By Reno
Omokri
For a nation that has already
had one quarter of negative economic growth and is in danger of having another
negative quarter (which would invariably put us officially in a recession), I
was shocked, like many right thinking people, when the Federal Government
extended the Eid-el-Fitr holidays which had initially been declared for Tuesday the 5th and
Wednesday the 6th of July, 2016 to now include Thursday the 7th of July.
*President Buhari and his wife, Aisha |
This record three day holiday effectively rendered the week beginning on Sunday
July 3rd, 2016, a
wasted week because Nigerians would naturally spend Monday the 4th preparing
for the holiday and no right thinking person would expect any serious business
to hold on Friday the 8th after the whole nation had been on
holiday for the three days prior to that.
The economic implication of this decision is that when the Gross Domestic production of the third quarter of 2016 is being calculated,
Flowing from the above, no one needs a crystal ball to predict that
Yet this is the same country where 18,000 babies are born everyday and it is doubtful that up to 1,800 new jobs are created everyday. With this grim statistic, no one around the President thought it wise to advise him against making the small percentage of Nigerians who are employed to be underemployed by at least one week because of a holiday.
Is it that we do not understand the economic implications of our actions and how they effect the financial and economic well being of our nation?
The question is this-aren't there people around President Muhammadu Buhari who can explain this to him? Should
The
We had a holiday on January
1st for New Year's Day. We had two days holidays on Friday,
March 25 and Monday, March 28 for Good Friday and
Easter. We had another holiday on May 2nd for May Day (workers day)
and we had a holiday on May 30th to mark Democracy Day. And now we
have just had a three day holiday.
Is it then any
surprise that Nigeria 's
production is seriously below par? If you quantify the lost man hours that have
been frittered away in these unnecessarily long holidays we would be talking
hundreds of billions. How do I know? It is simple mathematics really.
According to the
National Bureau of Statistics, Nigeria 's
Gross Domestic Product for the first quarter of 2016 stood at ₦22.26 trillion Naira. This means we averaged a
daily GDP of ₦245 billion (when you
divide ₦22.26 trillion Naira
by the 90 days in an average quarter).
This is a lot of money for a country that borrows to pay the salaries of its civil servants and is still sourcing for loans to finance its 2016 budget when we are already passed the middle of the year.
The other day, the Federal Government called for prayers for the precarious state of the economy and now the same government that wants divine intervention to help rescue the economy is itself taking actions that are at cross purposes with its own prayers. What is happening in
Eid-el-Fitr is an Islamic holiday. Though I am a Christian pastor, I have read the Quran. It says as follows in Quran, 4:29 'O ye who believe! Do not squander one another’s wealth in vanities, but let there be amongst you traffic and trade by mutual good will.'
As a matter of fact, in one of the hadiths of the prophet, he was asked a question about what type of earning was best for a man and he responded 'a man’s work with his hands and every (lawful) business transaction.”
Are we then good Muslims if we ignore these ecclesiastical commandments and directions in order that we may holiday and play when we ought to be at work?
If tomorrow the Naira depreciates in value, the government would blame economic sabotage, the previous administration or the slump in the price of oil and all the usual suspects. Hardly remembered will be the time when
Religion is not a license for laziness. Quite the contrary. Religion is the means by which man, by careful observance of the rules given us by God, lives a life that ensures his physical and spiritual wellbeing.
That is the part we forgot when either missionaries or conquerors brought the two great Abrahamic faiths to
May God help us all.
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