Minister Fashola and the Difference between APC and PDP

GUEST BY OSITA CHIDOKA

Recently the Newspapers reported Hon. Minister of Works and Housing Gov. Babatunde Fashola SAN declared that “What really distinguishes this Progressive government under President Muhammadu Buhari is the focus and change it brought in governance. Infrastructure is one area that we are not only different but better”. He made the statement at Kano as a Guest Speaker at the Special Ministerial Conversational Series with the theme,” Progressive Mission: The Road to our Future,” organised by the Progressive Youth Wing of the All Progressives Congress.

First, I must say that the road to the future is not (In the words of the Minister) through “jobs created for suppliers of sand and building materials, artisans, labourers, farmers, and even food vendors who make their daily earnings from the construction sides.”. In most cases, infrastructure projects’ impact on the economy is two-fold, short-term economic boom due to increased spending and hiring until the project is complete. Once over, the temporary hires return to joblessness. The long-term benefit includes facilitating trade, movement, and industry and can support economic growth. However, the infrastructure would not unlock growth and individual prosperity without investment in human beings.

In a 2016 study published in Oxford Review of Economic Policy vol 32 titled Does infrastructure investment lead to economic growth or economic fragility? Evidence from China, the authors argued that Investing in unproductive projects results initially in a boom, as long as construction is ongoing, followed by a bust, when forecasted benefits fail to materialise and projects, therefore, become a drag on the economy. Where investments are debt-financed, overinvesting in unproductive projects results in the build-up of debt, monetary expansion, instability in financial markets, and economic fragility,” While Infrastructure is essential for economic growth, it must be in tandem with other determinants of economic growth.

As a Governor, Fashola was a strong advocate for limiting the federal government’s powers. We had our share of disagreements during my time as Corps Marshal, but I admired him as a symbol of technocratic governance. His progressive credential as governor was widely acknowledged based on his integrated approach to governance.

Against this backdrop, I am surprised at Minister Fashola’s metamorphosis into an ‘infrastructure would cause development’ campaigner. Minister Fashola made a crucial point that the infrastructure program of the APC “distinguishes this progressive government”, and I believe he distinguished APC from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Now that a top official has identified the defining distinction between the APC and PDP, I will go ahead and analyse PDP’s activities in its first seven years in office against APC’s seven years. The purpose is to identify the difference in approach and allow Nigerians to choose which Party’s ideas are progressive and capable of leading to a future of prosperity.

In the seventh year of the PDP in office in 2006, the government had liberalised and licensed over 40 private universities as a human development strategy acknowledged as essential to a prosperous future. By 2006 PDP had opened the National Open University and had graduated students. Today over 500,000 students are in the open university on their way to escaping poverty, while our private universities provide quality education to those who can afford it. At the last count, there are 100 private universities in Nigeria.

To wear the toga of progressives, the APC should have focused on the crucial issues of public universities funding, expanding access to private universities through state grants, loans, and affirmative actions to broaden access for high performing needy students to attend private schools. Reducing lecturer–student ratio and holistically ministering to the ASUU demands would have set Nigeria to reverse elite escape from Nigerian schools, which is now the norm under the APC government. As I write, ASUU is about to commence another indefinite strike.

As of 2006, the President Obasanjo administration had acquired and built 22 federal medical centres in all the states without Teaching Hospitals. Today, the FMCs are the critical facilities of medical attention to Nigerians in those states. Also, the Federal Government had, under the PDP, spent over N27 billion on the rehabilitation and refurbishment of 14 teaching hospitals spread across the six geo-political zones into state-of-the-art centres of medical excellence. The Federal Government contracted Vamed Engineering Nigeria Limited to refurbish 14 teaching hospitals within Nigeria over five years. By 2013 all the 14 Teaching Hospitals had been commissioned.

The APC launched a National health Policy in 2016 and have spent over N2.3 trillion in the past six years, yet medical care in Nigeria is progressively deteriorating. We had expected a review and reimagining of our health care architecture to leverage local and state governments and increase access to health care by poor Nigerians unable to take medical leave in the UK. Unlike the PDP, the APC had not paid attention to the daily problems of Nigerians

By 2006 the federal government had whittled down the federal bureaucracy. It sold all non-essential assets to civil servants, unlocking so much value and transferring wealth to citizens in Africa’s largest wealth transfer scheme with the potential of building and sustaining generational wealth. The PDP focused on people-centric policies.

The APC had paid little or no attention to reducing the Federal Bureaucracy’s size or improving the lives of its workers. In the face of revenue decline and burgeoning debt, the government has responded by increasing budget deficit and massive borrowing to fund non-revenue increasing consumption or white elephant projects like rail lines to Niger.

Oil price averaged $66 in 2006, but the budget oil price assumption was $33. The PDP era of frugal management of national resources led to the creation of the Excess Crude Account and consequent accumulation of funds to exit the Paris debt club. With reasonable control of government expenditure and a savings culture, the Naira appreciated from 132 in 2004 to 128 in 2005. The banking consolidation, contributory pension scheme, and new financing methods in the oil and gas sector set Nigeria, a front runner in the rising African narrative.

The APC jettisoned fiscal responsibility for expansionary spending, leading to double-digit inflation, a revenue crisis (to use the government’s jargon), and foreign exchange scarcity. APC’s failure to make difficult decisions like the PDP did with Banking consolidation, privatisation, and contributory pension has shown the difference between the two. APC is ideologically vacuous and lacks a philosophical compass. At the same time, the PDP adopted a pragmatic mix of conservative fiscal management and liberal economic and social ideas to guide its policymaking framework.

The two parties are not the same. PDP is guided by a save and spend mentality, while APC is bullish in its borrow and spend mindset. The serious issue with APC’s approach is the absence of a coherent plan on how the spending will conduce to economic prosperity and not lead to a sovereign default and other negative externalities?

The PDP is yet to frame and tell its story in power lucidly. When told, the story would acknowledge successes and missteps and articulate its political philosophy around the core principles underpinning its governance model. On the other hand, APC’s promise of change failed spectacularly due to a lack of unity between President Buhari’s charisma and the intellectual section of the 2014 special purpose vehicle. This failure has led to policy incoherence.

The road to the future is beyond infrastructure. The route requires holistic, intelligent and focused leadership with a clear emphasis on building national consensus, empowering the youth with global education and skill sets that will make them competitive in the global labour market, and restoring law and order so we can use the infrastructure for development, not sightseeing like the Abuja rice pyramids.