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9:51 PM
Strike. Dr Olusegun Ajiboye, ASUU University of
Ibadan branch chairman shares why the Finance
Minister of the federation should be blamed for
the ongoing ASUU Strike.
Read the full ASUU Latest News below:
This is a government that signed an agreement
with us on January 24, 2012, to the effect that
they would inject N100bn as funding into the
universities in the first month; and that before
the end of 2012, they would inject another N300
bn.”
Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala increasingly is cutting a
sorry figure as Finance Minister. And nothing has
demonstrated this fact more than her utterances
on the strike by the Academic Staff Union of
Universities, ASUU.
To start with, she announced, as if it was true,
that government cannot pay the N92 billion
causing the present palaver. She turned out to
be wrong on three counts at least – none of
which does her reputation as a global financial
expert any good. It was poor defence and
exposed her as someone who did not do her
homework very well before commenting on a
vital national issue.
First, as Dr Ajiboye pointed out, N92 billion
represented a figment of the imagination of the
former World Bank Managing Director. Ajiboye,
a valid representative of all the ASUU creditors,
told us that the amount due to them was N87
billion; not N92 billion. Even for a wasteful
administration, overpaying by N5 billion would
have been reprehensible. There is a lot of good
work which government can do with N5 billion
instead of throwing it away carelessly. Throwing
public money way carelessly was what led to
the fuel subsidy scam which tarnished her
reputation in 2011/2012 when she jumped into
the fray without checking her facts properly.
Second, her statement about government’s
inability to pay lacked credibility and was soon
discredited by the President. There is a distinct
difference between “can’t pay” and “won’t pay”.
The former admits of financial weakness or
destitution; the latter connotes willful refusal to
honour an agreement into which government
voluntarily entered.
For the Minister of a government which allowed
the country to be defrauded of over N1 trillion to
claim that government cannot pay N92 billion or
less than one per cent, is an insult to the
intelligence of Nigerians and discredit to
government itself. As if to prove that the
Minister spoke, not for government but herself,
the President a few days after ordered that
more than N92 billion be released to the
universities. That order by Jonathan had
elevated Okonjo-Iweala’s claim from the realm
of the incredible to a colossal lie. Where will
government find N100 billion to carry out the
President’s instructions if it cannot afford N92
billion?
But, all those pale by comparison with Dr
Okonjo-Iweala’s real contribution to this awful
national calamity. Read Dr Ajiboye’s assertions
again and the astute reader can readily see the
genesis of this whole mess. In January last year,
long after the 2013 budget had been presented
to the National Assembly, obviously with no
provisions for paying the N87 billion owed to
ASUU, the President, who at that time was
facing a national revolt on account of fuel price
increase from N65 per litre to N141 did not want
another ASUU strike to add to the uprising. So,
government, perhaps ill-advisedly and hastily
promised ASUU N400 billion additional money;
that brought the total debt payable in 2013 to
N487 billion.
Call it incompetence or lack of courage and/or
integrity, but given a 2012 budget, from which
any provisions for ASUU had been excluded,
promising eleven per cent of last year’s budget
to the academic staff of universities was
fraudulent. When Jonathan Swift, 1667-1745,
wrote that, “Promises, like pie-crusts, are made
to be broken”, (VANGUARD BOOK OF
QUOTATIONS p203), he must have had a
government like the present one in mind. It is
one government on whose promises nobody
should rely. So 2012 ended without government
honouring its agreements. That was bad
enough.
Any financial officer, involved in budgeting,
knows that when planning the budget for any
year, you must take into account all the bills
past due as well as those likely to fall due during
the year – if the decision is to pay. They can
only be ignored if there is a willful and conscious
decision not to pay and to damn the
consequences.
The fiasco this time around has occurred
because the Finance Minister either forgot to
make provisions for paying the N487 billion, not
even N92 billion as she claimed, or because she
deliberately excluded those outstanding bills.
Forgetting such a huge liability demonstrates
incompetence and gross negligence – for which
the nation is now paying dearly. Remembering
that the debts are long overdue and deliberately
ignoring them is proof beyond reasonable doubt
of lack of budgetary integrity. It does not require
the towering intelligence of a Harvard graduate
to predict the outcome of that benign neglect of
government’s obligations.
Unfortunately for the government, for the
Minister and all the other stakeholders, “All
things do help the unhappy man to fall”,
according to Shakespeare, 1564-1616, this years
budget is in shreds. The same Finance Minister
has been leading the government officials telling
us about the shortfall in revenue on account of
alleged crude oil theft. As much as 400,000
barrels a day is stolen – apparently with
government helpless to check the pillage.
A recent report estimated that oil revenue in
July of this year dropped by 42% compared to
the same period last year. By a cruel twist of
fate, the country had moved from won’t pay
closer to can’t pay. There is no money in the
budget to pay ASUU N487 billion; that is certain.
Just as sure is the fact that, even if Okonjo-
Iweala had not been careless, there probably
would have been no money to pay the entire
bill.
Realising the government’s partly self-imposed
predicament, Jonathan had approved part
payment of the outstanding debts. Ordinarily,
that should have induced Nigerians to rise up
and urge ASUU to accept the half-loaf and wait
till next year for the balance. However, given
government’s reputation as a dead-beat, on
whose words nobody can rely, there has been
no outcry against ASUU for refusing the offer.
This is the closest thing to an economic Mexican
stand-off that anyone can imagine and only
divine intervention can resolve the mess –
thanks to the Finance Minister; who should know
better. Nobody, with the minutest experience in
drawing up budgets should have made that
mistake.
The most important question now is: will the
2014 budget reflect the payment due to ASUU –
even if the lecturers accept the offered half-
loaf? If it does not, ASUU’s return to the
campuses will be short-lived. They will be out
again in 2014.
Finally, the Finance Minister has probably
antagonized the one group every public office
holder should avoid at all costs. University dons
are not only articulate, they are the most vocal
group in the country and the most influential
opinion molders. Henceforth, they will cease
every opportunity to cut her down to size. This
episode, however it ends, has once again raised
the possibility that Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala might
not be around much longer. She was recruited
to build confidence in the government’s
economic policy team.
Starting with her staunch defence of the subsidy
removal, based on falsified data, she had
stumbled from one controversy to another.
Instead of offering solutions, she is increasingly
perceived as part of the problem. She probably
has not come across that famous statement by
Arthur Dewing in the Harvard Business Review,
October 1923. “Behind the facts of economics
are the facts of psychology..the emotions of fear
and confidence… “. A lot of people are losing, or
have lost confidence in the Minister. That’s bad
for her and bad for Nigeria.
Via [VanguardNGR]
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