[dropcap]N[/dropcap]igeria has been so unfortunate to be saddled with mostly rudderless, ignorant, deceitful, wicked, non-creative, selfish, clannnish, provincial, unpatriotic, non-compassionate, insensitive and irresponsible leaders at all levels and arms of governments.
You cannot claim prosperity without massive production and value creation.
You cannot claim prosperity and productivity with lies and deceit.
You claim that you have increased local production of rice to cover 90% of domestic demand and saved N280 billion in FX, yet we can’t see those locally produced rice in any of our local and village markets. Yet thousands of tons of smuggled rice flood into our country everyday with active connivance of the security/border agencies. WHO IS FOOLING WHO?
You cannot shore up the value of the naira without massively creating/enhancing non-oil production and exports. There is no magic here. The UAE Dirham and Singapore Dollar has consistently remained stable (sometimes even gained) against the dollar for over 2 decades now. Go and find out what they are doing there?
No sane government regiments/manipulates their currency value when they produce/export practically nothing other than the dying fossil fuel. Once your dollar earnings far outstrips your dollar demands through productivity/exports, your local currency will gain value and remain stable.
Wasting/squandering over $10 billion in two years (2017 and 2018) as interest payments to hot money (Foreign Portfolio investors) just to maintain a criminal/fraudulent multiple exchange rate regime/ create false foreign reserve growth in a volatile wholly import dependent economy without doing anything to increase local productivity is not the sane way to maintain currency stability. IT IS NOT. IT IS SHEER MADNESS FOR US TO CONTINUE ON THIS PATH AND PRETEND THAT ALL IS WELL. ENOUGH OF THIS DECEIT!
Turning the monetary policy manager, the CBN now into a fiscal policy czar, who now sets up committees to revive/revamp 50 moribund textile companies and 100,000 cotton farmers when we have clueless Federal Ministers of Agriculture, Commerce, Industry, Investments and other multiple Federal Agencies saddled with mapping out policies, programs and partnerships to grow the real sector of the economy is not only tragic, but demonstrates/amplifies the total governance chaos today in Nigeria.
For us to make massive and sustainable progress in Nigeria and achieve incremental growth through wholesome productivity that creates jobs and reduces poverty in the land, we must jettison this criminal/fraudulent 1999 constitutional framework and embrace the 1960 constitutional, fiscal, governance, autonomous, resources control and socioeconomic architecture that helped us compete favourably with our peers then.
WHO CAN SAVE US FROM THIS SELF DESTRUCT DELUSION, DECEIT AND LIES? GOSH
Nnaemeka Onyeka Obiaraeri is the managing director of Taurus Capital, He resides in Lagos Nigeria, You could reach him by email HERE.
The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.
