In a few days, Nigeria will like the rest of the world enter the Year, 2023. A New Year is always an opportunity to make new plans, make new projections, while taking cognisance of the progress or lack of it of the old year.
This self-appraisal has become customary for individuals and is also expected of forward looking states and nations!
Every reasonable nation must continue to strive to do better from year to year. In Nigeria, there are so many things we must change, so many pitfalls we should strive not carry over to 2023. As a nation and as a people, we must strive to do better in 2023. We must seek to correct the pitfalls of the last years so that our country will once again be a good place to live in unlike now where everyone wants to migrate.
The areas where efforts must be concentrated upon are economy, health care, education and infrastructure. The security situation is another major area that must be tackled if 2023 will turn out to be better for Nigeria. Indeed, the outgoing year had been terrible one for Nigerians. The World Bank had cut Nigeria's 2022 growth forecast to 3.1% from a previous forecast of 3.8%. The World Bank said that the revision was due to slow economic growth in the third quarter compared to the year earlier. The nation was dragged down by the oil sector and a weak performance in other critical areas of the economy. Last month, the IMF cut Nigeria's 2022 real GDP growth forecast down to 3% from 3.4% earlier, citing weak oil production and the adverse effects of recent flooding.
Nigeria's inflation rate jumped from 20.77% in September 2022 to 21.09% in October 2022 as the country battles with soaring food prices. The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) Consumer Price Index (CPI) report for October, noted that food inflation was 23.72% in October 2022, from 23.34% in September 2022. The National Bureau of Statistics, NBS said that 133 million (63 per cent) Nigerians are suffering from multidimensional poverty, with children constituting more than half of poor people in the country. This means that two out of every three Nigerians are poor and experience just over one-quarter of all possible deprivations in terms of health, education, living standards, and work and shocks. The NBS disclosed this in the 2022 Multidimensional Poverty Index, MPI, Report. The survey was a collaborative effort between the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the National Social Safety-Nets Coordinating Office (NASSCO), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), therefore no one can doubt the report's authenticity and credibility.
The number of unemployed individuals in the country hit 23m in 2022, a report by Jobberman in collaboration with Young Africa Works and Mastercard Foundation showed. In the report titled, "Unmasking the Barriers to Women's Participation in Nigeria's Labour Market," Jobberman stated that Nigeria's active population was 122m out of a total population of over 200m. The above figure of the unemployed Nigerians is bigger than the population of The Gambia and Senegal combined together which is about 19.6million and 74 per cent of the total population of Ghana. Ghana has a total population of 31million in 2021. These army of unemployed Nigerians are partly the reason the country is insecure.
About 1,743 Nigerians were reported killed in the first quarter of 2022 owing to insecurity, according to the data sourced and analysed by TheCable Index, the data and research arm of TheCable. According to the online newspaper, the figure surpasses the number of civilians reportedly killed in the first month of Russia-Ukraine war. TheCable Index analysed and reviewed daily media reports published between January and March 2022 as well as data sourced from the Council on Foreign Relations. From the data reviewed, TheCable Index found that an average of 19 Nigerians died daily in various violent attacks reported in the media from January to March 2022. At least 7,222 Nigerians have been killed and 3,823 abducted as the country witnessed 2, 840 incidents of insecurity between January 1 and July 29, 2022. Also, no fewer than 1,499 people were injured during the various attacks witnessed in 505 local government areas in the country. These were contained in a data obtained from the Nigeria Security Incidents Tracker by Beacon Consulting.
The above scenarios are Nigeria's reality in 2022 and more. It does not have to be our reality in 2023, a year that holds so much promise. We have to admit that our politics is broken and we need to fix it. The New Year being an election year provide perfect opportunity to fix our politics. We have allowed the money-bags to take over our politics. This is largely because the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has failed in its responsibility of monitoring spendings by political parties, while the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) as well as the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) and the Department of State Services (DSS) turned blind eye as politicians with alleged looted funds bought the tickets of political parties by bribing party delegates with millions of United States dollars. If not checked they are warming up to buy votes in order to win in 2023.
In 2022, our economy is in dire straits. The managers of our economy have failed woefully. Our country is now unattractive to both local and foreign investors. We fell badly in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). The fall started in 2015. 2013, it was $5.56billion; 2014, $ 4.69billion; 2015, $3.06billion; 2017, $2.41billion; 2018, $ 0.78billion; 2019, $2.31billion; 2020, $2.39billion; 2022, $ 1.535billion.
Nigeria's fiscal position worsened in the first four months of the year as the cost of repaying debt surpassed the government's revenue in the first quarter of 2022. According to details of the 2022 fiscal performance report for January through April, Nigeria's total revenue stood at N1.63 trillion while debt servicing stood at N1.94 trillion, showing a variance of over N300 billion. Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed warned that urgent action is needed to address the nation's revenue challenge and expenditure efficiency at both the national and sub-national levels.
With its current N44.06triillion total debt stock as of September 2022, Nigeria has spent N3.04trillion to service external and domestic debts in nine months of 2022, representing an increase of 23.4 per cent Year-on-Year (YoY) from N2.46 trillion reported in nine months of 2021, the Debt Management Office (DMO) data revealed, recently. A breakdown of the N3.04 trillion debt service payments revealed a total N2.15trillion was used by the federal government to service domestic debts in nine months of 2022. You can see that Nigeria is in a debt mess and needs a leadership that would rescue it from debt enslavement in 2023 and set our economy on the part of growth and development.
Our education sector is in shambles. We have over 20 million out of school children, which is a recipe for future disaster in form of insecurity. University students was at home for the greater part of 2022, thanks to the federal government that failed to meet its obligations to the university teachers who went on strike for eight months. Who in his reasonable mind was surprised when Nigeria was missing in the list of 12 most advanced countries in Africa based on Global Innovation Index? The report published in Yahoo News listed the 12 most advanced countries in Africa and their ranking in Global Innovation Index in 2022 to include; 12. Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, Global Innovation Index (2022) Ranking: 109; 11. Republic of Zimbabwe, Global Innovation Index (2022) Ranking: 107; 10. United Republic of Tanzania Global Innovation Index (2022) Ranking: 103; 9. Republic of Senegal, Global Innovation Index (2022) Ranking: 99; 8. Republic of Namibia, Global Innovation Index (2022) Ranking: 96; 7. Republic of Ghana, Global Innovation Index (2022) Ranking: 95; 6. Arab Republic of Egypt, Global Innovation Index (2022) Ranking: 89; 5. Republic of Kenya; Global Innovation Index (2022) Ranking: 88; 4. Republic of Botswana, Global Innovation Index (2022) Ranking: 86; 3. Republic of Tunisia, Global Innovation Index (2022) Ranking: 73; 2. Republic of Tunisia, Global Innovation Index (2022) Ranking: 67; 1. Republic of South Africa (RSA), Global Innovation Index (2022) Ranking: 61. Nigeria must begin to fund education well using UNESCO as benchmark. It has to begin next year. UNESCO's benchmark for funding of education was 26 per cent of the national budget and 6 per cent of the gross domestic products (GDP), Nigeria has been allocating 6 per cent of the national budget to the funding of its education.
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Nigeria is also facing social dislocation as violent non-state actors like Boko Haram, bandits, killer herdsmen and others have taken over ungoverned places, killing, abducting, raping and dehumanizing Nigerians. In 2023 there should be no ungoverned spaces anywhere in Nigeria, and that begins by electing the right leaders, from President to State House of Assembly members. A new Nigeria is possible. It begins with me and you!
MAY NIGERIA REBOUND
