Two internationally-acclaimed critical minds who featured on the popular monthly interview discourse, Boiling Point Arena, Prof. Farooq Kperogi and Prof. Godwin Oyedokun, followed divergent paths in their assessment of the state of the Nigerian Economy in reaction to the hype of quantum leap in growth and stability by Government.
Notwithstanding, both Kperogi and Oyedokun formed a consensus that though there was significant growth, stability and expansion in key sectors of the economy, it is erroneous to jubilate that there is any indication of improvement in the economy when juxtaposed with the glaring reality that Nigerians are sinking deeper into poverty in unimaginable proportion.
The current affairs programme, hosted by a seasoned media professional and public relations strategist, Dr Ayo Arowojolu, was transmitted via Zoom and broadcast live on six radio stations in Lagos, Ogun and Delta States.
The topic of discourse was: “Economic Narratives Vs Lived Realities: Measuring the Real Impact of Government Policies on Household Survival in Nigeria”.
Prof Kperogi, a popular columnist based in Atlanta, United States, whose articles have been unrelenting in criticism of the government, took a swipe at President Tinubu for inflicting pains, agony and sufferings on Nigerians through the precipitous removal of fuel subsidy on his first day of assumption of office.
For his part, Prof Oyedokun, an economist and accounting professional who lectures at Lead City University, Ibadan, defended many economic policies of the Tinubu Regime, although he shared concurrence with Prof Kperogi that the abrupt removal of subsidy was “an unnecessary aggrandizement and misplaced priority” which, to him, triggered poverty in the land.
Hear Prof. Kperogi: “what is happening right now in Nigeria is the consequence of an unrestrained implementation of neoliberal politics, of neoliberal economics. The precipitous removal of fuel subsidy is the reason for this ongoing torture of Nigerians.
“If you look at the history of SAP, most of us grew up knowing it as Structural Adjustment Programme. Removal of fuel subsidy is irresponsible abdication of responsibility by government. This has happened in other countries that have implemented similar policies of IMF and World Bank, just like Argentina which is another country that is implementing almost exactly the same policies by the Tinubu Administration.
“Argentina is probably the only country in the world that is worse than Nigeria in terms of the welfare of the people, in terms of the decline and the hollowing out of the middle class and the pauperisation of the mass of the people. But the people are literally eating from the dustbins in Argentina.
“If you look at the metrics, the abstract metrics, there is growth. They always come out to say the economy has grown 3%, 4% and that we have turned round the corner. No wonder why there is a disjunction between what the government says is happening and the everyday lived reality of people.
“And the reason for this is that growth without development, that is, without people feeling it, is not development.”
“What is happening basically right now is that the government has been inflicting hell for the poor people while there’s paradise for the extraordinarily rich people.
“The wellbeing of citizens is the only parameters to judge growth like it happened in South Korea and Singapore. The mark of the progress of any country, of any nation, of any community of people, is how well they take care of the weakest members of their society and the most vulnerable, the poorest. That’s how you measure civilization and development.”
For Prof Godwin Oyedokun, his viewpoint is that the claim by the government that there is growth and expansion of the economy is quite correct but he nonetheless admitted that poverty was still greatly manifesting in the lives of overwhelming proportion of the populace.
Prof Oyedokun’s drift: “When we say development and growth, the first question to ask is that, is government lying? The answer is No. Government is not lying. If you look at the recent figures, you will see that there’s recovery and external stability in Nigeria which reflect what we call balance of payment surplus. And this is the angle they are coming from. Even World Bank is also saying this.
“We have seen that we have economic expansion of about 4.6% in the fourth quarter of 2024. So the service sector is also improving, and it has been dominated by about 57.5% in terms of GDP. If you look at this, it speaks to where they are coming from,
especially the Minister of Finance, recently saying that the economy is growing and the likes.
“But the persistence in terms of reality continues, because despite all this, and according to what Prof Kperogi said, poverty remains deep and pervasive. And I won’t deny that, because if I am not mistaken,
about 39% of Nigerians live below the poverty line. That, we all see every day. And then, when you relate it to the inflation and cost of living, the pressure remain high. And you know, when inflation stood at over 20%,
you will also want to know that food inflation will be high.
“When you look at the issue of unemployment, the government of the day cannot say it’s strong. No, it is weak. So, we can also say that unemployment figures may appear moderate but the issue of under-employment and the situation whereby we have informal employment that is dominating. You know, you can’t trace informal employment, especially the gig economy.
“So, if they continue to tell us that the economy is improving, my mother on the streets of Gbagi and Bodija Markets in Ibadan want to see this reflecting what we have. Yet, when we also link it to infrastructural development and productivity, you’ll see that this deficit continues to persist.
So, example of that is the kind of unreliable electricity supply that we have that continues. And it’s really undermining the manufacturing and industry growth.”
Prof Oyedokun said rather than blame government for many of the factors worsening the economy, he opined that the greedy attitude of many Nigerians to capitalize on the situation to maximize profits at almost every opportunity is responsible for the rachet effect which makes it difficult for prices of some items to come down the moment there’s an upswing.
On the controversial removal of fuel subsidy, the erudite academic had this to say: “You know one of the culture of our government system in Nigeria is that our leaders don’t accept that they are wrong. That pronouncement that day on May 29, 2023 which came out with a lot of aggrandizement wasn’t necessary at all. I can say it’s a kind of misplaced priority. And that’s a typical culture of our leaders in the country. In fact, there’s nothing you will say to the contrary, they will continue to defend it till thy kingdom come. However, it has happened. The politics of it now is that people now also cash in on that opportunity to inflict pain on ourselves. So as we are talking in that direction, we also need to talk to ourselves.
“So when you talk about development in terms of figure, whether doctored or creative in nature, the growth is there. But this is what is lacking in government. Everything is politics. And that’s just the way governance is in Nigeria. The issue is about expectation gap. The expectation gap is that what is the real growth expected by Nigerian? So there is expectation gap. And that’s why that gap will continue to be widening in as much as government is seeing its own prism by itself that things are doing well without looking down and see whether the people are eating well today or not.”
The interview discourse lasted for a two-hour duration and was broadcast live on WASH FM, Lagos, Sweet FM, Abeokuta, Roots FM, Abeokuta, Ẹrimbe FM, Shagamu, Women Radio FM, Mowe, and Kruzz FM, Asaba.
