Nigeria’s economic condition: Time for concerted efforts, not blame game – By Chuks Nwosu
The recent pronouncements by world economic giants on their critical economic conditions and downturns have fundamentally changed global perspectives, especially with United Kingdom and Japan slipping into recession.
With this development, there is no doubt that this not a better time for the world economy, every country of the world is having certain share of the economic imbalance, which is as a result of either poor administration by successive governments or general deficit in global production and productivity.
On the peculiar analysis of economic trajectory in Africa, the above dual factors are solely responsible for unfavourable economic condition on the continent. While countries on the continent are not insulated against the global economic challenges, they are also faced with distinct leadership inefficiency.
In that wise, whoever is apportioning blame in this current economic situation in Nigeria should be properly examined to ascertain the sanity and state of mind of that individual, especially when the character is deliberately playing to the gallery by wrongly accussing State Excecutives of causing the problem.
Let us first and foremost evaluate the issue at the front burner of national economic discourse at the moment, which is unfavorable foreign exchange, in which the Naira rather regrettably continues to loose its value against the dollar with attendant multiplier effects on the prices of goods, thereby reducing purchasing power of the Nigerian citizenry on daily basis.
To start with, the monetary policy of Nigeria is exclusively centralised at the whim and caprice of the Federal Government through the Central Bank, which absolutely determines the pattern of generation and distribution of foreign currencies, without any inputs whatsoever from any State of the federation.
In the same vein, the Federal Government takes the whopping 52 per cent of the Monthly Federal Allocations, leaving the remaining 38 per cent to be scramblingly shared among 36 states and 774 local governments; by this arrangement, it means the Federal Government is monthly richer than the whole federation by double, and spend far more than the other tiers of governments going forward.
It further implies that all macro-economic indices geared towards the activation of favourable exchange rate, improved balance of trade and productivity rest with the Federal Government and its agencies, including the right monetary and fiscal policies to maintain favourable balance sheet.
However, when things are not going the way it should be owing to culminated acts of maladministration and poor economic policies by successive administrations in Nigeria, most especially the unthinkable stories of lopsidedness that characterized the immediate past administration in Nigeria, specifically at the Apex bank; whoever is blaming any State governments for the current woes needs urgent medical attention.
While some State Executives have questions to answer like many political appointees at the Federal level, they are completely innocent of the macro-economic jeopardy facing Nigeria; the Federal Government and its agencies must immediately look inward and think correctly.
It is indeed correct to state that the Federal government and all the State Governments are stakeholders in the Nigerian project, their relationship is strictly symbiotic and mutual; majority of individuals occupying political offices in both levels of government convincingly fought for the restoration of Democracy in Nigeria and they are still committed to its survival and continuity.
Consequently, as it stands, the act of blame game is implicitly out of place, this is the time for concerted efforts by all levels of government, led by the Federal Government to go back to their drawing boards and come up with more pragmatic ideas of turning around our economy for prosperity and better standard of living for Nigerian citizenry: please, stop the illogical blame game and act fast.
Nwosu contributes this piece through chuksnwosu@aol.com
