By MFON OFFIONG
Between 1999 and 2015, didn’t Nigeria have the capacity to build 2nd Niger bridge, re-build Calabar-Itu road, Finish East-West road or Lagos- Ibadan expressway or start Lagos- Abeokuta-Ibadan railine or even reconstruct Ikeja cantonment after the ikeja bomb blast in January 27th, 2002 that killed thousands?
Was that period not enough to pay Nigerian Airways workers sacked by Obasanjo in his first term? What of social investment? Christopher Kolade resigned from overseeing Sure-P because politicians hijacked it for their thugs. Was 1999-2015 not enough to build modular refineries?
Yet Ikeja cantonment had to wait for President Muhammadu Buhari, PMB, to come and reconstruct it. Abuja-Kaduna rail line had to wait for PMB to come and complete it. The Monorail to Abuja airport had to wait for PMB to complete.
Lagos-Ibadan expressway had to wait for PMB, Apapa-Oshodi-Oworonshoki road, Lagos-Abeokuta-Ibadan rail line and the associated stations, Warri-Itakpe railine and associated stations, Enugu-Onitsha expressway, Enugu- Port Harcourt expressway, 2nd Niger bridge, Zik Mausoleum, Bonny-Bodo road even, Abuja-Kaduna-Kano expressways all had to wait for PMB to come and execute including AKK gas pipeline conceived many years before PMB won election and Paris Debt refund of about $5.4billion to states. PMB had to pay states over N600billion for infrastructures they did as far back as 2007.
Calabar- Itu road is waiting for Buhari including East-West road. About 5 modular refineries have been started and their first phase completed under PMB. The federal government has equity in two.
He is doing all these with lean resources and a year consumed by coronavirus. Uneducated people can be excused, but our educated elites know that from over $100 per barrel; crude oil, our major source of foreign exchange was hovering between $28 and $35 between 2015 and 2017.
They know that unlike Yaradua who inherited $65billion foreign reserve and Goodluck Ebele Jonathan (GEJ), who inherited $47billion foreign reserve, PMB inherited about $29billion in foreign reserve and built it up to over $40billion before covid-19 brought it down to $35billion. Infact the opening balance of our foreign reserve in 2019 was $43,075,740,908.
The elites know that the importation of rice creates jobs abroad while increase in local production create jobs at home. What could then be wrong with a policy aimed at boosting local production of agricultural commodities?
The uneducated might not understand the benefits of infrastructure and some government policies like incentivizing local ride production, which can be painful at the beginning, but these are things simple enough for educated elites to understand.
