6 days Ago By Rapheal
By Olakunle Olafioye, Steve Agbota, Lagos and Nnamani Adanna, Abuja Nigerians obviously need as many relief packages as the government is ready to offer to them to survive the growing hunger in the land. Such offers from the government have not only been in limited supply, but have also come more as promises than results from President Bola Tinubu whose government’s economic policies have been blamed for the unprecedented poverty and hunger in the country. As a way of mitigating the hardship, the government in the past months had announced a series of policies including proposals for tax waiver on the importation of pharmaceutical products and equipment, Value Added Tax (VAT) exemption on a selected basic food items, sale of subsidized bags of rice, first to the general public, but later narrowed down to civil servants, among several other promises.
But some months after the announcement of these relief packages, Nigerians say they are gradually losing hope on the promises. The implementation of zero per cent duty and Value Added Tax (VAT) exemption on selected basic food items was initially slated to run between July 15 and December 21, 2024. According to the guidelines, husked brown rice, grain sorghum, millet, maize, wheat, and beans are items qualified to benefit from the policy.
However, one month to the expiration of the tax moratorium on the importation of these food items, a market survey by Sunday Sun indicated that prices of these food items have remained on the rise, forcing most households to go deeper into misery and despondency. Although it was gathered that the delay being experienced in the implementation of the policy was due to the inability of the Federal Ministry of Finance to publish the list of importers who are qualified to participate in the process as required by the guidelines earlier issued by the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) in August, not a few analysts are of the opinion that the policy was originally conceived to remain in the realm of mere promise. A social analyst, Femi Shodipo noted that the fact that the promises were made at a time when the government was facing serious threats of protest from Nigerians should have been discerned as an indication that the promises were made to ease the tension at that period.
According to Shodipo, “it was obvious from the outset that the government did not have any plan to ease the suffering of the masses. Rather they made those statements under duress when it was faced with the uncertainty of the loomimg protest at the time. Now that the government has succeeded in deploying its evil antics to cow the people into submission they feel they can now carry on with their wickedness of keeping the people in perpetual penury.
” An importer of wheat, Emeka Offor, lamented the failure of the government to bring the policy to life months after it was announced, describing the delay as unfortunate. “It is unfortunate that the policy (which is meant) alleviate the hardship of Nigerians is being carpeted by the Ministry of Finance months after it was announced. “How long will it take the ministry to implement the policy and give the Customs the directives to kick off the exercise? Up till now, the ministry has not been able to give the list of importers or companies who are qualified for this initiative.
In the next few months, the period giving to the policy to operate will elapse. Our hopes are dashed already,” he said. In his own reaction, the immediate past President of the Shippers Association of Lagos, Jonathan Nicole said it would be unfortunate if the window elapsed without Nigerians benefiting from the policy.
He likened the hardship facing Nigerians now to that of the people in war zones and opined that any policy relating to food importation needed to be treated as an emergency. His words: “The hardship faced by Nigerians presently can be likened to what is seen in war zones. That is why we are calling for transparency in the implementation of the policy.
The hand-picking of importers to bring in emergency food items should not be encouraged.” Stakeholders in the pharmaceutical industry are equally growing weary over the delay being experienced in the implementation of the proposed waiver as announced by the government on pharmaceutical drugs and equipment. President Bola Tinubu, according to the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof Muhammad Pate, signed the executive order granting duty waiver on healthcare products as part of his administration’s transformative move to revitalize the nation’s health sector.
The Minister who gave the information on his X handle on Friday, June 28, had revealed that the gesture would result in increasing local production of healthcare products, including pharmaceuticals, diagnostics, devices such as needles and syringes, biological, medical textile, and among others. The announcement had elicited the hope that the high cost of locally produced pharmaceuticals would ease the burden of the citizens as it would crash the prices of drugs and other pharmaceutical products. But more than four months after the announcement, Nigerians are still battling with prohibitive costs of drugs with many resorting to unhealthy alternatives.
While the government announced that the implementation of the policy began last month, most stakeholders in the industry said there has been no immediate pointer to that effect. A pharmacist, Chinasa Ekezie told Sunday Sun that there was no indication that the government was sincere about the policy from the outset. “A policy was announced in June, but we cannot feel the impact almost four months after the announcement was made.
I am aware that the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria has been unrelenting to see that the policy sees the light of the day, but from the government side, I can say it has been all talk no action because the prices of drugs and other pharmaceutical products are still going up on a daily basis,” he said. At the end of its National Council meeting in August in Uyo, the PSN President, Prof Cyril Usifoh restated that the body was still looking forward to a crash in the prices of drugs following the signing of the executive order by the president. The PSN boss in a chat with newsman revealed that PSN had been having meetings with the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof.
Muhammad Pate, on how to tackle the challenges and chart the way forward. This is just as some stakeholders have expressed the view that the policy might not produce the much desired result. The Abuja branch chairperson of PSN, Salamatu Orakwelu recently disclosed that since the waiver was merely on the importation of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients, APIs, the expected crash in prices of drugs might not be that noticeable.
“When you talk of waiver, one thing is to say something, and another thing is to implement it. The waiver granted was merely on the importation of some of the active pharmaceutical ingredients, APIs, and drugs coming into the country. “If you’re talking about the local production of drugs because that is where you don’t have adequate infrastructure such as regular power supply, adequate water supply and other factors, that is where a special government intervention can make a difference.
The waiver that has been given is not enough. It has not had any impact on the costs of medication even if it is supposed to,” she declared. Similarly, ahead of the August 1 nationwide protest, the Federal Government had hurriedly announced a plan to roll out the sale of subsidized rice to Nigerians at the rate of N40, 000 per 50kg bag, but the promise would later evaporate after the protest was frustrated allegedly by the government.
The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, who made the announcement had disclosed that 10 trucks of rice would be deployed to each state as a measure to address poverty and high cost of living. “At the last council meeting here, we announced that a number of trucks 20 precisely had been given to the state governors for onward distribution to those who are actually in need of them to the poorest of the poor in society and those who are actually in need, but the government did not stop there. There is also rice that is being sold at about 50 per cent of its cost, a bag of rice is being sold at N40, 000 as we speak now.
“The position of the FEC is that most of the demands that the protesters are making are actually being addressed by the Federal Government and, therefore, it is the view of the government that there is really no need for the protests again because most of those things that the protesters are putting forward are already actually been addressed or are being addressed by government and like we have said repeatedly, this is a listening government,” he said. But despite assurances of fair distribution and transparency, Nigerians across most states of the federation said they could not access the subsidized rice months after the announcement was made. At Yewa Egbado College, Ilaro, one of the designated outlets for the sale of the subsidized bags of rice in Ogun State, Sunday Sun gathered that the majority of civil servants and retirees who gathered at the venue to procure the rice left the scene frustrated and disappointed.
Reacting to the development, the organized labour expressed disappointment over the failure of the government to live up to its numerous promises including the promise to supply CNG buses to cushion the effect of the hardship on civil servants. The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) expressed their discontent via a phone interview with Sunday Sun. NLC Spokesperson, Benson Upah, told Sunday Sun that, “we are yet to see the rice, but you may specifically speak with public sector unions, but I doubt if anything has come yet.
” He confirmed that the Congress had received some CNG buses, but said that they were not sufficient enough to make an impact. Uche Ekwe, head of international relations at the NLC, said that while the government has delivered 35 CNG buses, the number is far from being sufficient to meet the needs of the country’s workforce. He also said that insufficiency of CNG stations has been another problem in deploying the buses, adding that the government had already pledged to provide more CNG filling stations, but has failed to do so.
According to him, “so far, we have received 35 buses from the government, but the government made a promise that they would give us some kits, but they have not done that. “We have told them to make more provisions for CNG fueling stations, but they have not done that. Because availability of the CNG for refueling is another major issue of concern.
We do not have enough fueling stations across the city, let alone the whole nation. “Secondly, 35 buses are little or nothing compared to the number of workers that are in Nigeria, even if we had to give each state one. They promised to give us more buses, but we are still waiting for them.
” Tommy Etim Okon, the national deputy president of TUC, acknowledged that some government agencies had received rice supplies, and clarified that the distribution is managed by government agencies, not unions. He also confirmed that the Congress has received some CNG buses, but stated that the current numbers are insufficient. Okon called on state governors to also invest in making CNG buses available in their various states to help reduce transportation costs.
He added that more buses are expected by the end of November as the Federal Government has promised to increase the number . “To the best of my knowledge, some agencies of the government have received. Because I think it is pay as you go, in the full glare of the ICPC and other security agencies of the government and it is an ongoing process.
And nobody is allowed to buy two bags. “For the CNG buses, I am equally aware, it has been distributed, although it is not enough. And from what we heard from the government, more are being expected to flood the states.
We have also said that the governors should also key in to flood the streets of their states with CNG buses in other to crash the price of transportation and that is ongoing so it is expected that before the end of November, it would be fully on ground for not just the workers, but for the general public to have respite as far as transportation is concerned. So we are looking towards that. “The rice distribution is not being handled by the union.
It is by the agencies of government, like the ministries and the extra-ministerial departments. “But the CNG buses have equally been given to both TUC and NLC, and we are still expecting more and it is also expected that, the state governors will also float. We are also expecting that the government agencies will be able to better float the streets, the roads with the CNG buses,” he said.
Shehu Mohammed, president, Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN) also confirmed that the unions have got the CNG buses, noting that they will hold a meeting to decide on how best to deploy them..
