The gains made in the local petroleum market must not be allowed to erode through government policies.
In the next 48 hours, Nigerians will be rapturous in marking the dawn of 2025. More so due to the daunting existential challenges that have been emblematic of the outgoing year. In all spheres of life, the imprints of a horrible year are, indeed, self-evident.
The ambience of the anticipated New Year is literally festooned with expectations, hopes of a better future and the desire to be resilient, irrespective of the odds that may naturally occur. However, for a more rewarding year, our horoscope foresees much work to be done on the economy, security, citizenship and nation-building. This means all hands being on deck.
Therefore, it is the indefatigable spirit that Nigerians exude during hard times that we urge all to embrace to make a success of 2025. PREMIUM TIMES wishes all compatriots and our readers the very best. For the latter, we can't thank them enough!
The searing epilogue to 2024 was the needless deaths of about 65 Nigerians in three separate stampedes at Ibadan, Abuja and Okija in Anambra State. In Ibadan, 35 children died at a funfare, while the sharing of bags of rice and other condiments by a church and a philanthropist were the catalysts for the other tragedies.
These cruel and blood-cuddling evidences of privation in the land evoke memories of the nationwide hunger protest in August, for which the Federal Government ill-advisedly arrested over 70 youths, detained them for about three months, and slammed treasonable felony and terrorism charges on them. But the trial was, however, discontinued as reason prevailed.
Undoubtedly, the Abuja-Ibadan-Okija disasters had their provenance in President Bola Tinubu's twin economic policies of fuel subsidy removal and deregulation of the foreign exchange market. He never thought through their implementations. Their knock-on effects in hyper-inflation and devaluation of the naira, therefore, preyed, as it were, on Nigerians. Food inflation at 39.93 per cent, according to the latest data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), speaks volumes.
The NBS report affirmed an earlier one, the 2024 Global Hunger Index (GHI), which ranked Nigeria 110 out of 127 countries experiencing acute hunger. "Nigeria's hunger level is very serious," the GHI eerily pronounced. It was no surprise, therefore, that the prices of food stuffs - from rice, to yam, garri, beans, onions, tomatoes, poultry products, bread and cooking oil - that have been ratcheting up for more than a year now, hit the roof-top in this year's Christmas period. A bag of rice, for instance, sold for N125,000 in some places. A live turkey bird cost N100,000. Incredibly, a 50-minute flight to Owerri, Imo State, went for between N300,000 and N400,000 for some passengers.
A slew of palliatives, monetary and fiscal regimen have so far been churned out to mitigate the ravages of inflation and greed of some neo-liberal market operators. These have not really been effective, as expected. However, the 3.46 per cent GDP growth rate for the third quarter of 2024, as against the 2.54 per cent in the corresponding period of 2023, points to a positive trajectory for 2025. We need an economy that works for all and should be visibly so; and not statistical bromides.
The 2025 budget proposal has N242.5 billion for agriculture and food security. This is insignificant for a country whose citizenry are suffering hunger-induced deaths. We believe that the National Assembly should upwardly review that budgetary allocation. Inputs to farmers in 2025 should be ramped up in the 36 states of the federation to boost food production and security.
On the pump price of fuel, the recent slash of ex-depot prices of a litre of fuel by the country's main refineries/petrol marketers, offers a flicker of hope for Nigerians. From N970, it has been reduced to N899 per litre in some instances. Given some variables, it could further trend downwards. The hike in transport fares as a result of the erstwhile N1,300 cost of a litre of fuel, and even higher in some places, was a major driver of inflationary pressures on the costs-of-living, which needs to experience newer alignment.
As such, we would hopefully see a positive impact on the prices of goods and services country-wide. One way the fuel prices could continue to head south is by decapitating the demon behind the flailing Port Harcourt refinery, for which $1.5 billion has been sunk into.
The gains made in the local petroleum market must not be allowed to erode through government policies. President Tinubu, whose Christmas homily pointedly stressed that every indication points "toward a bright future," should make this count. Nigeria's importation of petroleum products for over three decades, in spite of being a crude oil producing nation, is the height of irresponsibility, graft and failure of leadership.
The insecurity landscape, with high level of kidnapping, banditry and terrorism, which had scared foreign direct investment, grounded many businesses and decreased farming in the North and tourism generally, ought to evolve for good. The cheery news is the approval of state policing by majority of the 36 states of the federation, as required by the 1999 Constitution (amended). The National Economic Council (NEC) is expected to meet in January for further traction on the subject.
In this holds a game-changer on internal security. A country whose large swathes of territories are under the control of non-state actors can never be effectively secured, more so when much of the police personnel have been diverted into private security arrangements for the elites in society, instead of their statutory public security mandate.
Fears have been expressed in some quarters on possible abuse of state police by the executives and leaders at the subnational level. Yes! For this reason, the modus operandi of these outfits must be subjected to a robust national debate and tight legislative safeguards, guided by the praxis of multi-layered policing, exemplified in many western nations.
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Thousands of terrorists and bandits and their commanders are routinely being neutralised in the North-west, North-east and North-central of the country. In August, 1,166 terrorists were taken out, while 1096 of them were arrested and 721 kidnapped victims rescued, in the North-west, according to the Director of Defence Operations, Maj-General Edward Buba.
Taking out an ISWAP commander like Ibn Kasir, underworld kingpins like Kachalla Halilu, Dan Fulani Munir Arika Ameer Modu, Abu Rijab, Sububu, among others, appears to have helped a lot in disconnecting terror networks. This strategy should be sustained. ISIS, a global terror group, has not been the same again, since the US SEAL Team Six, killed its leader, Osama bin Laden, in his Pakistani hideout in 2011.
Nevertheless, Nigeria's survival transcends insecurity and all economic challenges befuddling it. Perhaps, more demanding is the task of nation-building. Lip service paid to it has left the country wobbly, fractious and heading for the precipice.
Other nations have done so successfully by exploiting their diversities to asset through elite consensus, from the political, judiciary, corporate denizens and the intelligentsia, to define the compass for the national trajectory. All that is required is the elevation of Nigeria above anyone's personal and primordial interests. History teaches that it is in our enlightened self-interest to do so. Nigeria needs its own Rousseaus, Voltaires, Diderots, Adams Smiths and others, to stir this redemptive firmament.
