By Abidemi
Gbolahan
The
message delivered by the IMF Managing Director, Ms. Christine Lagarde when she
visited Nigeria earlier in
the year was that only Nigeria
can help herself out of her economic quagmire. I also remembered her advising Nigeria to
address some structural defects observed in the economy if Naira devaluation
was not an option.
President Muhammadu Buhari has
also been using every opportunity of any of his foreign trips to explain that
Naira cannot be devalued further. Even when the local neo-colonialists sharks
in concert with their foreign partners went the whole hug campaigning for
further devaluation of the Naira, they got the snub of the President.
Consequently, they embarked on destructive campaign - ‘Emefiele Must Be
Sacked’. Yet, the President stood solidly behind the CBN governor.
A bold and reassuring statement
ever made by any official of government in Nigeria, even in the continent to
any neo-colonialist institution, is the one credited to the Nigeria’s Finance
Minister, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, at the just concluded annual Spring Meetings of
the two multilateral institutions – IMF and the World Bank in Washington D.C.
where she was quoted to have told the IMF boldly that “IMF could be a doctor,
but for Nigeria our message is not sick, and even if we are, we have our own
local remedy”. In medical science at times there can be a critical choice
between going with a doctor that will worsen your case or seek self-help. In
the context of the current economic situation, it’s obvious that Nigeria has
rightly settled for the later.
Similar stance taken by Nigeria ’s apex bank – the Central Bank of Nigeria - few
months back incurred the ire of agents of these devaluation and
neo-colonialists. It will be noted that, shortly after the Bank’s initial devaluation
of the local currency, and subsequent withdrawal of 41 items from accessing its
FOREX. This was a decision apparently taken by the CBN management to rescue the
currency from its free fall, these ‘hawks’ took up arms against the CBN.