Covid-19: “Why govt must cut costs, lifestyles of office holders”

Government at all levels must cut costs and extra-large lifestyles of office holders to save the nation’s collapsing economy. The Principal Consultant, VicCapital Limited, a management consultant and training firm, and member of the Coalition against Covid-19, Ivoke Victor who shared this view with OBINNA NNOROM also advised political office holders to reduce the number of cars in their fleet, reduce the number of aides and cut the salaries and allowances of legislative aides, lawmakers, commissioners and all other political appointees. Excerpts:

The organised private sector has called on the government for cash to enable them cushion the effects of Covid-19 pandemic, what’s your view on this?

I don’t think that cash handout to private sector operators would be the solution to the losses occasioned by the pandemic. There is always the need for cash but there are chances it may be diverted or used for other pressing issues. If government wants to give palliative to private sectors, that will be a different thing but not cash to cushion the effect of Covid-19.

I would rather suggest that government provides enabling environment with adequate regulatory policies to the private sectors. This can be in the form of tax holidays, tax reduction, VAT reduction, non-interest loans, import duty waiver and provision of equipment and inputs for those in the agro and manufacturing sectors.  They can further reduce the cost of petrol and diesel since many businesses run on petrol and diesel in Nigeria.

You are an employer of labour, can you share your view on how the lockdown on Covid-19 pandemic has affected the private sector in the country?

Ivoke

There is no doubt that the pandemic has dealt a mortal blow to many small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Nigeria and many may not recover from its effects in the near future. A lot of businesses have been shut leaving only those in food, pharmaceutical and other essential industries to operate.  Most of these businesses were even struggling to survive pre-pandemic, no thanks our harsh and unfavourable business environment. So, you can now imagine their fate.

The inter-state travel though it has been lifted was restricted and you know that business is all about movement of people, goods and services from one end to the other. Demands for non- essential goods and services dropped, many contracts have been cancelled or put on hold and there is no cash flow in the system. Many staff are owed salaries and there is no hope of paying them because income generation has dropped.  In most organizations, working remotely from home wasn’t effective because the skill wasn’t developed before now.  Summarily, there is loss of jobs and loss of revenue and companies are struggling to remain afloat albeit, skeletally.

lost over job loss

Certainly, the private sector has been badly hit by Covid-19, with many countries groaning over economic recession, do you foresee Nigeria’s economy sliding into the same direction?

Definitely, the economy will go into recession and this will have more adverse effect on the citizenry. We are currently running our economy on borrowed fund and we have depleted our national reserve.  Crude oil price has slipped to all time low and we didn’t invest in the alternative sector particularly agriculture. There is no way to escape the looming recession. If advanced nations like the UK, USA, European Union etc are already groaning even though they have large economic buffer to contend with the virus; how much more an economic Lilliput like Nigeria.

Recently, the federal government announced the country might lose 39.4 million jobs due to the effects of Coronavirus; what are the implications on the nation?

This portend danger for the nation. An armada 39.4 million unemployed citizens is a disaster anywhere in the world.  The implications are grave as it will ultimately lead to increase in crime. Criminals will over run the country if care is not taken. Don’t forget that the solution to criminality is not always more arms, more police force or more security consciousness. It is in meaningful engagement of the unemployed, then, they won’t have time for crime.

We are going to see an upsurge in financial crimes, kidnapping, armed robbery, motor park touting, advance fee fraud amongst others. There will also be increase in the proliferation of small arms which is a driver of crime.

What panacea should both the federal and state governments apply to avert the looming danger?

This is the time for governments at all levels to cut waste and extra-large lifestyles of the political office holders in Nigeria to save the collapsing economy.

We have been a wasteful nation for too long and we cannot continue on that trajectory else, we become a failed state.  Government at all levels should devise alternative revenue sources rather than depending on the oil revenue alone. They should invest in business with potential and manage them with the prudence of the private sector skill.

They should reduce the number of cars in their fleet, reduce the number of aides and cut the salaries and allowances of legislatives aides, lawmakers, commissioners and all other political appointees. They should be paid like civil servants because I don’t see what the nation is gaining from these retinue of aids and hangers-on.

Contracts are inflated in this country to a sickening level and sometimes, they are paid without the job being done. No serious nation operates like this. Kickbacks, corruption and out-right embezzlement everywhere.  These are not sustainable practices. If we cut down on all these leakages, we will have enough and we will avert the looming doom.

Recently, you engaged in a public sensitisation programme on Covid-19 in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, what was the rationale behind that?

Sensitizing the public on hand washing

It was a programme of the Civil Society Coalition against Covid-19 of which I am a member. The intention was to sensitise the public on the reality of the pandemic and help the government halt community transmission. As a nation, we do not have enough resources, hospital facilities and man power to fight the virus. The best we can do is to adopt preventive measures.

We visited communities in the FCT environs with the message of regular hand-washing, nose mask wearing, hygiene observation and social distancing. It was like preaching the gospel in the rural areas. We also distributed some palliatives like food items, nose masks and hand sanitizers out of our own free will because we see ourselves as partners in this fight.

What’s the attitude of the Abuja resident, especially, the man in the street towards Covid-19?

For many Abuja residents, there is still until minus – one, plus – one see before I believe kind of attitude towards the pandemic. But this does not detract from the fact that the virus is real and lethal too. Many think there is a lot secrecy about the pandemic and that it is being over-hyped by Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC). Also, since government was unable to carter for the citizens during the lockdown, they believe that all death is death. Right now, people go about their businesses oblivious of the deadly nature of the virus. Although there are still some restrictions, most people are beginning to adjust to the ‘new normal’.

The nation’s health sector has suffered years of neglect due to poor funding and infrastructural decay and Covid-19 has totally exposed her weakness; what is your take?

To say that our health system is yawning for attention is to state the obvious. This fact was recently attested to by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr. Boss Mustapha when He declared that he didn’t know that our health facilities were in this decrepit condition until the visited Gwagwalada Hospital upon the outbreak of this Covid-19.

Pitiable state of Nigerian health care facilities

We need to learn from this experience and fix our hospitals. We can involve the private sectors through Public Private Partnership (PPP) and they will rescue our health care delivery services by injecting fund and also running it with the efficiency of a capitalist with some government regulations. If we fix health, we can fight further outbreaks since mankind will always have health problems. We have also seen that hospitals in foreign lands are not reliable as we were unable to fly any one out of the country this time due to the pandemic.

What lessons are there for us to learn from Covid-19 and how can the country get her feet back post Covid-19?

I am not sure if we as a country, learn from anything. If we do, we would have managed this outbreak better.  After all, it didn’t start in our country. However, we can learn to save for the rainy day, not to squander all our earnings on frivolities and luxury. We can learn to diversify our economy as quickly as possible and begin to pay less attention to hydrocarbon and more attention to renewable energy. We can rehabilitate our health care system and encourage entrepreneurship.There is a whole lot we can do to revitalise our economy and rebuild our battered nation but do we have the will power to do the needful. Nigeria can be better than what it is if we allow experienced and dedicated people access into the corridor of power. If we eschew ethnicism, nepotism, mediocrity and corruption.

If we promote egalitarianism and equal opportunity to all irrespective of his faith or tribe.  We have enough resources to make Nigeria the pride of Africa and the Black world but we must be deliberate about the kind of country we want to be.