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Nairaland Forum / Nairaland / General / Politics / Buhari’s Concessionary Exchange Rate For Pilgrims (684 Views)
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Buhari’s Concessionary Exchange Rate For Pilgrims by Emperorone(m): 1:44pm On Jul 14, 2015 |
The news on Monday that President
Muhammadu Buhari has approved the naira
exchange rate of N160 to the United States
dollar for Christian pilgrims is dismaying.
Viewed from all sides, this is reckless and
insensitive. Economically, it is subversive of
efforts to revamp public finances, manage the
exchange rate, inflation and conserve foreign
exchange. It is exclusionary as it ignores those
Nigerians who belong to neither of the two
faiths they are often forced to subsidise.
Nigeria is in dire economic straits; there is little
or no room for misplaced priorities.
Except the government denies it, the news of
the concession was revealed by John Kennedy-
Opara, Executive Secretary of the Nigerian
Christian Welfare Board, who said pilgrims
headed for Israel this year would enjoy the
lower exchange rate. “The President has
approved $1 to N160 for the conventional
exchange rate for this pilgrimage operation and
he has also agreed that he will continue to
encourage us particularly as we drive to ensure
self-sustenance, to make sure that the pilgrims
are able to pay for the pilgrimages removing
government sponsorship,” Kennedy-Opara
stated.
It is wrong for Buhari, who rode to power on the
back of the “Change” campaign to have fallen
flat for such cheap rhetoric. Buhari’s policies
should be well thought out, not unfolded at a
whim. It is doubtful if he weighed the impact of
the rash rebate at a time the Central Bank of
Nigeria is taking radical measures to conserve
foreign reserves and defend the naira.
This is definitely not the change Nigerians voted
for. For one of the mortal sins of Goodluck
Jonathan was his addiction to pandering to
narrow interests and his disdain for prudent use
of resources for the higher interests of the
economy. Buhari disappoints by dishing out
more of the same.
The insensitivity is shocking. From N156 to $1
last year, the naira exchanged at N196.95 to $1
last week at the official market and N225-N240
at the parallel market. To maintain the official
rate, the CBN has had to take hard measures,
including drawing from reserves, to defend the
naira from a freefall. The reserves have been
declining in the wake of lower crude oil prices
firming at $31bn last week after dipping to
$29bn two months ago. The CBN had in the last
week of June, locked out importers of 41 items,
including toothpicks, rice, private jets, tinned
food, among other items, from the official forex
market in a desperate bid to conserve reserves,
“facilitate the resuscitation of domestic
industries as well as generate employment.”
Buhari has made nonsense of the policy by
placing religious tourism above economic
activities.
It is even more disappointing at a time when
lower earnings from crude have upturned
government’s revenue projections and spending
plans, from the federal to the states and local
governments. A bail-out funding of N713.7bn to
be shared among the three tiers was hammered
out recently and will help about 24 state
governments that have been unable to pay
salaries. The Federal Government itself had to
borrow N473bn to meet recurrent spending
needs, including salaries, within the first four
months of year. With public finances in such
straits and the country teeming with millions of
unemployed youths, the government should be
conserving its resources, not frittering scarce
funds on religious tourism.
Buhari should walk the talk of change. Nigeria is
a secular state with a multi-religious population.
The 1999 Constitution clearly forbids
government from promoting any faith as a state
religion. In practice, successive Nigerian
governments have elevated Islam and
Christianity to state religions, spending vast
sums from the public treasury on the two. The
relief that change had come when Governor
Nasir el-Rufai, Buhari’s close ally, declared that
thenceforth, Kaduna State would no longer
dabble into religion has evaporated with the ill-
advised concessionary exchange rate for
religious tourism.
This government will not succeed if it fails to
deliver change and instead, wastes resources on
religion like its predecessors. Here is a country
that has earmarked N953.62bn for debt
servicing and N755bn as deficit in the N4.49bn
2015 budget, yet is set to pamper a few with
forex subsidy in pursuit of religion. If the CBN
was ready to sacrifice the jobs generated by
importers of the 41 items that will have to
source forex from the alternative market in
order to defend the naira, what is the economic
rationale for funding pilgrimages?
Saudi Arabia is said to earn $1.6bn annually
from pilgrims, while Israel boosts its economy
with religious tourism, earning $3.3bn in 2009.
Analysts had expected Buhari to wind down the
pilgrims agencies, whose operations he had
slammed as corrupt recently, not to deepen the
state’s involvement in religion. The Steven
Oronsaye committee had recommended
scrapping the two boards.
The enormity of the challenges facing the
country demands a hands-on approach, a
sustained resolve to cut costs, end impunity and
detach the state from things better left to
individuals and groups, especially divisive
ventures such as religion. Health care,
education and infrastructure are in disrepair and
require creative thinking to raise funding for
them. But religion is a private matter; those
who seek to visit religious foreign sites should
make their own arrangements while the state
restricts itself to providing consular services.
The approval is arbitrary and ill-advised. It
should be reversed. http://www.punchng.com/news/buharis-concessionary-exchange-rate-for-pilgrims/ |
Re: Buhari’s Concessionary Exchange Rate For Pilgrims by kazmanbanjoko(m): 4:07pm On Jul 14, 2015 |
Okay. 1 Like 1 Share |
Re: Buhari’s Concessionary Exchange Rate For Pilgrims by vicadex07(m): 5:27pm On Jul 14, 2015 |
pdp why are you always mourning |
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