How Nigeria can make palliative deliveries effective — Dons

Former dean of School of Transport and Logistics at the Lagos State University(LASU) Ojo, Prof Samuel Odewumi and the President\Chairman of Council, Chartered Institute of Transport Administration of Nigeria(CIOTA), Prince Segun Obayendo as well as Professor of Transport Management, Federal University of Technology Owerri (FUTO), Callistus Ibe, among others, have advocated more effective and sustainable palliative delivery strategies for the country.

They said that is the only way to approach the current economic crisis that most Nigerians are grappling with due to the recent removal of subsidy on fuel that has pushed up the cost of living and many people further down the poverty line.

They made this submission at a recent virtual round-table organised by CIOTA to discuss the better ways Nigeria, and the government in particular could go about alleviating the suffering many people are going through, especially since the removal of fuel subsidy.

The president of CIOTA for example, said the bad economic situation in the country at the moment with most Nigerians unable to access basic needs of life is almost getting out of hand, urging the government at all levels to do all they can to address the challenge.

He, just like every other speaker, believes that the removal of fuel subsidy was long overdue but how to effectively mitigate the effect of the policy on Nigerians particularly by government, is a big problem.

He said that proffering a solution to the challenge and rescuing Nigerians from going deeper into the poverty circle was the essence of the forum.

Making his own presentation, Prof Odewunmi, who is the chairman, CIOTA Committee on roads, said the government would need to come up with subsidy policies in some sectors such as agriculture by subsidizing fertilizers for farmers, crude oil for local refineries, and also provide tax relief for manufacturers.

He mentioned that government would also need to do everything possible to secure the lives and property of people both in the urban and rural communities and significantly increase crude oil production to boost revenue and also expose and punish oil thieves in the Niger Delta region.

He said Nigeria must get it right under this political dispensation by ensuring it improves the quality of life of the citizens.

He said parts of the ways to achieve these is by paying hardship allowance and economic realities salaries to workers and pensions to retirees as and when due and so forth.

“It will also be desirable that various state governments judiciously use the N5 billion given to them by the Federal Government as palliative, and that government at both federal and state levels roll out gas conversion vehicles, improve electricity supply and railway transport systems, construct and rehabilitate roads, increase fuel supply, and equally engage citizens frequently in their programmes and policies.

The citizens, on their part, should likewise ensure they continuously challenge the state and local governments to be more creative, address their local challenges, and stop depending on the federal government for ideas and funds.

He said the distribution of cash or food items as palliatives, as previous experiences have shown in the country, would only scratch the surface by providing temporary relief and cannot in any way lift people out of poverty and therefore should not be the priority of the government to address the effects of the economic downturn on people.

In his own contribution, Director-General/Chief Executive, Nigerian Institute of Transport Technology (NITT) Zaria, Bayero Salih Farah, said that although the government subsidising certain goods or services in public interest, such as petroleum, as it had done since the 1970s until the current government removed the subsidy, has been a great idea, ineffective administration of such policy has always been the problem.

According to him, the fuel subsidy regime, for example, has been plagued over the years by serious challenges including unsustainable funding, economic distortion, smuggling across borders, corruption, reduced investment in the downstream sector, and so forth.

He harped on the power of innovations to drive modern technologies that would greatly address the huge demands of the transport and logistics industry and their contribution to the nation’s economy.

He listed some initiatives taken by NITT to address challenges in the sector, including the production of biofuel from different sources such as hibiscus, organic waste, and sunflower; electric vehicles using renewable charging solutions; and the conversion of fossil fuel engines to autogas or hybrid engines, among others.

“We also intend to mass-produce qualified technicians for vehicle conversion, repair, and maintenance across the country, as well as establish conversion workshops or centres across the country,” he added.

According to him, such efforts will certainly minimise the effects of fuel subsidy removal on people and also provide them with new job opportunities, grow a low-carbon environment, and create a flexible, smart, and digitised transport system.

On his part, a Professor of Transport Management at the Federal University of Technology Owerri (FUTO), Callistus Ibe, highlighted what the government would need to do to make palliatives more effective in a situation like this.

According to him, the government would need to approach palliative delivery from a production angle rather than consumption.

While acknowledging the impact of the transport sector on other sectors of the economy, as whatever happens to the former will definitely rob the latter, just as the current hardship many Nigerians are going through because of the high cost of transportation, Ibe opined that it would have been better for the government to follow the Chinese way of palliatives, which is to teach citizens how to catch fish rather than to gift them fish.

He said the distribution of raw food items to people is at best a fire brigade approach, so the initiative is unsustainable.

“It would have been better to adopt a productive approach and not consumerism, as that is the only way to effectively minimise the level of poverty in the country,” he noted.

He explained that the consumerism approach can only create many overnight billionaire businessmen and women who buy off food items in the market for distribution and consequently create artificial scarcity that will further lead to higher prices of those food items in the market, thereby compounding the initial problems the policy is meant to address.

He said the government should have worked on how the cost of transportation and energy would be drastically reduced while not increasing, using subsidised mass transit vehicles and alternative energy sources, respectively.

By so doing, he added, more jobs will be created, people will also earn income, and the positive multiplier effects will be great.

He, however, pointed out that operators of such buses would have been formed to work with cooperative societies and not individuals so as not to arbitrarily charge high fares.

He said it is doable as many other countries, especially those in developed countries, engage in such practices and achieve success.

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