seeking Emergency Powers to tackle the economy as soon as the National Assembly resumes from its vacation on September 12, 2016.
We have travelled this route before. In April 1982, former President Shehu Shagari sought the same powers from the National Assembly, which culminated in the promulgation of the Economic Stabilization Act, 1982.
This Act is still on record as the fastest piece of legislation that ever passed through the National Assembly: President Shagari presented the Economic Stabilization Bill to a joint session of the Senate and the House of Representatives at about 10 a.m. on April 18 1982. At 3 p.m. the same day, both Chambers had passed it.
Before 9 a.m. the following day, the Bill had been authenticated by the Clerk of the National Assembly and forwarded to President Shagari who accented to it, first thing on 20 April 1982.
Nigeria’s economy is in a recession. The objectives of the current action-plan include shoring up the value of the Naira; creating more jobs; boosting our foreign reserves; reviving the manufacturing sector; and improving energy supply.
Essentially, the proposed measure will be asking the National Assembly to give the Executive sweeping powers to set aside some extant laws and use executive powers to roll out an economic recovery package within the next one year.
It is easy to see this as asking the National Assembly to surrender a bulk of its powers to the Executive. Some would see this as an anomaly, particularly against the backdrop that we are dealing with a full-time legislature that can be called upon whenever problems arise.
But given the slow pace at which the legislature works, it would be better for the Executive to hold the powers in its hands and apply them from time to time with the speed and precision desired. After all, extraordinary situations deserve extraordinary actions.
This is where it becomes necessary to look at the specific areas where the Buhari administration is asking for more powers.
First, the administration seeks to shorten the procurement process, to support stimulus spending on critical sectors of the economy.
At present, the procurement law does not allow contract award earlier than six months after project approval.
There is the mandatory advertisement of the contract for six weeks. The administration considers this unacceptable, given our present circumstance.
The draft Bill seeks to abridge the process of sale and lease of government assets to generate revenue. Admittedly, the President has the power to order the sale or lease of any government assets but the process is extremely cumbersome.
Government has ready assets that can easily generate more than $50 billion to shore up the nation’s foreign reserves and the value of the Naira.
The draft bill also seeks to amend the extant law to allow virement of budgetary allocations to projects that are urgent, without going back and forth to the National Assembly.
It would be frustrating to watch funds lying idle in some expenditure Heads when there are no funds to execute some urgent and pressing projects that can move us forward.
At present, some N58 billion is trapped in the coffers of the Universal Basic Educational Commission, UBEC. This is because many States are unable to access their money as a result of the key condition – the payment of 50 percent counterpart funding.
The Buhari Administration is seeking to amend the law so that States will pay only 10 percent as counterpart funding. The intention here is that States will be able to access cash for the development of education, which will in turn stimulate massive job creation as contracts will be awarded for the projects.
The administration also intends to embark on radical reforms in visa issuance at Nigeria’s consular offices and on arrival in the country to compel some agencies of government like Corporate Affairs Commission, CAC, the National Agency for Foods Administration and Control, NAFDAC, and others to improve on their turn around operation time for the benefit of business.
It is noteworthy that Nigeria is one of the few countries worldwide where the visa is very difficult to obtain. Someone has likened obtaining the Nigerian visa to the proverbial camel’s head passing through the needle’s hole.
If we must progress, the time has come for the desired radical reforms to enable foreign investors come into the country without unnecessary bottlenecks. Here, government’s noble intensions are laudable – visas will be issued within 48 hours of application; and tourists to Nigeria can also pick up their visas at the entry point if they so desire.
Executing government contract has become an ordeal. By the provision of current extant laws, contractors do not get mobilized for more than 15 percent of the contract sum.
The administration has observed that this paltry mobilization hardly moves contractor to site; and in turn, this is largely responsible for the reckless abandonment of government contracts all over the place.
Once contractors are barely able to move equipment to site, they will remain there stranded; and waiting endlessly for further payment.
The draft bill will seek to allow government to mobilize contractors to the tune of 50 percent of the contract sum.
Perhaps most importantly, for the power sector, government plans to truck gas from source to the power plants, to avert the activities of gas pipeline vandals and ensure that gas gets to where it is needed for power generation.
These plans look good on the surface. But in a country where there is more politicking and less governance, there must be in-built monitoring mechanisms to ensure that monies realized do not find their way to campaign slush funds.
And history beckons at the National Assembly – the record of the Economic Stabilization Act, 1982, which went through the legislative maze within 24 hours, is waiting to be broken!
Hon. Josef Omorotionmwan is a public affairs analyst and Chairman, Board of Directors, Edo Broadcasting Service. He can be reached at: joligien@yahoo.com
