*Obi: We can reverse economic slide
Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja
The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has described Nigeria’s current debt profile put at N77 trillion as alarming and calamitous.
It said the cost of servicing the debt would eat up all the country’s annual revenue thereby derailing the 2023 budget.
Specifically, the union said the current debt profile as at first quarter of 2023, was mind-blowing and may take several generations to repay them
The association also expressed concern over what it described as a disturbing data from the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) prediction that about 25.3 million people in Nigeria may face food insecurity, beginning from next month to August this year.
But the presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 general election, Mr. Peter Obi, said the situation could be changed for good if the next administration genuinely utilises the enormous resource potentials abound in the country.
Speaking at the opening of the 7th Triennial Delegates Conference which commenced in Abuja, yesterday, PENGASSAN president, Festus Osifoh, said current state of economy was of great concern to the union.
He said the situation had become so bad that Nigeria would be using virtually all the monies generated as a country to service her debt.
Osifoh said: “According to the Debt Management thce (DMO), the country’s total public debt profile, representing the domestic and external debt stocks of the federal government, the 36 state governments and the Federal CapitalTerritory (FCT) currently stand at N77 trillion.
“This is quite alarming mostly when you compare the cost of servicing this debt to the revenue generated by government per annum. In the 2023 budget for instance, we will be using virtually all the monies generated as a country in servicing our debt. This is a calamity of the highest proportion unless we do all we can to increase the revenue base.”
With regard to the borrowings by the federal government, PENGASSAN said while it was not against it, such borrowed funds should not be used for consumption, but rather channeled into productive ventures and infrastructural development.
Osifoh said PENGASSAN expects to see a different approach from the incoming administration in terms of implementing prudent fiscal and monetary policies for the country.
“The current state of our economy is of great concern to us as we had hoped to see steady growth in our GDP, increase access to employment for our teeming population and diversification of the economy but unfortunately, we are yet to achieve this.
“Poor implementation of both fiscal and monetary policies; policy inconsistencies have continued to militate against our projected growth and development as a nation,” he said.
According to Usifoh, “the nation’s economy is confronted with many serious challenges like structural imbalance, corruption, weak human capital development, inequality, security challenges and excessive dependence on oil for revenue.”
In addition, Osifoh lamented the high youth unemployment, which he said was recently highlighted by the International Labour Organization (ILO).
He said underemployment and poor infrastructural facilities were some of the key challenges the new government should tackle with sound and coordinated strategy in consultation with relevant stakeholders and industrial experts.
Speaking on how to turn around the economy, the PENGASSAN president said: ‘”The hard truth is that revenue from oil and gas sector can no longer sustain us as a nation and this is the most auspicious time to walk our talk. We commend the ongoing efforts of government in agricultural sector and expect the tempo to be sustained in the entire value chain and replicate same in other areas like solid minerals, tourism, technology, etc.”
Osifoh also charged the incoming administration to ensure the completion of the ongoing rehabilitation of the nation’s petroleum refineries and to adopt the NLNG model in the running of the four refineries.
President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Joe Ajaero in his goodwill message sued for greater solidarity and synergy between PENGASSAN and other unions under the TUC with the NLC to forge stronger front in fighting for workers’ right and welfare.
In her remarks, Chairperson of the event and an Executive Director of Nigerian Midstream And Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), Zainab Gobir, advised that as stakeholders in the Nigerians projects individuals and organisations should not always scream at the poor state of the economy in order to send wrong signals to outsiders thereby helping to de-market our country.
For his part, Obi said it would be better for the government and persons in a position to address the shortcomings that led the country to where it is now than trying to suppress comments about it.
Obi specifically responded to the alarm raised by the TUC president about the possible outbreak of hunger and food crisis in some states in the country, describing it as embarrassing to say that country like Nigeria with vast fertile land would face hunger.
According to Obi, the three states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa which were being expected to face food crisis are five times more than state of Israel and yet the middle east country could produce enough to feed its people and for export.
“The fact that these three state that are three times the size of Israel can’t feed themselves while Israel can produce enough for export is wrong and that is what we must fix to stop washing our dirty leanings in the public,” Obi said.
