1 week Ago By Guardian Nigeria
It’s no longer a matter of technical socio-economic indicators from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) or other sources. It’s a matter of practical socio-economic realities staring us in the face, banging in our ears, and inflicting injuries on our bodies and in our psyches. Even those of us who may not be directly affected are indirectly affected.
We can see it! We can hear it! And we can feel it! It’s the current socio-economic situation that has been hitting hard since the sudden removal of subsidy on fuel and floating of the naira. It has affected almost everything including food, transport, and electricity which have been moving beyond the reach of the populace. It goes without saying that, until the Nigerian economy is brought out of the woods, the masses of the people will continue suffering, members of the seriously depleted middle class will continue struggling, and local industries will continue operating sub-optimally.
We’re undoubtedly going through another round of stringent prescriptions and conditionalities. These World Bank/IMF policies, which had come under different ‘beautiful’ names in the past, such as the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) and the Second-Tier Foreign Exchange Market (SFEM) of 1986, have never worked for us. They’re currently not working and, considering the menace of corruption and mismanagement of paltry palliatives by public officers at all levels of government, I don’t think they will ever work.
Global institutions have always advised or programmed us, especially through loans, to remove subsidies but we all know that subsidy is a vital lifeline. Subsidy is the food, water, and oxygen of the people and the industry. They eat it in Arabia and Asia.
They drink it in Africa and the Americas. They inhale it in Europe and the rest of the world. More than any other place, multi-dimensionally poor Nigerians in their millions need it for their personal and business purposes.
Our international friends have always advised or programmed us to devalue our currency, which is a great strategy for an export-driven country, but a counter-productive strategy for a country like ours that massively depends on imported goods and services. We are operating a market economy but the market must occasionally yield some space for government’s pro-people intervention and not allowed to have free rein. One wonders how long we are going to allow the imaginary forces of the market to control the market, knowing full well that the imaginary local and globalised forces can be extremely selfish, greedy, and cruel.
Can you imagine the humongous supply, price, and quality challenges that Nigerians have been grappling with over the years concerning a blessing such as crude oil that the imaginary forces have transformed into a resource curse? We certainly cannot afford to continue leaving the market completely to the free reins and vagaries of extreme market forces. Doing so is dangerous for our economy. Even Adam Smith (1723-1790), the father of free enterprise, argued for the pursuit of free market system under condition of equity and justice towards public good.
If we had thought that, by removing oil subsidy, the subsidy and oil sector corruption will disappear but it’s getting worse, it’s high time we restored the subsidy with strong accountability mechanisms. If we had thought that, by floating the Naira, it will not sink under huge commercial pressures of the market but it’s sinking as it were, it’s high time we reduced the free hands of the topsy-turvy market. I want to believe that Mr.
President, state governors, and other leaders mean well in trying to bring a new socio-economic lease of life to the people. And the least we can do as patriotic citizens is to strengthen them with technical, moral, and prayer supports. We hope that those who mean well and are endowed with position, power, and authority will fully recognise and demonstrate the importance, urgency, and seriousness of the welfare purpose of government.
As the ball is in their court, we earnestly expect them to play well and score good goals for the good of all. This Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s government has demonstrated more than once that it is a listening government by reversing policies that didn’t go down well with the people. We believe that it is the same listening government that we’re dealing with and that the government still has the strength of will and character to reverse these policies that have brought unintended untold hardship to the populace.
We equally believe that, by the time the policies are courageously reversed, individuals and businesses that have been hiding and profiteering behind the needle of fuel and dollar prices will have no legitimate place to hide. I am without doubt a friend of the government who wants the government, democracy, and Nigeria to work and become enviable success stories. And they really can be! But, as it has always been, especially in our contemporary times, governments at all levels are still full of ‘leaders’ who are dealers in private interests, ‘managers’ who mismanage public resources, and ‘repairers’ who bring their society to a state of disrepair.
We subscribe to the notion that difficult policies sometimes bring good gains in the long run, but experientially speaking in Nigeria, the gains have always been embezzled and squandered by unscrupulous opportunists among politicians and their cronies. Such public officers have always taken control of poor people’s ‘breads of life’, leaving them to jostle for crumbs. They’ve always taken control of the people’s breath of life, leaving them to gasp for air.
It is obvious that the internal havocs individuals and groups wreak against our country’s economy and development are almost as damaging as those from external entities like the Bretton Woods institutions. Our leaders therefore have an urgent duty of purging some of their current political and administrative / bureaucratic appointees, and henceforth beaming their lights on who they appoint into public positions. Putting people of competence, capacity, and character in public positions is like putting round pegs in round holes.
It is an important success factor. As far as the World Bank / IMF advisories versus the worsening socio-economic situations of the people are concerned, the success of this government will depend largely on whether our leaders are sensitive to the might of economic modellers in Bretton Woods or the plight of Naija sufferers ‘in the woods’. Leaders like those of China, who have moved hundreds of millions of their population from poverty to prosperity, and Singapore, who have moved their country from third world to first world, did so by deliberately breaking the unprogressive and unhelpful chains of dependence on foreign-cooked policies and ultimately breaking the externally-propelled and self-inflicted jinx of under-development.
Your Excellency sir, Asiwaju Jagaban, you are a man of uncommon strategy and wisdom, and you have the pedigree of winning through inspite of obstacles. Kindly change gear to get better sets of outputs, outcomes, and impacts concerning the socio-economic conditions of the people and residents of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Otherwise, the present and future generations of citizens may end up remembering the current dispensation of party politics under your leadership as another ‘permissible will’ of God for Nigeria and Nigerians.
However, at the appointed time, the ‘perfect will’ of God for Nigeria and Nigerians will certainly be done for the benediction of the people and to the glory of God. At the moment, eyin lokan lati se’joba daradara. Olorun a fun un yin se.
Long live, Mr. President! Long live, Naija men and women! Long live Naija Republic! Oladejo is a former Director of Policy and Plan, Federal Ministry of Health, Abuja..
