ECONOMIC MODEL IN BAD SHAPE

Life up here in northern Nigeria, especially at this pre-elections time can be frustrating indeed if you wake up each morning and come across folks who would not see progress from a positive macroeconomic point-of-view but would rather have their preferred candidate continue as president even if a bag of rice still hovers at around N19000, a long shot from a low of about N8000 under the PDP era. The vendor I buy my newspapers from went so far to exclaim in utter exasperation, “Oga, those people supporting Buhari, see as their shoes don shop finish because no money for country.” This brings us to the heart of the present discourse. I must first begin by admitting that I am a CNN, BBC, Fox, etc., news channels addict if you present me with an opportunity and a downtime, especially when I am cooped up in my hotel room in one of my numerous travels to Zaria. What I have learnt from these news outlets’ business news segments is that the economic wellbeing of nations, and indeed the physiological wellbeing of its citizens, are measured by the activities of big-investment directionlocators like the banking giants in the shape of BNP Paribas, UBS, HSBC, etc., because these are the facilitators of economic growth. However, when investment banks like UBS and HSBC begin to exit a country then the economic prospects are dire over there, and this is what is happening right now in Nigeria. Nigerians must be bold to tell President Muhammadu Buhari and his APC apparatchiks that there is nothing like a workable “Arab economy” or “oil-money economy” that is based solely on selling crude oil and then divvying up the proceeds to “loyal” folks who side with the president whilst paying huge chunks to others to do annual religious pilgrimages so they continue to “pray” for Nigeria to sell more crude. This is simply primary school-level economic thinking! Now, the lack of enabling environments and the resort to veiled threats, heavy taxation, and spurious fines that have put the likes of MTN, UBS, and HSBC on edge and have caused some to exit the Nigerian market should begin to cause great consternation as we prepare to elect a new president next year. It is a private sectordriven economy that can create jobs and lift Nigerians out of poverty. The command-and-control, centralised, Arewa-controlled, NNPC-centred, NPA-centred, Customs-centred, economy that President Buhari adores so much would only assure the population of a “rai ka dade” and “talakawa” class-structure and the perpetuation of stagnation like we have come to know it. Nigerians must not be afraid to ask to change the existing order if it is not working. And it sure is not working, like was recently noted by the United States Institute for Peace (USIP).

Sunday Adole Jonah, Department of Physics, Federal University of Technology, Minna, Niger State