by Donald Ekpo
Former General and now President Muhammadu Buhari’s sudden and inevitable decision to devalue the Naira is just the stepping stone to throw Nigeria into the everlasting state of poverty, anarchy and a total annihilation of the middle class society.
Yes, in a properly managed and systematic economy that is self-reliant, devaluation could have been the best in these times of the drop in oil price. Because while we give more internal value to our export commodities to bring more money to the economy, we would not be spending more than 2/3 of the same harvested money in exporting our essential commodities.
But in a society that depends on imports even for our toothpicks, daily food and luxury, what will happen to families that depend on profits generated from import consumables or the families that consume these import products for survival?
1. Essential consumable imports will be purchased at a very high rate, therefore increasing its cost drastically in the local markets.
2. Consumers will be unable to purchase these products after sometime, therefore drastically reducing the sales made by traders, and putting them out of business.
3. Consumers will instinctively look out for local produced affordable commodities, like garri and rice which will become very limited.
4. Prices of the locally produced consumables will skyrocket due to high demand with less supply, therefore putting pressure on the naira to go further lesser in value.
5. Luxury consumables like petrol, cooking gas and kerosene will be on austerity, therefore forcing a reduction in the standard of living for the middle class. In other words, totally elimination of the middle class in the society.
6. The lower-middle class may be forced to go back to the alternative energy use like firewoods instead of cooking gas or Kerosene, brooms instead of the imported vacuum cleaners, latrine or pit toilets instead of the imported WCs water systems, and lanterns instead of the imported rechargeable lamps. Cost of transportation due to dependency in petrol will of-course be on the rise, therefore forcing a return to the rural areas.
7. A need for massive migration of bred winners out of the country will be inevitable so as to generate less money abroad for more money in Nigeria.
8. Increased rates of crime for survival will be justified.
9. The long arm of the law will be less effective and more corrupt than ever due to an unprecedented overload of work.
10. Reenergized social activism will arise more than ever due to the unavoidable mistakes the government will make in its efforts for short-term or long-term remedies that will be seen as an elite motivated solution, therefore making a revolution inevitable.
Even though I am not an economist, I am not also senseless in government fiscal and regulatory policies and its repercussions. The cluelessness of President Buhari’s government is preparing Nigeria for one of the biggest economic disasters Nigerians would ever face.
These is what happens when a dictator is penny-wise, pound foolish. Because of his perceived praised worshiped successes as a former head of government in the early eighties, with all the flattering and decorated names imposed on him by his initial and present sycophants or regional and religious worshipers, he thinks the country is beneath him.
Donald Ekpo holds a bachelors degree in Physics and a diploma in Computer Mathematics and Programming from the University of Calabar. He has earned professional certifications in Microsoft (MSCE), CISCO (CCNP) Project Management In controlled Environments (PRINCE 2). He is an Associate Member of the Royal Society of Science, UK. He is on Facebook.
The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.
