Canticles... Economic Lockdown
IWhich of the policies exactly are you referring to?
(laughs loud and long)… so what is your business with forex too? What international business do you do to warrant your dealing with forex? You? (laughs aloud again)
What do you mean? You think you know all about me, right? You think I am too insignificant to complain about forex, simply because I don’t drive big cars or live in mega mansions.
(still recovering from the rounds of laughter) I thought you were complaining the last time we met that your landlord was threatening to throw you out for your inability to pay your rent. When did your business so blossom now that even you have become a victim of the nation’s Forex policy?
Look, I don’t care a hoot about your mockery and jokes. I have problem with this economy. Have you forgotten that my second son is studying in America? Look, I have been investing in my children. You can invest in cars and houses. We are all in the race of life. I will run slowly, and I know that I too, one day, will arrive.
Look, this Forex policy is temporary. It will soon come to pass. The government needs to clean up the mess they inherited. Did you not hear that a lot of sleaze was committed in the name of foreign exchange business? Is that not the whole issue of money laundering? Is it for nothing that even the operators of the Bureaux de Change are now to be quizzed over the roles they played in fleecing the country? Do you know that the entire foreign reserve of the country had been depleted before this administration came on board? Do you even know that when top government functionaries travel abroad, they now carry cash, since they cannot use their cards?
I am wailing about my son who is stranded there in the cold, and you are talking about top government functionaries who fly their own jets to America. How can you compare my starving son with top government officials who have a way of carrying huge sums of cash across immigration points? Does my son have such privilege? In fact, the school will soon start throwing them out since we cannot even pay school fees from here. The banks will neither accept nor give out foreign currency. How can the sin of few be used to punish the innocent masses? Haba! are we all Dasuki?
Mr. President addressed this issue when he had his maiden media chat last week. He said something has to be done for those students already there.
Yes, so what has been done since then? And did you realize he was silent on those willing to school abroad afresh? How can their payments and transactions be done with this forex lockdown policy? Or is it a technical way of banning Nigerians from studying abroad?
I can assure you that now that the IMF Chief, Mrs Christine Lagarde has come and gone, the choke in the Forex policy will ease up a little. I am sure that in the next few days, something will happen.
It had better happen fast before our children turn refugees in foreign lands because of a fisty economic policy that is taking us no where. Or do you really think that even after now the crooks in high places will no longer steal public money and stash them abroad?
Do you know that people now travel to Ghana and Benin Republic in order to send money abroad? I was complaining about my son and his school issues. What about the plethora of International business concerns that have been held up by this so-called tight policy? And to know that this is an economy in dire need of reinflation.
Let me tell you: this is not Idi Amin’s Uganda. Any policy—be it economic or otherwise, that does not make life easier and better for the masses is not welcome. Nigerians have suffered enough, and nobody should convert this supposed age of reprieve to another lengthy regiment of gnashing of teeth.
Calm down, there is an end in sight. The economic team is reworking the model and will be coming out with some reprieve soon. And you don’t blame government for its policies. It is essentially to retrieve the nation from the abyss where it was being pushed by the previous administration. Like I always say, we must thank God that Buhari came to Nigeria’s rescue. Otherwise, ours would have been worse than that of Congo and Liberia put together. Just exercise some patience.
ehh..ehh...ehh.. Enough of this blame game. Buhari has taken over now for over seven months. He should tackle the issues and stop shifting the burden. It is because he showed capacity hence he was voted for. Over two million Nigerians preferred him to his predecessor. If nothing else, he must not fail that number of people. Let him drop those clean agbada and begin to work. No more excuses. Let Nigerians, for once, have a breather. QED!
(raising the hand)
Instruction taken.
Hmmmm,. So what is the problem with the young man in America?
What else can be problem when I cannot even send him pocket money from here? What else can be problem when he cannot even use his debit card over there? What can be more problematic when we cannot even find dollars in the banks? What kind of frigid economic policy is that? If you like keep laughing at me.