When you’re fighting corruption
that has got as close as being the face and very definition of your
administration as President Muhammadu Buhari has done over the last three and
half years, it becomes difficult to escape the sharpened knives of critics on
the way and manner in which you handle
projects initiation, execution and final completion. Early enough fasten your
belt with the fact that Nigeria is littered with abandoned projects-a roll call
of almost every administration in Nigerians’ recent memory.
With a pocket loaded with
corruption demystifying bullets, Buhari has been accused by some, of being
rather busy commissioning projects of his immediate predecessors rather than
the ones he initiated. But the calculation of the man who made history of
displacing an incumbent in power-first in Nigeria’s history-, going by analyses
provided by close Presidency sources has been double fold.
The recession which seemed to
have ambushed the administration as soon as it came into power cautioned it
enough on the futility of immediately lunging into several new projects- with
the usually attendant huge but largely inflated billions involved in such projects-just
as the past administrations before it. The script, largely unwritten as it
were, has always been, discard every project once it has the signature of your
predecessor.
Buhari, even for all his
anti-graft virtues will never do that. There’s always that lingering worry
though that he has those game- changing moments, like reviewing the valuation
of such projects and cancelling them. Again, not the retired Daura General.
So what is the reaction to the
massive corruption with which these projects were awarded?
The anti-corruption stance of the
administration and specifically of the Buhari persona- who is sufficiently
aware of the ‘corruption and inflated contracts’ that usually trail the award
of such contracts by previous governments, drew its steps back in plunging into
such cesspool of corrupt and short-changing tactics. And with avowed financial
prudency of the administration, the stage was set for ‘behaving the right way
in the economic recovery and growth of Nigeria’.
In a straight shoot therefore,
the President, as a deliberately thought out policy, has been completing and
commissioning projects either started or abandoned by his predecessors as ‘part
of agenda to right all the wrongs done by the previous governments before him’.
Yes. The President for instance
in July 2016, inaugurated the Abuja-Kaduna railway for commercial operation-a
project conceived and started by the erstwhile administration of President
Goodluck Jonathan but completed by the current administration. As Nigeria’s first
high speed rail, that will run on speeds greater than 100 km/hr for both cargo
and human coaches at an estimated value of $1.04 billion, would it have been
better if the President and his administration had left the project to waste?
In that case, there will be only one loser: Nigerians.
In the last three years of his
administration, President Buhari has executed projects worth over $5 billion.
These projects which are in the areas of infrastructure and human capacity
development were done with the support of the Chinese. Speaking in Beijing
China recently, the President said Nigeria’s partnership with China through the
Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) has resulted in the execution of
vital infrastructure projects across the country, valued at over $5 billion.
According to the president, the
Chinese support to Nigeria has also impressively addressed significant
challenges in the areas of power, transport, agriculture and humanitarian
assistance.
Again for President Buhari, what
counts more than any other in the execution and funding of projects is the
economic recovery and growth of Nigeria-much more than who initiated and who
completed what projects.
He had said while dispelling
insinuations about the so-called death trap by Chinese government on developing
countries, insisting that Nigeria would be able to repay every loan she has
taken from China.
These vital infrastructure
projects synchronise perfectly with our Economic Recovery and Growth Plan.
“Some of the debts incurred are
self-liquidating. Our country is able to re-pay loans as and when due in
keeping with our policy of fiscal prudence and sound housekeeping,” he had said
while dispelling insinuations about the so-called death trap by Chinese
government on developing countries, insisting that Nigeria would be able to repay
every loan she has taken from China.
President Buhari said
that,”Nigeria is leveraging Chinese funding to execute $3.4 billion worth of
projects at various stages of completion.
These he said include the
upgrading of airport terminals, the Lagos – Kano rail line, the Zungeru
hydroelectric power project and fibre cables for our internet infrastructure.
“Furthermore, less than three months ago, Nigeria signed an additional $1
billion loan from China for additional rolling stock for the newly constructed rail
lines as well as road rehabilitation and water supply projects,” he said.
This according to him is as an
additional Chinese mechanism to build further cooperation in our quest for
infrastructural and economic development.
When the leadership of Kano
Traders Association led by Alhaji Ahmed Sani, Chairman of Kanti Kwari Traders
Association visited him recently in Daura, Katsina State, President Buhari
pledged that his administration would not relent in doing the necessary, to
create jobs, expand trade and encourage greater productivity.
One of the best things any
administration that is focused can do is to revive projects long abandoned by
previous administrations.
President Buhari has among others
revived $2.5billion Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano gas pipeline, which was abandoned by
the previous administration. Commending the President for this, Alhaji Ahmed
Sani, Chairman of Kanti Kwari Traders Association also applauded the Buhari
administration for the ongoing works at river ports in Baro, Niger State, Lokoja,
Kogi State and Oguta in Imo State which were abandoned for about a decade but
would now be completed before May 2019.
Equally of note are some of the
actions taken by the President on projects by his administration, suspected to
have been in any way smeared by corruption. He has made it clear several times
that that he will spare no one in the anti-corruption war. He kept to his words
by suspending the then Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir
David Lawal, over allegations of financial impropriety. It is instructive to
note that Lawal is one of the closest associate of the president and his
suspension was a clear signal that in the anti- corruption war there will be no
sacred cows.
On the anti-graft war and
transparency in projects, the Buhari administration, set up the Presidential
Initiative on Continuous Audit (PICA): PICA to strengthen con
trols over government finances
through a continuous internal audit process across all Ministries, Departments
and Agencies (MDAs), particularly in respect of payroll. Through the activities
of PICA, more than 50,000 erroneous payroll entries have been identified, with
payroll savings of N198 billion achieved in 2016.
Also, the Federal Ministry of
Finance has set a target to ensure that the Federal Government’s Payroll
Platform — the ‘Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System’ (IPPIS) —
covers 100 percent of MDAs by the end of 2017. Currently 60% of MDAs are enrolled
on the IPPIS platform.
Ochonma, a banker and
international finance expert, wrote in from England.
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