Tinubu’s “nigeria First” Proposition

Fresh from his recent eighth trip to France where he has spent over 80 days cumulatively in the past two years of his ascent to power, President Bola Tinubu has given what he calls a “Nigeria First” directive to all Federal Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs.

Henceforth, procurements are to prioritise goods and services made in Nigeria over their foreign or imported counterparts. Explaining it further, Minister of Information, Mohammed Idris, said: “If there are any businesses to be done by anybody, the priority will be Nigeria first. If you have any local content, there is no reason for you to go outside this country to import. This is in form of an executive bill the President will soon issue”.

The major aims and objectives of this policy include boosting local production and employment and conserving scarce foreign exchange. For instance, in 2020, Nigeria spent an eye-popping $55.4 billion on imports and $52.1 billion in 2021. By doing this, we enrich the productivity of other countries while importing poverty and unemployment. This policy aims to stem this unhealthy tide.

Nigerians are however very sceptical about the regime’s seriousness in pursuing this albeit laudable policy. We hope it is not just another knee-jerk reaction to the “America First” policy of President Donald Trump which he is vigorously implementing, leading from the front.

“America First”, which is part of the actualisation of “Making America Great Again”, MAGA, is being enforced with a tariff regime. But the jury is still out whether it will be able to bring back industrial and manufacturing capacity outsourced to foreign countries over the past 30 years or so.

The point must be made that the zeal is completely lacking among Nigerian leaders who have poor track records of policy implementation. For instance, on February 7, 2018, former President Muhammadu Buhari signed Executive Order No. 5, which was meant to boost local content in science, technology and engineering. Nothing further was heard of it after the signing ceremony.

Also, the Tinubu regime has shown almost zero inclination to champion the cause of local contents. Apart from the president’s serial medical trips to France, he rides in an American limousine, Escalade. We have our own local carmakers like Innoson, Nord and others, which can outfit our leaders with befitting limousines we all can be proud of.

It is difficult to see how this policy can be implemented given our tough manufacturing and business environments bedevilled by abominable cost of production (especially energy), dumping of cheaper imported brands, corruption-driven over-regulation and conflicting policies.

For sure, Nigerians will welcome with open arms the pursuit of a “Nigeria First” which President Ibrahim Traore is enforcing in Burkina Faso to the joy and pride of the rest of Africa. Tinubu and the gamut of our political leadership must lead by example.

Let them lead, we’ll follow.

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