By Marcel Okeke
Recently, to the chagrin and perhaps, bewilderment of most Nigerians, the President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government inaugurated a ‘Presidential Committee on the National Economy’—just about 35 weeks to the end of the eight-year (two terms) tenure of the Administration. Truly, not a few Nigerians were stupefied by this ‘eleventh hour’ or ‘injury time’ move of the Government at the Centre—justifiably for numerous reasons. More surprisingly, for the first time in the over seven-year-long life of the Administration, Mr. President himself assumed headship of the economic team—and presided over its inaugural meeting on Friday, September 9, 2022. About the same time, the National Economic Council (NEC), putatively headed by the Vice President, was reportedly ‘rushing out’ a National Social Protection Policy (NSPP)—to be ratified and approved ‘soon’ by the Federal Executive Council.
At the inauguration of the new Presidential Economic Team, President Buhari said: “this Committee will provide our nation an opportunity to be bold, more proactive, and innovative in tackling persistent challenges”, adding that “the work with which I have tasked the assembled team will enable us respond more swiftly and efficiently.” This immediately puts a big question mark on the economic agenda, programmes and activities of the Administration in the over seven long years of its existence. In other words, it is this ‘baby team’ just cobbled together that will now “swiftly and efficiently” respond to the monumental, hydra-headed problems of the Nigerian economy. The empanelling of the ‘emergency committee’ also questions the relevance and impact of the widely celebrated Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC) set up since September 2019, and headed by Professor ‘Doyin Salami, who incidentally was appointed Chief Economic Adviser (CEA) to Mr. President in January 2022.
In point of fact, had the PEAC made up of illustrious economists and the CEA been effective or ‘fruitful’ in their assignments, definitely there would have been no need for the President electing to assemble a ‘last minute’ team for him to lead at this point in time. The coming into being of the new Presidential Committee on the Economy is therefore a direct vote of no confidence on the PEAC and CEA. Now that the Administration is at its wits’ end on how to pull the recumbent economy back from the precipice, Mr. President who happens to have also been the Minister of Petroleum Resources in the past seven years, is picking the gauntlet, although belatedly.
It is therefore most fitting to help set some agenda for the latest Presidential committee on the economy as well as pose some critical questions. It is good however that the new committee is peopled mainly by members of the Federal Executive Council (FEC), as this is likely to help in identifying the ‘action points’ on decisions taken at the highest level of Government. This was lacking in the membership of the PEAC who are mainly distinguished economists and consultants from ‘outside’ of the Government. ‘Doyin Salami who led the PEAC was brought on-board from the Lagos Business School, Pan-Atlantic University where he was lecturing.
Now that the President, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria who is also the Honourable Minister of Petroleum Resources is the head of the newest Economic Management Team, the most crucial and urgent task before the committee is to immediately curb the dreadful insecurity in the land. It is an existential threat to the Nigerian polity; and no meaningful socio-economic activity takes place in a largely unsafe environment. Security of life and property is a sine qua non for any economy to thrive. Fortunately, the composition and headship of the new Economic Team is such that one person namely, Mr. President, is the one at whose desk the buck (military, political, executive, etc.) stops. Incidentally, too, he is a General of the Army (though retired). It truly requires the ‘urgency of now’ to deal decisively with the widespread insecurity in the land—for economic activities to really pick up.
