President Bola Tinubu.
By Dianabasi Effiong
The Tinubu Media Support Group (TMSG) has described the newly- approved Renewed Hope Nigeria First policy as a unique and revolutionary move for the country to be at the centre of all business policies.
The group made this known on Thursday in a statement by its Chairman, Emeka Nwankpa.
The group also stated that while it had some similarities with the Executive Order 5 of former President, Muhammadu Buhari, the Nigeria First policy was more detailed and all-encompassing.
It stated: “By pushing through the Renewed Hope Nigeria First policy, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) has, in our view, set the template for a strategic policy that will boost the country’s industrialisation agenda.”
According to the group, members are elated that at the heart of the policy is a clear directive to the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) to revise and enforce procurement rules that will give priority to locally produced goods and services across all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
The BPP is also mandated to maintain a regularly updated database of high-quality Nigerian suppliers to be used as a reference for all procurement decisions
“This, for us, is a major step to ensuring the success of the Nigeria First policy, rather than leaving the agency to design its own programme for its implementation.
“And knowing how some MDAS operate historically, it is instructive that the government boldly declared that none of them would be allowed to procure foreign goods or services known to be available locally without a written waiver from the BPP.
“In addition, nothing could be more ennobling than the declaration that ‘where foreign contracts are unavoidable, they must include provisions for technology transfer, local production, or capacity development in Nigeria,” it stated
Nwankpa said, “What we also find interesting is how, during his presentation of the FEC decision, the Information Minister Mohammed Idris cited the example of the sugar industry, where, despite local capacity, Nigeria continues to import vast quantities of sugar.
“The provision of quota allocations under the National Sugar Master Plan will now take into consideration each participant’s investment in backwards integration and local production capacity.
“We dare say that the decision to place Nigeria first in government expenditures and encourage import substitution will have a domino effect on industrial growth, which will also pave the way for more employment opportunities for Nigerians.”
The TMSG also addressed the comparison between the Nigeria First policy and a similar one in local content by former President Muhammadu Buhari in 2018.
“We observe that some Nigerians have been attempting to compare the Nigeria First policy to that of the Buhari administration but we have since discovered that this policy is more detailed than what was contained in the former President’s Executive Order 5 which centered on improving ‘local content in public procurement with science, engineering and technology components’, ” Nwankpa said.
He said that while the Buhari-era Executive Order was designed to promote the application of science, technology and innovation towards achieving the nation’s development goals, that of President Tinubu had a wider application, though it could be interpreted as a step towards building on what his predecessor put in place.
“For now, like all Nigerians, we look forward to a swift drafting of the Executive Order that will give full legal backing to the policy by the Attorney General of the Federation,” he said.