Economic loss of protests can’t be estimated — Minister Bagudu

The Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, has emphasised the difficulty in estimating the economic losses caused by the ongoing protests, underscoring that the loss of lives is more significant than material damage.

Bagudu explained that the government implemented measures aimed at transforming the economy for the better in the long term, acknowledging that these measures sometimes come with short-term costs.

He noted that a segment of society might feel that the actions could have been handled differently.

He highlighted that Nigeria has suffered from decades of underinvestment in critical sectors such as security, infrastructure, human capital, education, and health.President Tinubu’s administration has been working to address these accumulated issues.

The Minister made these remarks over the weekend during the African Caucus 2024 meeting in Abuja. He stated, “You can’t even put an estimate because somebody has lost his life. How can you quantify that?

“That is why sometimes even those who have a noble intention of doing something, I always encouraged them to be hesitant because there are people who do not have such a noble intention that can always hide behind the desire for people to express themselves, to create havoc, to harm others, to even go beyond that and even create greater social disruptions. I don’t have an estimate about the damage, but one life lost is big enough.”

Addressing the economic measures taken by the government, which partly led to the protests, he said, “The government took measures that it believed would yield a greater tomorrow. But sometimes those measures come with short-term costs, and understandably some segments of society feel that maybe we should have done things differently, or it has taken too long and we have listened, we are mindful.

“We have seen different shades of opinion; some say reverse the policies. Some say we haven’t seen the gains as quickly as we thought we could.“

There are some who have also been able to say no. Let us also be careful because I can remember Bishop Matthew Kuka in the State House interview when he visited Mr President, and when he was asked about his assessment, he said, One year is too short to assess an administration.

“Equally, when you are dealing with accumulated problems. We have underinvested in so many things in our national life. And when a leader comes and says, I want to take them on courageously, it’s risky, it is courageous, he is bold, but sometimes it can generate a reaction.”

“We have under-invested for decades, whether it is our security service, whether it’s our infrastructure, whether it’s our human capital, even education and health. What you hear is a lack of resources, and it’s true,” Bagudu said.“

Historically, there has been a lack of resources in all of these, which is why there are security issues. I’ve seen that they don’t have all the equipment, they don’t have enough personnel, and the infrastructure we have has failed roads that need to be fixed.