Chief of them is that NO one can cheat reality.
Nigerians have ALL been living above their means. We are now in an “actual” economy.
Just like in Kogi State, people who have worked for about 20 years in public service became dead broke immediately their salaries became inconsistent because of myriad of reasons. No savings. No plans. No divestment. No futuristic plans. In fact, the loans acquired by some people to buy cars and houses they cannot afford already made them miserably poor even before the salaries came in.
Even right now, we are still living above truth to recognize that we are actually the problems. Nobody wants to blame themselves for laying the foundation for the reality we are in today.
Like in 2014, when the Jonathan Government wanted to save money in the ECA, our Governors all took the FG to court because they would rather have all the monies and spend immediately without preparation for the future. When the current government took over, oil crash coincided with their swearing in. Foreign reserves belted at $29B which couldn’t give the Naira instant shock, we slid into recession that corruption proceeds were also withdrawn from the economy which led to a total collapse.
Today, Nigeria is about $49B richer in 3 years of foreign reserves with an improved ECA while recession is over with inflation on a constant decline. Thankfully, we can see that our institutions are operating with more integrity and the volatility of businesses collapsing because of oil crash is lessened because we are dealing with more actual ‘facts than facade’.
In Kogi state too, salaries should still be paid because of the bottom line, however, growth witnessed within the two years of on “actual” economy is tremendous. There’s a direct demand of FDI in Kogi State when it comes to stimulation of the Agro-industry. In multidimensional poverty index improved by 3% according to UN-Oxford ratings because, the citizens no longer depended on the stipends of salaries which was shared amongst only a 5% of the population of over 4.3m. If you look at it critically, poverty measurement is related to GDP and when it is measured, they don’t measure only “civil servants”. It is a broad based effect of monetary mobilization to different sectors of the society vis-a-vis standard of living and income distribution.
What changed?
1.As people realized we lived on a facade of “civil servant” salaries which was no longer coming, the number of people who entered into other sectors of the economy was twice more than the totality of the civil servants.
2. Those already into farming expanded into a commercial/large scale based as offtakers of products like Cashew and Cassava which Kogi is the largest producers of was facilitated by Government, farmers upscaled with the assurance that the market for their produce was available. E.g, Crest Afro. Kogi East benefited most from this.
3. In the past, ghost workers repatriated funds to other states by drawing Kogi salaries in other states, now, Kogi indigenes now send money into the state to keep their parents and responsibilities away from volatility.
4. The youths are charting sustainable business routes, production businesses are being planted hinterland which is generating employment opportunities.
5. People are no longer spending what they do not have, rather, they are investing what they have.
6. There is no widespread looting in governance to empower “inactive” workforce of laziness, this is dissuading youths from lazy thinking into generation of creative ideas to stimulate the economy.
7. Even those in Government are feeling the crunch of the system. It is not an isolated case because the approach is holistic. The people amongst them setting up businesses are also doing so in Kogi State, hence, there’s no capital flight but retainership of their earnings. Can we say the same of the past?
To be honest, I cannot say that all is well in Kogi State, infact, like I would always say to them too, we can do more. But then, from baseline growth, Kogi is living under the integrity of how a society should work. The foundation is being planted. If salaries up into regulatory from timely delivery of FAAC and improved oil prices, the prosperity boom would also coincide happiness with the pains we’ve all been going through. It is a surgical process.
The reforms are painful, very so in that sometimes when we say these things it would appear as if one is insensitive to your plights, remember that we are all in this together. Emotions cannot change the course of reality, we still have to sit down to measure our facts accurately.
We are making progresses with the foundation, it is yet to be impacting on the surface.
– Promise Emmanuel (Kogi Rebel)
