Nigeria’s rising debt profile is becoming a cause of concern, the Nigerian Press Organisation (NPO), comprising the Newspaper Proprietors’ Association of Nigeria (NPAN), the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE), and the Nigeria Union Of Journalists (NUJ), has said.
The organisation has also called on the federal government to take immediate steps at devolving powers to the component units by implementing the El-Rufai Committee Report, which among others, recommends state policing, in addition to other far reaching adjustments to the structure of governance.
In a press statement jointly signed by Kabiru Yusuf, Mustapha Isah and Chris Isiguzo, presidents of NPAN and NPO, NGE and NUJ, respectively, and released on Tuesday, the media body pointed out that there is a need to avoid the debt overhang inherent in excessive borrowing.
“We are aware that borrowing is good so long as such loans are deployed to funding enduring development projects, within the GDP ratio. However, the current borrowing in the face of the slide in the value of the country’s number one revenue earner-oil remains worrisome,” the statement read in part.
It decried that Nigeria has been embroiled lately in profound socio-economic, political and security challenges that threaten its very existence as reflected in ethnic divisions and separatist agitations in the country, with growing fears that an implosion is imminent, just as criminality, kidnapping for ransom, banditry, arson, killings, define the everyday reality for a good number of citizens, at the centre of which are high cost of governance; devolution of powers/restructuring; petroleum subsidy removal; and accumulation of foreign debt, among others.
It further said the continued delay in implementing the el-Rufai report, after its recommendations had been approved by all the organs of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), in line with the manifesto for which the party sold itself to win the 2015 election, was self-defeating.
“We hold that its implementation will curb the galloping rate of criminality, reduce tension across the country, and reset the button of development.”
The NPO also called for the implementation of the Orosanye Report, which provides a veritable road map for arresting the unsustainable high cost of governance, pointing out that a reduced cost of governance will free substantial funds to fight insecurity, provide social safety nets for the generality of the people, fund developmental projects, and stem the current penchant for external and local borrowing by government.
“Put pressure on the National Assembly to pass the Petroleum Industry Bill, (PIB), which has gone into our history as the longest bill to ever go through legislative processes. It is common knowledge that the petroleum industry has been long overdue for an overhaul and the passage of the bill will be a major boost. That the bill has stayed this long in the National Assembly militates against improved corporate governance in the oil sector.
“We appeal to politicians and state actors to minimise their inflammatory rhetoric in order to reduce tension and ease the growing sense of fear among the people,” it added.