Presidential Task Force on Control of COVID-19 has banned physical meetings of whatever type by public servants in the country. This it said, is as a result of the rising cases of coronavirus.
The chairman of the Task Force, and Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, said today, July 14 when he addressed newsmen at the daily briefing that unnecessary travels for meetings by government officials remain suspended till further notice.
He said that the directives have become necessary in view of the rise in Coronavirus cases on daily basis across the country.
He warned that the resumption of flight operations should not be misconstrued as a license for baseless meetings.
The SGF also warned religious and political groups against flouting existing guidelines for public gatherings, saying that in the absence of cure for the deadly virus, Nigerians owe it a duty to protect themselves and others.
“Government meetings/board meetings should be conducted virtually until further notice. All unnecessary travels for meetings by government official suspended till further notice.
“All government offices shall continue to hold virtual meetings in their offices especially where participants exceed four persons and suspend all unnecessary travels for meetings;
For corporate organisations, Board members, the reopening of the domestic flights should not be misconstrued. The PTF strongly encourages virtual meetings as well.
“We still urge places of worship to cautiously follow the guide lines on public gatherings; and we urge members of the political class to exercise utmost circumspection in their gathering for whatever reasons.”
He said that the Presidential Task Force’s approach would centre around having enough oxygen nationwide as the number of hospitalized persons increase.
According to him the Presidential Task Force would establish sample collection in each of the 774 local governments in the country.
He said that the establishment of the centres across the country would ameliorate cases under the high burden LGAs classification and increase community engagement.
“Regarding compliance on IPC measures, we intend to institutionalize IPC policies in health care facilities and take step to increase compliance of non-pharmaceutical measures (use of face masks, hand sanitizers, and physical distancing)
“We will also increase engagement with the private sector, including supporting local production of PPEs and other critical supplies. Henceforth, anyone above 60 years or persons with morbidities (such as hypertension, diabetes, autoimmune disorders, cancers), should stay at home and avoid social events as they are at highest risk of infection and mortality.”
The Acting Secretary of the FCT Health and Human Services Secretariat, Dr. Mohammed Kawu, has narrated how he and members of his family lived through coronavirus and the resultant stigmatisation before they were tested negative and discharged from the Asokoro District Hospital, Abuja, where they received treatment.
“Even me, I was not spared. I heard that people around the neighborhood where I live were spreading the news in fear. So we need to really work on the stigma issue.”
Dr. Kawu, in a statement he personally signed and made available to newsmen in Abuja on Saturday moments after he was declared free of the Coronavirus, said: “I developed chest infection, so I had to be on antibiotics for some days. But thank God, myself and members of my family do not have the symptoms again and we have been discharged from the isolation centre.”
The Acting Secretary emphasized the need for the people to guide against stigmatizing victims of the disease.
Dr. Kawuhe had, last week, announced that he and some members of his family had contracted the disease about two weeks earlier.
The suspended acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu has described as blatant falsehood, allegations that the Commission under him re-looted the sum of N550 billion bank interests on the funds recovered from looters.
The Presidential Committee on Audit of Recovered Assets (PCARA) had alleged over the weekend that the interests generated on the N550 billion recovered from looters have been re-looted under Magu. The panel probed the federal government assets recovered by the EFCC from May 2015 to May 2020.
In a statement today, July 14 by counsel to the embattled Magu, Wahab Shittu, he insisted that the allegation is a ”blatant falsehood.”
The suspended EFCC boss said that recovered funds are lodged in the Treasury Single Account (TSA) with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), adding that funds in the TSA do not generate interests.
“It is falsehood that Magu placed N550 billion recovered loot into a deposit account. The alleged transaction never featured in the proceedings before the Salami panel. Magu was never confronted with any such allegation by the panel and the news is blatant falsehood.
“To the best of Magu’s knowledge, no such amount is in any such account and he remains aghast at such outrageous figures. No one has confronted Magu with such allegations.
“All recovered funds are lodged in the Treasury Single Account (TSA) with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). Such recovered funds do not generate interest. This is elementary and can be verified from the CBN and the federal ministry of finance.
“This can also be confirmed from other government revenue generating agencies. Funds kept in TSA account do not generate interest.”
It turned out that it is not the battle of atomic bombs or World War III as projected by some historical pundits. The pre-COVID-19 world you knew, has been permanently altered by an unseen invader, a novel virus. Much like what happened in the post-World War II, every serious nation is now engaged in a new critical thinking. Innovative and smart ways are being adopted by organizations and serious-minded individuals, about doing business and offering services. New ideas, new perspectives and planning are crystallizing to birth a world of the new normal, post-COVID.
But unlike the post-Hitler era that gave rise to the arm-race and industrial military complex, the latest shift will be about the health system, the economy and new national plans and global orders. For Nigeria, arguably, there is no better time than now to prepare for the next and most audacious phase of our nationhood.
Notwithstanding our failure to stick purposefully to plans for decades, we must still plan. That is why plan to develop the Agenda 2050 by the Federal Government, through the instrumentality of the supervision of the Ministry of Budget and National Planning is a matter of inevitable survival.
Our current experience is peculiarly novel in the sense that in practical terms, the onslaught of this virus has now openly exposed our long-ignored shared heritage as a nation to dire straits where no one is actually safe without the other. And without sounding callous or immodest, coronavirus could also have been a blessing in disguise, because we are all now conditionally trapped together, to critically reason about our collective existence for the first time since 1960.
From the ruling class to the middle-class, down to the lower class, coronavirus has made an escape route impossible. Sadly, but instructively, the social media have now validated a popular local saying: ‘We all die here.’ But we do not have to perish as a nation or get to the point of ‘all dying here.’ All we need to do is to get our priority right. This is because, not in the strangest of thoughts had anyone contemplated a situation where a rich Nigerian with a valid passport and visa would be unable to travel for medicals. This is the bitter-mindful situation we have found ourselves. It is a global reality – medical tourism has stopped, at least for the meantime while global systems are striving for a discerning and resilient health system.
Nigeria has got to make the most of the current situation and avoid the mistakes of the past. This is why the foresight of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration to emplace a long-term perspective plan to aid national development must be commended. More commendable is the sagacity of Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Prince Clem Ikanade Agba, for making a case for an inclusive plan for Agenda 2050.
At a time, when critical thinking is forming around a “post-COVID world,” and influencing future arrangements, Agba has elected to anchor the next national plan on a new thinking that centres on inclusiveness and ownership. Most instructive about this new phase is the role of the organized private sector as the driver, while government only serves as an enabler. This new approach will certainly make Agenda 2050 to be different from others.
The Minister has promised a planning process that would be inclusive and participatory with the full involvement of the sub-nationals (state and local governments), major political parties, the National Assembly, representatives of women organisations and youths, the physically-challenged persons, religious groups and other relevant stakeholders. The magnitude of this kind of representations that cut across the broad spectrum of stakeholders brings to the development of Agenda 2050 and the two Medium-Term National Development Plans (MTNDPs 2021-2025 and 2026-2030) a clear sense of ownership from the people and collective responsibility.
The Minister’s clarity of thought is quite encouraging. According to Agba, “the aim of this all-inclusive approach is to have a true national, and comprehensive National Development Plan, where we use our diversity as our strength in the development of our economy.” Put differently, this is also an agenda that could be used to kick-start the restructuring phase of the Nigerian state by the Buhari administration. Our diverse natural resources could be exploited in a restructured Nigerian state to strengthen the nation’s governance infrastructure as well as responsible and competitive management of our public finance. Once fidelity is kept to that philosophy of accountability to the collective, the common saying that our strength is in our diversity can therefore resonate well with the context of restructured Nigeria.
Nigerians are eager to see a new commitment from the Central Working Group of the 2050 Agenda headed by Special Adviser to the President on Finance and Economy, Mrs Sarah Alade, and the Steering Committee chaired by Sir Atedo Peterside and co-chaired by the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed with members drawn from various sectors of the economy, including six governors representing the geo-political zones.
Already, the various Technical Working Groups in charge of different thematic areas have been categorized under three (3) groups for ease of coordination and inauguration: Human Capital and Natural Resources, for Group – One; Infrastructure and Business Environment, Trade and Technology, for Group – Two; and, Agriculture and Water Resources and Cross Cutting Issues, for Group – Three, respectively. This is quite strategic and reassuring.
These Technical Working Groups have been saddled with the responsibility to develop the thematic areas of two new Medium-Term National Development Plans (MTNDP 2020 – 2025 and MTNDP 2026-2030) and the long-term national development plan, christened “Nigeria Agenda 2050,” designed to produce successor plans to the current Nigeria Vision 20:2020 and the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP 2017-2020), which would both come to an end in December 2020.
This cannot be just another economic blueprint. In my previous article on the subject matter, titled: “The fundamentals of an enduring national development plan,” I said: “It is obviously looking like Minister Agba now has a symbolic timeline to work with – to give Nigeria, its first development plan pivoted on a national ideology, by 2020 (now 2021). I dare say that the team of experts assembled by the government is more than capable, to develop post-COVID-19 medium and long-term perspective plans that will be faithfully implemented by the entire country.
I also noted in the last piece that: “Nation-building requires a comprehensive national development plan; and, Nigeria, which is still an evolving entity, is earnestly yearning for a governing ideology to become a well-defined nation-state.” Of course, after 60 years of independence, Nigeria must now, as a matter of conscious effort, put in place a comprehensive plan that has “the capacity to accelerate the attainment of various regional and global Agendas, including the AU Agenda 2063, ECOWAS integration Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals 2030.”
Although, the Federal Government has since inaugurated the Technical Working Groups (TWGs), the tasks assigned to them are however enormous: “to review existing plans, policies, programmes and projects in their thematic areas; conduct SWOT analysis of their thematic areas/sectors; review the assumptions, parameters and forecasts used in the previous sectoral plans and align them with current realities; and consult relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies in their thematic areas for the relevant data.
The overall objective, according to Minister Agba, is “to shape and mould the future into an image we would prefer which should not be limited by the prism of the present or by whatever may be in fashion at any moment.” No one knows what lies ahead after COVID-19, but the plan must definitely learn from the present experience to give the country a workable road-plan capable of taking it out of its many intractable problems and economic quagmire.
Atoye, Executive Director, Adopt A Goal for Development Initiative, contributed this piece via aristotle001us@yahoo.com
Society must rethink this issue of pretentious monogamy vis-à-vis polygamy so that in the not-too-distant future we do not end up with millions of unmarried women whose life style would be worse than prostitutes’ and millions of children whose fathers would be nowhere to be found.
The article is designed to expose the hypocrisy and pain associated with embracing false notions which are really not observed by any culture in the world, and to advise those who erroneously sentence themselves to a life of sadness and emptiness because they were deceived to believe that there is some utopia somewhere called monogamy.
I am very much aware that this article will generate a lot of controversy most especially from those who live holier-than-thou life and have continued to deceive the world that they are upholders of a doctrine that is not supported by true and enlightened interpretation of any religious doctrine.
My Greek, Italian, Russian, British, American and other Caucasians routinely visit their other wives (called by other names) with whom they have children. But back in the homes shared with the one carrying the ring, they are monogamists!
If God had wanted humanity to be monogamous He or She would not have made the pigeon the only monogamous creature. The cultures that practice polygamy had always known that at any given time, the number of available marriageable women far out number available men plus the fact that an 80-year-old man, if he has money, is still very much in the market whereas a 60-year-old woman may not be that lucky. The biological limitation to a woman’s productive age is also a factor. Why should a woman therefore remain on the shelf till age 45 when she could jolly well get married as second or fourth wife to a man who can afford to share life’s responsibilities with her? Why should a woman leave a man with whom she is No 1, simply because he took a second wife and end up being numberless in the hands of several men with whom she naturally shares bed just because of some doctrine she hardly understands?
All the women who should go and marry but are saying they do not want to share their man with another woman in a polygamous setting, are sharing current boyfriends with several other women. Where is the logic?
The argument that children in a polygamous house are always at each other’s throat does not hold water. Many siblings of monogamous families are sometimes known to have had worse and irresolvable or irreconcilable squabbles with dirty bitterness over inheritance or even other matters than children from different mothers.
The agony suffered by both men and women in the hand of unnatural laws and doctrines is too stifling for comfort. In 2002, five hundred and two Reverend mothers were reported to have died while procuring abortion in Rome (alone). Nigerian Tribune wrote an editorial on the unfortunate incident. And stories of Reverend fathers having children and sodomising young men in their care are legion! Why the hypocrisy? Why should the world continue to live the life of Ostrich?
A well known Nigerian journalist hid his other wives from his wife because his religion would not permit of it and his wife, living in monogamy should not hear of it. At his funeral, 9 Funeral Service programmes by his 9 wives surfaced and the woman parading the ring collapsed. It was the grace of God that prevented double internment that day!
Mitterrand, the former French president was discovered to have side attachment with 2 kids after he died. Meanwhile French laws restrict man to only one wife. Arnold Schwarzenegger who was married to JF Kennedy’s sister had a troubling home. He disclosed to the wife that the male child the former house maid was carrying about was actually his son. That day the Kennedy lady did not sleep in that house. She parked out of the house that night with her 3 kids. She cannot tolerate to share her husband with another woman. She is there with no other man.
So, over to those whose opinion is a hinged on whatever reason to rethink. This is becoming a wild fire that will leave no home in no distant time.
Chief Tola Adeniyi is former Managing Director of Daily Times.
Billionaire oil magnate, Prince Arthur Eze, has asked Igbo people from the Southeast to forget about the presidency in the 2023 election, stressing that it will take God for an Igbo man to become Nigeria’s President.
Prince Arthur Eze, who spoke to newsmen today, July 13 in Ukpo, Anambra State, during a church service, noted that Igbo people do not love one another and are not united.
He therefore advised the Ndigbo not to crave for a President of Igbo extraction but a President who would champion their interest irrespective of his tribe.
He said that he would support a good leader as Nigerian President irrespective of the person’s ethnic group.
“For the Igbo to be President, they must love themselves. Do they love themselves? The North is very kind. If you go to northern Nigerian, you will see churches everywhere. There are churches in Kano, Sokoto, Kaduna, Abuja and others yet they say there is hatred. Do we (Igbo) love ourselves?
“Only God can make an Igbo man President. We shall pray to God to find an Igbo man who has character to help people. I would prefer someone who has conscience; somebody who will remember me. I don’t care where you come from.
“I went to the North, they didn’t know who I was. They gave me $12m for the construction of Kano TV in 1980. I didn’t have one naira then. It was the same thing in Katsina, Borno and Kaduna. Then, they put me in oil business. They didn’t care where I came from. Tell me any Igbo man who can do that?”
Irate youths have reportedly destroyed no fewer than 150 uncompleted buildings in Oba, in the ldemili South Local Government Area of Anambra State.
The structures, belonging to members of the Udodimma Estate Landlords Association, were allegedly pulled down today, July 13 following a dispute on the land.
Speaking to newsmen, the President General of the Udodimma Landlords Association, Frederick Chukwu, said that members of the group bought the land from the original owners.
Chukwu who called on the state Governor, Willie Obiano, to intervene said: “nobody told us that the land was in contention or any kind of dispute, neither did anybody come to disturb us since seven years ago when we bought it and started building.
“We were surprised that some people from Okuzu Mbana community, particularly a very rich man from the community, sponsored the destruction of our houses, making us incur losses of over N1bn on the over 150 ongoing building constructions.”
Reacting, the Chairman of Okuzu Mbana village, Chino Anachuna, denied knowledge of the association.
“The people claiming to be members of the association knew they were in the wrong hands, but were assured of protection by the people who were illegally selling land to them.
“We were shouting that time, but they connived with the people selling land to them to beat and use weapons on our people, because they compromised all security agents that could come for them.”
The Afenifere Renewal Group(ARG), has vowed to hold key leaders in the Southwest responsible if the Yoruba nation fails to capture the position of President in the 2023 presidential election.
Among such key leaders, according to the group, are Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State, Chief Akande, Chief Reuben Fasoranti, General Alan I Akinrinade, Professor Banji Akintoye, Senator Femi Okurounmu, Senator Ayo Fasanmi, Chief Afe Babalola(SAN) and others.
The group’s Publicity Secretary, Prince Michael Ogungbemi, who spoke to newsmen today, July 13 in Ado Ekiti, after a meeting, said: “ARG had met and we had concluded that the Yoruba nation is ready to lead Nigeria. We have a blueprint that we can present to any presidential candidate that can bring better democratic governance to all Nigerians.
“The southwest is ready to take over. We have human and material resources. The political leaders must go on consultations. We have six geopolitical zones, Southwest is just a block. Tinubu must lead this block. Also, Luckily, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, who is the NGF Chairman, is from the southwest. “They must move for a united family to clamour for the presidency for the southwest and produce a unified front. If they can speak with one voice, we will actually clinch this ticket, because it is our turn.
“We can’t go into that race with a divided house.”
The group advised the leaders to urgently convey a meeting of the progressive politicians in the zone “so that we can be United. If we have a candidate that is acceptable to both the North and the South, we will surely win. “But Yoruba nation will blame Tinubu, Fayemi and Akande if the southwest fails to clinch the ticket.”
The ARG said that Tinubu, party’s pioneer Chairman, Chief Bisi Akande and the Chairman, Nigeria’s Governor’s Forum, Dr Kayode Fayemi should deploy their strategic positions to unite the zone and clinch the presidential ticket that may be zoned to the South in APC.
The socio-cultural and political body also advocated what it called “classical restructuring” of the country that would correct the highly entrenched lopsidedness in all zones and ethnic groups in phases.
The ARG Chief said that the country can’t run away from restructuring, adding that it remains the best panacea for peace and unity among diverse Nigerian citizens. “Nigeria needs to be restructured, but what we need is classical restructuring, it might not be holistic for now. With restructuring, governance at the state will be healthier and more benefiting, the running of the states will be healthier.
“Governance under the presidential system is very powerful and costly, but with power residing in the states and local governments, things will be better. We must have a roundtable referendum to achieve this. It is not to satisfy certain groups, it will bring geometric progressive order because we have not been moving at the right pace”.
It was yet another shocking revelation, at the Senate hearing, at the National Assembly, on the trouble Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), that the Interim Management Committee (IMC) led by Professor Pondei Kemebradikumo allocated about N1.3 billion to themselves as palliatives since the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic.
As a Nigerian, I am not surprised at this very kind gesture the IMC team did to itself, after all, they have the yam and the knife and at liberty to give to themselves whatever size of the tuber of yam.
When at the behest of the Covid-19 different arms of government and even nongovernmental agencies began to set up committees to raise fund to tackle the pandemic, I was worried because I saw in it an avenue for dubious public and private individuals to make quick monies for themselves. And that fear I expressed some months ago is beginning to crystallize into realities. The National Assembly members are already clenching fists for fisticuffs with those who are the managers of the Covid-19 fund.
Back to the NDDC N1.3 billion palliatives package. The revelation at the Senate Committee probing the NDDC is to say the least a betrayal of the trust reposed on the IMC by President Muhammadu Buhari and the Nigerians people. With all the shenanigans that characterized previous board and management team one would have thought that the Pondei IMC would be different but alas no! They have again revealed that a leopard can never change its spots.
This act of betrayal by the NDDC management team cast a huge doubt on the capacity and sincerity of the IMC in conducting and supervising the forensic audit put in place by the President on the NDDC. You cannot give the IMC that has been accused over and over again of corrupt practices and financial indiscipline to oversee this all important forensic audit designed to make past managers of the Commission account for decades of money wasted and stolen.
It is unfortunate and wicked for the NDDC IMC to set aside such homogeneous sums of money for palliatives for itself when the Niger Delta region and its people wallow in poverty with no concrete projects to point to except clearing of water hyacinths and waterways.
The action of the Pondei led IMC shows the insensitivity and wickedness of the team to the plights of the oppressed Niger Delta people.
Well I hope this revelation by the MD himself won’t be treated as a political banter and one that will be swept under the table like others before it after financial gratifications have exchanged hands. I know that President Muhammadu Buhari will not allow this to happen under his government and I trust the Senate President Dr Ahmed Lawan will also not allow this to happen. The people of the Niger Delta deserve to know what happens to the monies allocated to them by the Federal Government through the NDDC for the development of their region.
The time has come for those who sit atop the billions of naira allocated to the Niger Delta people are called to account for them. This is the time for NDDC managers and others entrusted with huge sums of money to build infrastructure and provide palliatives for the Niger Delta people to open the books to the people of the region to know how much has been allocated for projects in the region and how much has been spent and on what projects. The time for allocating billions to clear just waterways, water hyacinths and such other trivial projects in the region should be halted with immediate effect. The time has come for NDDC manager to open the books and account for every kobo allocated to the Commission. This should go beyond Just any Forensic Audit . It should be about the Peoples Audit. If this is not done, it would imply that the NDDC is not for the ordinary people of the region but for a few privileged Individuals who have turned the Commission into their private ATMs.
It is unfortunate that the period of genuine agitation for the development of the region has gone because a few powerful nitwits in the region have hamstrung with ill-gotten wealth the ligaments that bind the people together. it is right now difficult for people in the region to come together to pursue a common front.
It is sad to note that even the youths who are expected to be at the vanguard of agitation for infrastructure development in the Niger Delta have become tools in the hands of the rogue manipulators just to protect their personal investments. These youths no longer have the moral strength and the collective will to resist the brutal rape of the region by these thieves and vampires because they have been compromised financially.
I won’t be surprised if tomorrow a few disgruntled elements from the Niger Delta region are handpicked to lead fathom protests to the National Assembly calling on the Senate President and other principal officers of the National Assembly to resign for daring to voice opposition to the massive stealing and looting of the common Niger Delta patrimony, just for a bowl of fisherman soup!
How can we grow as a people and garner the needed support to create a region that will be the envy of the world if we continue like this?
It is on record that past and present governors from the region have over the years collected huge sums of money running into trillions of naira from 13% derivation and other sources for the development of the Niger Delta but fretted them away on personal desires. Curiously they have not been called to account for their misdeeds. They still walk freely and jostle for political powers in the region without shame! The norm now is: steal plenty and give out a little and your sins will be forgiven. People now believe that that is the norm and that calling for accountability is out of place.
Can anyone then blame those who would also want to collect their part of the cake? It is very very sad to note that the natural resources from God, which should have been used for the common good of all have become the source of palliatives for a few heartless elements who are privileged to oversee the affairs of the NDDC. Sad and very very sad indeed!
Nigerians who want to make career in Nigeria Police Force but have some physical defects, such as bow-legs, knock-knees, bent-knees and bad teeth cannot do so as the Force commenced the recruitment of constables nationwide.
A statement today, July 11 in Abuja by the Force spokesman, Frank Mba emphasized that persons with bow legs, knock knees, bent knees, and gross malformation of teeth were not eligible for recruitment into the service.
Others who are similarly disqualified from entering the Force include persons with amputated body parts, defective eyesight, and speech impediment. Pregnant women are also disqualified from the recruitment exercise.
The notice said that applicants must be within the ages of 17 and 25 and must possess a minimum of five credits in the West African Senior School Certificate Examination in not more than two sittings.
“Interested candidates must have a functional email address and National Identification Number.
The online application would be open from July 14 2020, to August 23, 2020.”
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The suspended acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu has described as blatant falsehood, allegations that the Commission under him re-looted the sum of N550 billion bank interests on the funds recovered from looters.
It was yet another shocking revelation, at the Senate hearing, at the National Assembly, on the trouble Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), that the Interim Management Committee (IMC) led by Professor Pondei Kemebradikumo allocated about N1.3 billion to themselves as palliatives since the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic.
Agenda 2050: A New Thinking With Citizen Participation, By Ariyo -Dare Atoye
But unlike the post-Hitler era that gave rise to the arm-race and industrial military complex, the latest shift will be about the health system, the economy and new national plans and global orders. For Nigeria, arguably, there is no better time than now to prepare for the next and most audacious phase of our nationhood.
Notwithstanding our failure to stick purposefully to plans for decades, we must still plan. That is why plan to develop the Agenda 2050 by the Federal Government, through the instrumentality of the supervision of the Ministry of Budget and National Planning is a matter of inevitable survival.
Our current experience is peculiarly novel in the sense that in practical terms, the onslaught of this virus has now openly exposed our long-ignored shared heritage as a nation to dire straits where no one is actually safe without the other. And without sounding callous or immodest, coronavirus could also have been a blessing in disguise, because we are all now conditionally trapped together, to critically reason about our collective existence for the first time since 1960.
From the ruling class to the middle-class, down to the lower class, coronavirus has made an escape route impossible. Sadly, but instructively, the social media have now validated a popular local saying: ‘We all die here.’ But we do not have to perish as a nation or get to the point of ‘all dying here.’ All we need to do is to get our priority right. This is because, not in the strangest of thoughts had anyone contemplated a situation where a rich Nigerian with a valid passport and visa would be unable to travel for medicals. This is the bitter-mindful situation we have found ourselves. It is a global reality – medical tourism has stopped, at least for the meantime while global systems are striving for a discerning and resilient health system.
Nigeria has got to make the most of the current situation and avoid the mistakes of the past. This is why the foresight of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration to emplace a long-term perspective plan to aid national development must be commended. More commendable is the sagacity of Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Prince Clem Ikanade Agba, for making a case for an inclusive plan for Agenda 2050.
At a time, when critical thinking is forming around a “post-COVID world,” and influencing future arrangements, Agba has elected to anchor the next national plan on a new thinking that centres on inclusiveness and ownership. Most instructive about this new phase is the role of the organized private sector as the driver, while government only serves as an enabler. This new approach will certainly make Agenda 2050 to be different from others.
The Minister has promised a planning process that would be inclusive and participatory with the full involvement of the sub-nationals (state and local governments), major political parties, the National Assembly, representatives of women organisations and youths, the physically-challenged persons, religious groups and other relevant stakeholders. The magnitude of this kind of representations that cut across the broad spectrum of stakeholders brings to the development of Agenda 2050 and the two Medium-Term National Development Plans (MTNDPs 2021-2025 and 2026-2030) a clear sense of ownership from the people and collective responsibility.
The Minister’s clarity of thought is quite encouraging. According to Agba, “the aim of this all-inclusive approach is to have a true national, and comprehensive National Development Plan, where we use our diversity as our strength in the development of our economy.” Put differently, this is also an agenda that could be used to kick-start the restructuring phase of the Nigerian state by the Buhari administration. Our diverse natural resources could be exploited in a restructured Nigerian state to strengthen the nation’s governance infrastructure as well as responsible and competitive management of our public finance. Once fidelity is kept to that philosophy of accountability to the collective, the common saying that our strength is in our diversity can therefore resonate well with the context of restructured Nigeria.
Nigerians are eager to see a new commitment from the Central Working Group of the 2050 Agenda headed by Special Adviser to the President on Finance and Economy, Mrs Sarah Alade, and the Steering Committee chaired by Sir Atedo Peterside and co-chaired by the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed with members drawn from various sectors of the economy, including six governors representing the geo-political zones.
Already, the various Technical Working Groups in charge of different thematic areas have been categorized under three (3) groups for ease of coordination and inauguration: Human Capital and Natural Resources, for Group – One; Infrastructure and Business Environment, Trade and Technology, for Group – Two; and, Agriculture and Water Resources and Cross Cutting Issues, for Group – Three, respectively. This is quite strategic and reassuring.
These Technical Working Groups have been saddled with the responsibility to develop the thematic areas of two new Medium-Term National Development Plans (MTNDP 2020 – 2025 and MTNDP 2026-2030) and the long-term national development plan, christened “Nigeria Agenda 2050,” designed to produce successor plans to the current Nigeria Vision 20:2020 and the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP 2017-2020), which would both come to an end in December 2020.
This cannot be just another economic blueprint. In my previous article on the subject matter, titled: “The fundamentals of an enduring national development plan,” I said: “It is obviously looking like Minister Agba now has a symbolic timeline to work with – to give Nigeria, its first development plan pivoted on a national ideology, by 2020 (now 2021). I dare say that the team of experts assembled by the government is more than capable, to develop post-COVID-19 medium and long-term perspective plans that will be faithfully implemented by the entire country.
I also noted in the last piece that: “Nation-building requires a comprehensive national development plan; and, Nigeria, which is still an evolving entity, is earnestly yearning for a governing ideology to become a well-defined nation-state.” Of course, after 60 years of independence, Nigeria must now, as a matter of conscious effort, put in place a comprehensive plan that has “the capacity to accelerate the attainment of various regional and global Agendas, including the AU Agenda 2063, ECOWAS integration Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals 2030.”
Although, the Federal Government has since inaugurated the Technical Working Groups (TWGs), the tasks assigned to them are however enormous: “to review existing plans, policies, programmes and projects in their thematic areas; conduct SWOT analysis of their thematic areas/sectors; review the assumptions, parameters and forecasts used in the previous sectoral plans and align them with current realities; and consult relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies in their thematic areas for the relevant data.
The overall objective, according to Minister Agba, is “to shape and mould the future into an image we would prefer which should not be limited by the prism of the present or by whatever may be in fashion at any moment.” No one knows what lies ahead after COVID-19, but the plan must definitely learn from the present experience to give the country a workable road-plan capable of taking it out of its many intractable problems and economic quagmire.