President Buhari seeks emergency powers to curb Nigeria's economic crisis

Citing cumbersome constitutional hurdles amidst a biting economic crisis, President Muhammadu Buhari has concluded plans to pursue sweeping emergency powers to halt Nigeria’s slide towards economic collapse.

Mr. Buhari’s demand for broader executive control over the country’s economy followed weeks of lamentation and passionate appeal from citizens for him to urgently address the prevailing economic gloom occasioned by shrinking value of the naira, low crude prices and runaway inflation.

State House sources told reporters immediate concession of new powers to the executive was part of the recommendations of an economic committee chaired by the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo. The committee comprised mostly ministers.

The sources said Mr. Buhari would approach the leaders of the National Assembly in order to push through a bill that would significantly relax the requirements of (or completely suspend) some extant laws which the administration deemed a clog in the wheel of economic progress.

Mr. Buhari’s government admitted last month that the country was in recession, and the latest proposal largely hinged on the need to stop the bleed and steer the nation towards economic prosperity.

As the number of Nigerians struggling to eke out a living continues to rise as a result of widespread shortages of economic activities, fears of an outbreak of social unrest have continued to mount.

Social scientists and religious leaders recently raised concerns about the dangers of leaving the country’s expanding youth population without means of livelihood for too long.

To tackle the situation, presidential sources said Mr. Buhari would propose, among other requests, the suspension of extant laws governing some aspects of the economy.

Mr. Buhari’s proposal, titled: “Emergency Economic Stabilisation Bill 2016”, contained six main parts.

Apart from the existing discretionary powers the Constitution already grants the executive over the nation’s economy, the bill would seek to abridge the procurement process, favour local contractors and suppliers in contract awards, abridge the process of sale or lease of government assets to generate revenue, unilaterally change budget subheads, relax the regulations of Universal Basic Education Commission Act to make it easier for states to meet counterpart funding requirements and embark on radical reforms in issuance of visa at Nigerian consulates across the world and on arrival in the country as well as to compel some agencies of government like the Corporate Affairs Commission, the National Agency for Foods Administration and Control, among others, to be more efficient for the benefit of business, The Nation reported.

The sources said the areas Mr. Buhari was seeking to exercise powers and the extent of their implementation were not necessarily new, as other presidents in the past pursued them with little regard to the consequences of their infractions against the Constitution.

A lawless road Mr. Buhari and his cabinet members said they were not willing to take.

“The president and the ministers felt it would be bad for the country to continue exercising powers in silence without anyone knowing as some past administrations did, that’s why they resolved to make it public.

“All these things were not new, just that past leaders achieved them in secret rather than in the open,” the sources said.

To actualise his proposal, Mr. Buhari would be meeting with Senate President, Bukola Saraki, and Speaker of the House, Yakubu Dogara, for the position of the legislature, sources said.

The scope and urgency of the sweeping new powers could exceed anything the country witnessed in recent memory, analysts said.

“The world is watching us, turn primitive over very basic things. I will never support any “circumventing,” Tunji Andrews, a lead economist at T.T.A.C. Africa, said in a Twitter update Monday.

Mr. Andrews said Mr. Buhari could successfully implement virtually all policies he wanted by simply working within the confines of extant laws.

“How do you even begin to justify such? When there are legal means to amendments. If we do this, we confirm several stereotypes,” Mr. Andrews said. “In any democracy, everything can be done within the law.”