Tinubu Witholds Proposed Stimulus Package After Approval

BY EGUONO ODJEGBA

After about two months of suspence and agonizing wait for the speculated proposal on the removal of tariffs on essential imports like food and agricultural  items, and pharmaceutical products among others by the presidency, President Ahmed Bola  Tinubu weekend, reportedly signed the proposal, sending relief across the landscape.

Sadly the presidency Monday debunked the news that emanated from his office that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has granted the said waivers and zero duty on some essential commodities, designed as an urgent intervention to relax the ongoing hardship especially amongst the vulnerable bracket and low income earners; greatly affected by the soaring prices of food items and other essentials.

The President’s spokesman, Bayo Onanuga, who posted the policy approval on his official X handle and said the Minister of Agriculture already have the executive directive to act accordingly, later deleted the information, explained that the memo which has already been circulated wide and far across government departments, was still at proposal level; and regretted the error of the leakage of the memo.

According to Onanuga,  “The policy was mistakenly circulated. We are still deliberating internally from the agric ministry to other agencies on how best to proceed with the policy.”

The retracted policy draft said the measures would be implemented over the next 150 days and involve relaxing duties, tariffs and taxes on importing certain food commodities through land and sea borders.  Nigerians have hailed the proposed stimulus package as a necessary intervention even though it was coming late.

The Tinubu government is facing masses angst  over its perceived insensitivity to the ongoing hardship, especially his failure to address endemic food shortages and lowering purchasing power of ordinary Nigerians due to galloping inflation which has worsened the situation.

While the greater majority of Nigerians are presently going hungry and facing health challenges induced by lack of food and ill health in atmosphere where medications prices have scaled up over the reach of hundreds of millions, a rustrated citizen attempted to jump to his death from a 40-metre-high radio transmitter, recently, reportedly to end it all.

The leaked memo which circulated on Monday, July 8th, 2024 said President Tinubu has signed the proposal from economic team, which listed the suspension of tariffs on rice and other food commodities’ imports for 150 days to rein in biting hunger across family settings, nationwide.

Abubakar Kyari, the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, had in a statement earlier on Monday,  said duties, tariffs and taxes on imported maize, husked brown rice, wheat and cowpeas — through land and sea borders — have been suspended.

Kyari, in the memo, said a 150-day duty-free import window for food commodities will be enforced as part of measures to be implemented over the next 180 days to ameliorate food inflation in Nigeria.

Kyari explained that the measures are part of the accelerated stabilisation and advancement plan recently presented to President Bola Tinubu by the economic management team (EMT) under the Presidential Economic Coordination Council (PECC), which the president constituted in March 2024.

The minister listed for elimination multiple taxes and levies, infrastructural challenges and “sheer profiteering by marketers and traders” have contributed to rising food prices.”

With the hardship un-abating in the face of the unrelenting inflationary trend and the seeming inability of the government to deal with the situation, couple with the fact of keeping Nigerians guessing by the president, it remains to be seen how things turns out in the nearest future.