How Buhari Can Put Nigerian Economy Back On Track

By Magnus Onyibe

It is human nature to choose the least option of resistance when faced with tough decisions.
That perhaps explains why government’s reaction to the current foreign exchange, fx, squeeze, arising from recent drastic drop in international oil price – from which Nigeria earns approximately 90% of fx – is to ban allocation of fx for purchase of some items considered not essential.

*President Buhari 

The barring of 41 items such as tooth picks and candle wax from official allocation of fx is justified by the fact that such items could be sourced locally, especially since they are simple items requiring no extra ordinary skills or technology to produce.

However, owing to government’s policy of not being self-reliant, instead preferring to source basic items from abroad, looking inwards was considered tedious when it could be more easily imported.
That laidback attitude of Nigerians towards local production is the reason the policy of import substitution introduced in Nigeria in the days of oil boom was not pursued with the vigor it deserves. The shoddy implementation of the policy institutionalized Nigeria’s penchant for foreign made goods and services, signaling the dearth of locally produced goods and services for local consumption.

Nothing demonstrates Nigeria’s penchant for foreign made goods better than the (in)famous container armada-ships laden with imported containers of assortment of goods into Nigeria, resulting in congestions in the sea ports in early 1980s under ex president , Shehu Shagari’s watch (1979-83).

In a recent article titled “In This Same Country”, Reuben Abati, the former chairman of Guardian newspaper’s editorial board, irrepressible columnist and ex-presidential spokesman, captured the mood of Nigeria and Nigerians during the so called good old days, which some people, out of nostalgia, fondly refer to as the golden age.

Abati’s article which was an eulogy of Nigeria’s heydays as a towering economic colossus, also contained reminisces of Nigeria of yore in comparison to now, and laments that the new generation – youths born less than 35 years ago – would never believe that Nigeria was ever so glorious.

Hear Abati “The angst of this young generation is made worse when they are told that Nigeria was not always like this. In their late 20s to thirties, these children have only known Nigeria where fuel scarcity is a fact of daily life, and part of the mechanism of survival is to know how to draw fuel with your mouth, or negotiate black market purchase of fuel, while lugging jerry cans, either at the fuel station or a road side corner where you cannot be sure of the quality of fuel.These children have only known a country where the roads are bad, services are sub-standard, people are mean, criminality is rife, and electricity is available once in a blue moon”.