Shifting the Base of Nigeria's Mono-Product Economy by Adeyeye Eyitayo

In 1958, Nigeria  joined the league of oil producing states in the world. Thereafter, production of crude oil became the major source of government  revenue with average production of 2.5million barrels daily. The economy of Nigeria has since then been moulded around  proceeds from crude oil to maintain about 65 -70% of  government revenue. It generates about 90 per cent of the country's foreign exchange earnings. Thus, the  discovery and production  of oil  pushed agriculture, the traditional mainstay of the economy, right from the early fifties  to the backstage. Alas, Nigeria neglected agriculture because of overnight money gotten from crude oil.

Several years down the line, the oil market  has suffered notable  setbacks, to wit, fall in oil price, fluctuating demand,poor regulatory regime and other market phenomena. It is safe to say that the instability  of oil price has been persistent  for a long while. Recently, the US Energy information Administration (EIA), recorded that Crude oil prices were generally lower in 2018 than in 2019. But with the outbreak of corona virus in 2020, the price of oil hit its lowest level in 17 years, declining from $59 to $28 per barrel within a month. As it stands presently, oil companies globally can no longer produce in full capacity. Nigeria is currently trading below the Federal Government's  benchmark in the oil market. Oil vessels are floating on the sea with no buyer, supply is now more than demand.

It is a public knowledge that the outbreak of Covid19 is such that is crumbling  economies of the world and Nigeria  is not an exception. As a matter of reality, the mono-product economy of Nigeria even makes it worse. Since the spread of the pandemic in Nigeria, the Government  has become restless and short of revenue options. The stay-at-home orders imposed by the government is leading the economy on a slippery-slope as informal businesses and companies have been shut down for weeks. Meanwhile, the most recent estimate puts Nigeria's  debt profile at N33 Trillion, still likely to worsen amid the steep decline in revenue associated with falling oil prices. Foreign Investors are now reluctant to hold naira-dominated assets as Naira would not stop falling against the dollar like the wall of Jericho. It was recorded that the  Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) lost ₦2.3 trillion in two weeks after Nigeria's index case. Little wonder the Federal Government had to cut down the 2020 budget from N10.594 trillion to N10.276 trillion.

The failure to diversify the economy  of Nigeria  will forever be a serious indictment on successive governments. It is the major reason why the economy remains so fragile and vulnerable to changes in external conditions, especially oil price fluctuations. Each of the past governments  deserves to be blamed for this. Nigeria is  endowed with several mineral resources and to think that her economy hinges solely on crude oil simply embarrasses logic. Given the present realities, diversifying Nigeria's mono-product economy is the only express way out of the looming recession. Creating several avenues and channels  of income generation for the government  is now a matter of national emergency and not just mere campaign manifesto. It is time, if not before now, to focus on mining and  agriculture. Needful to say that, through agriculture, the three necessities of life – food, clothing and shelter – are made available to man. China, Netherlands and USA remain the  largest producers and exporters of agricultural produce in the world. The truth is, demand for agricultural produce is much stable in the world market, given the ever increasing population of the world. There is a dire need for expand in production to meet this global demand.

 

Read: OAU Final Year Student Sentenced to Jail for Cybercrime

 

Nigeria is Africa's leading consumer of rice, one of the largest producers of rice in the continent and simultaneously one of the largest rice importers in the world. Nigeria ranks the largest producer of cassava in the world, with cassava production of up to 20% of the world. Nigeria also boasts of large scale cultivation of cocoa, peanuts, cotton, palm oil, corn, sorghum, millet,yams, rubber, just to mention a few.

 

Read also: Making a Computer Virus is not against the Law - Surya Aezowie

 

I strongly believe with purposeful  leadership, Nigeria can become the food basket of the world. We have the capacity, we have the population, we have all the resources that is required, which is the human capital and that is  the best that is needed. Only by so doing we can become an economic powerhouse in the coming years.



Adeyeye Eyitayo is a public interests enthusiast and lawyer. You can reach him at [email protected]

The Indices of Poverty, Consequential Breach of Fundamental Rights in Nigeria - Adeyeye Eyitayo

In my family, if anyone becomes seriously ill, we know that we will lose him because we do not even have enough money for food so we cannot afford to use the hospital.

- 35 year old Nigerian Woman.

Nigeria is the most populous black nation with  population of over 200million,heterogeneous and multicultural society covering massive land space in the  Africa continent. Nigeria is equally endowed with natural resources and human capital  sufficient enough to cater for her population if adequately  and judiciously administered. However, the trend of poverty in Nigeria has steadily be on the increase like  wildfire. The dimension of poverty in Nigeria is such that is multifaceted and has permeated through the cycle of  people living within the poverty bracket.

In 2018, statistics from  World Data Lab  confirmed Nigeria as the poverty capital of the world, overtaking India on the world poverty radar, with an estimated 87 million Nigerians, or around half of the country's population living on less than $1.90 a day.

The reality of life for the poor people in Nigeria  is worse than what can ever be imagined. It makes them less of human that could not even enjoy  basic necessities  of life guaranteed by the extant laws of Nigeria and the international community. More than half of the Nigerian population settle in the rural and underdeveloped areas where the quality of life is crude and native,due mainly to extreme lack of basic social amenities. The health care is very poor  compounded by the lack of access to potable water. Educational facilities are insufficient and dilapidated, access to land for agriculture is limited and where available, productivity is low due to poor technology and lack of input. Road network, communications facilities and markets are poorly developed. The list is endless and regrettably government policies have not been  channelled to reverse the  hydra-headed poverty mitigating  against the poor majority in Nigeria.

In effect, the  stroke of  poverty in Nigeria has shattered and battered the fundamental idea of Human Rights, reducing such rights to  "empty rights". Thus, the  notion  of human right has become mere illusion and figment of imagination existing only on paper and not in reality.

Meanwhile,  "Human Rights" are  basic and inherent rights of any human individual, giving access to undeniable necessities such as the right to live, the right to liberty, and the right to  freedom of expression. They are rights that makes life worth  living  for humans in the absence of which life is miserable and worthless.

Regrettably, despite  1999 Constitution's devotion of the whole of Chapter IV to human rights, (similar to the ones in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights UDHR) coupled with a mechanism for its enforcement, these rights remain elusive and meaningless to the poor masses, who remains  the majority in Nigeria.

Since time immemorial, issue of human rights abuses and violations prevails in the Nigerian societal structure. And while most of the world's community see Nigeria as a developing nation, much of the human rights cases still go unreported.

A cursory look at some of the basic Fundamental  Rights which have become illusory to the poor masses.

RIGHT TO FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION 

Section 39 of the 1999 Constitution provides for the right to freedom of expression, including the freedom to hold opinions, to receive, impart ideas and information without any let or hindrance. Same right is enshrined and recognized in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. 

The government of Nigeria  has severally muzzled this right by clamping down on the masses who protest unpopular policies of government and labour unions who champion the rights of the poor are also subjected to censorship of their private telephones, series of arrests, detention and physical attacks. The prolonged detention of Mr Omoyele Sowore, a journalist and 2019 presidential candidate, by the Federal Government  of Nigeria is a clincher. Mr Sowore was detained for  by  the Department of  State Services (DSS), a specialised security agency under the direct control of the President of Nigeria for over hundred days despite several orders of court demanding his release. Eventually,  he was relunctantly released following serious condemnation from both national and international  community.

RIGHT  TO LIFE

"Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person"

------.Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)  

The 1999 Constitution of Nigeria also insulates this right in section 33.

Despite the importance attached to this right by international community and the domestic laws of Nigeria, this right is however largely unprotected, especially for the poor. Apart from the physical threat to life by acts of extrajudicial killings, the poor are also worst affected by deaths resulting from a chain of causal effects such as lack of adequate food and nutrition,especially  in the core north of Nigeria, lack of access to health, safe and portable water and adequate sanitation, housing and a healthy environment. It is sad to know that malaria kills more than 300,000 Nigerians  annually. 

RIGHT TO FREEDOM FROM DISCRIMINATION 

The way the poor are marginalized on account of poverty, humiliated when seeking access to government services, and being denied access to information and participation are equally discriminatory of the poor. Needful to recall situations where the rich and people of influence command the attention of the police to achieve their personal interest.

In 2017, a poor man was reported to be relaxing on the balcony of his house somewhere around Agege Lagos state, with a towel tied around his waist, when the police on patrol reportedly picked him for 'illegal sitting' in front of his house. Despite protesting and claiming that he had not offended the law he was taken to the police station and detained, and what was written on the charge board at the police station against his name was 'illegal sitting'. That can only happen to the poor.

RIGHT TO HEALTH

The UDHR in Article 25 provides for  adequate standard of living, which includes the right to health. The enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health to the exclusion of nobody.The risk of getting infectious disease and sickness becomes more possible day by day due to intolerable living conditions and the crude standard of living, which add up to reduce life expectancy for the impoverished density. It is a popular saying that health is wealth.

FREEDOM FROM TORTURE 

The resulting effect of poverty in this regard is much more psychological. Effects of torture inflicted by poverty is that which makes an able bodied man/woman to wake up in the morning and not have the smallest clue as to how or where he is going to find a meal to eat the whole of that day, not to mention  day after. What can also be more torturing for a man or woman who is willing to work but finds him or herself a victim of frustratingly prolonged unemployment.

In conclusion, the deleterious  effect of poverty on human rights of the poor man in  Nigeria is inexpressible and can not be captured within the confines of any discourse. The poor hardly enjoy  human rights and neither can they afford to protect against or redress any violation by way of access to justice. Also, the narrative above clearly revealed that a human rights approach to poverty reduction has great prospects if all the rights can be enjoyed and enforced by the poor, because of their potency to make them escape the cycle of poverty.

In theory the Constitution of Nigeria in its preamble talks of promoting  good government and welfare of all persons based on the principles of Freedom, Equality and Justice. But in reality , one sees that it is the powerful, the rich and the dominant class that seem to have all the rights, while for the poor, the weak and the down-trodden,  it seems to be their right to suffer in silence, to be patient and wait for their reward in heaven.

Lack of equality before the law irrespective of social status weighs heavily against the poor, because each time we deflect from equality, we rob the poor of more comfort  than we add to the rich.

Adeyeye Eyitayo is a Law graduate  with irrepressible penchant for human rights.

2023 Polls: A Call on Millennials to rejig and Participate

Someone once opined, "it is as if Nigeria  only exists for elections", could that be true? Just immediately after the conclusion of the February 2019 general elections which ushered the re-election of President Muhammadu Buhari, the political space began to rally clouds in build-up for 2023 presidential election. The "2023 Agenda"  has since then become a terminology in the politcal setting. Politicians have started bolting regional affinities and lining political formations.

However, public affairs analysts have differed  that it is insensitive and premature to start holding 2023 discussion in spite of security and economic challenges, whereas some opined it is never too early to prepare for the future. Whichever end of the stick you choose to hold, you will agree that the troubles  that waylay the present day Nigeria are enormous.

We live in a time where over 600 people displaced by bandits live on football field in Katsina. A time when bandits and herdsmen spill blood of citizens on regular basis, Kidnapping  and rape is thronging, government is bloated and too expensive to maintain. People are not getting promised dividends of democracy. Police extort money from the poor on a massive revenue scale.That economy is millions of naira daily.There are regional militia and cries of marginalisation. It is difficult to do business in Nigeria. What a myriad of challenges!

In the reality of  these challenges, one would logically assume  that the fixation of our policy makers at this period would be to stand up to the challenges and find solutions to some of these problems. But sadly, the government  has been notoriously lethargic in taking decisive actions on events that so much threaten our welfare and coexistence as a people.

 

Harping on the responsibility of government  as propounded in the social contract theory, the primary essence of government  is the provision  of social goods . In the event that the government rescinds its  part of the social  contract, citizens can so withdraw their obligation and this is done through elections and other lawful means.

34.75% of registered voters  voted in the 2019 general elections, the lowest of all recent elections held on the African continent, according to the data from the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (I-IDEA). Meanwhile, 18%  of that vote came from the youth density. This is a fact on record that puts one to marvel at the level of political apathy in the world's most populous black nation.There are about 61.3million Nigerians between the ages of 19 and 35. Appropriate to say that 33% of the population Is made of up of millennials. Who are these millennials?  Millennials are age cohorts of 19-38, regarded as digital natives, vibrant  population, analytical , ambitious, and achievement-oriented. Unfortunately,the peculiarities of these cohorts are yet to reflect in the electoral process. Perhaps the reason it is often said that the "worst of us is leading us".

The social media has become significant platform for economic, social and political development.Young people are talking to one another across ethnic and regional divides – though not always politely! But at least they are talking. Twitter and Facebook have become major political platforms.

 You will also agree that social media has proven to be a platform where momentum can be built, awareness can be raised and people can be stimulated towards a particular campaign. The Infectious disease Bill, Social media Bill as well as Hate speech Bill are some of Government's policies that have been influenced by social media blitz.

In 2018, Big Brother Nigeria recorded about 170 million votes cumulatively. Imagine if we could have a similitude of this participation in our  elections. But our electoral process is often marked with violence and malpractice you say. Yes you are right! It has remained so because we have tolerated it thus far. Thousands of Malians are presently on the  street of Bamako, calling for resignation  of their president following election violence and large scale corruption in the country. A step in the right direction!

Vision is the purview of youths not of old men.In other words, we need to harness the strength of our youths in the quest for true democracy and qualitative  leadership. A democracy where the voice of the majority is heard. A democracy where leaders apply intellect, adopt best practices and adequately proffer solutions.

If we must move forward, we must put an end to political disinterestedness and civic apathy. The 2023 General elections is about 33months away from now, another opportunity for us as a people to determine the kind of leadership we so desire for our dear country.

Once bitten twice shy, a mistake that must never be repeated. We have for long remained on the world's most deprived people chart. As potent as our feelings of frustration maybe, we cannot, must not allow them to immobilise us and render us comatose as a generation.

We are all involved in politics whether we like it or not. If you refuse to vote, you have still voted. You voted for whatever outcome emerges from the election. 

 

We can and we will create a Nigeria of tomorrow, the Nigeria of our silent dreams. A place you and I can fulfill destiny and maximise potential. It is up to us. But let it be said of the people reading this, that there were giants in the land in those days. Tomorrow is possible, but it is up to you, it is up to me.

Adeyeye Eyitayo is a member of Fourth Republic (a political communications and advocacy group).