It is a known fact that to turn an import dependent, consumer economy to a production economy will require time and experience. When such a transition decision is made (such as we had it made in May/June 2023), it means that there must be immediate measures put in place that will show to all, in government and the governed, that the country is indeed transiting. New technologies will not only be attracted, they must be absorbed over a period of time. This therefore means that technologically-backward producers will need a period of protection from international competitions during their trial time, a period for learning and adjustments. Such necessary protection of the economy against foreign invasion will be painful and costly for the people because the country will need to give up the chance to import better and cheaper products. However, it is a price that must be paid if such a country wants to develop her own industries and grow to becoming advanced economy. Nigeria and Nigerians must come to term with this and adjust to realities, not whining like spoilt children. On the other hand, the political leadership, the politicians in government, must also realize that a time like this is meant for serious work with timeline for deliverables and prudent use of meagre resources. No one in government must be seen to be engaging in frivolous use of funds, and deterring penalties must be rolled out. The Asian tigers understood this very well and they made good use of the measures in order to become what they are today.
There is no place for garrulous grandstanding in an emergency; and to all discerning minds, Nigeria is in a period of economic emergency. President Tinubu needs to understand and comes to term with this very fact – and he needs to start acting decisively. In this emergency period for the rebuilding of Nigeria’s economy, the production sector, the micro, small, medium and industrial manufacturing plants, need supports of governments and that of all Nigerians. It will be a sheer stupidity to expose the local producers to harsh competitions from outside.
Something instructive in global business politics is that no country opens his own door just to please outsiders. In supporting this my assertion, initially both Britain and the USA first protected their respective economies from external (foreign) competitions by using government protection and subsidies as tools in the development of their manufacturing industries. Before they started preaching free trade, they first built their countries’ industrial capacity. Nigeria needs to borrow a leaf or two from this; not that the country will rely wholly on mass shipment of finished products from other climes in her attempts to provide for the needs of her over 200 million people (a very huge market these foreign elements are desperately trying to pocket for their own benefits). Secondly, Nigeria’s leadership and industry regulators (in departments and Agencies) must understand and come to term with the brutal truth that Nigeria is not a junkyard; and there are many people that will never agree that the country be made a garbage dump for foreign products. The idea of standing against or shifting datelines for local production, as we are currently witnessing in the matter of refining petroleum products, is ludicrousness of highest order that must be stopped forthwith.
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Nigeria needs a quick rethink. The time for sacrifice shouldn’t be wasted on giving imported palliatives while abandoning the real work of deploying available resources to build the local production base. Using imported finished products as palliatives will continue to make Nigeria and her people poorer. For instance, the developed economies of the West did not preach or yield to free trade until they had technological advantage over their competitors. Britain only adopted free trade when it had acquired a technological lead over its competitors. Yet today, these developed economies still have a way of preventing free flow of products from other economies that they see as threats to their own domestic manufacturers/producers by setting standards they know the developing economies will not be able to meet. It is sheer hypocrisy from the West and their agents, the unholy trinity – IMF, the World Bank and the World Trade Organisation.
It was in 1986 that Nigeria started the implementation of the World Bank-induced currency devaluation, a tool often used by producing nations to attract and stimulate foreign patronages of locally-manufactured goods, at a time Nigeria’s economy was on rapid nosedive with her manufacturing companies closing down. Instead of counter-measures to stop the collapse of the Nigerian economy, the World Bank advised application of the lethal pill (currency devaluation) and they are still on this mission through their obnoxious policy-advices tied to their Greek gifts (loans and grants) that will not allow homegrown solutions. It is on record that at a time in their self-discovery, the USA had to provide a counterbalance to her colonial master, Britain, when the USA was being given the British colonial treatment by denying America the use of tariffs to protect its new industries and was prohibiting the colony from exporting products that competed with British products, but was giving supports for raw material production.
Nigeria and Nigerians must wake up. The economic emergency at hand does not permit Nigeria’s economic sector regulators to help foreign producers, directly or indirectly, to subvert local production efforts. All saboteurs of the Nigerian economy need to know in clear terms that it is ‘game over’. And President Tinubu need to understand that the future is loaded and dotted with uncertainties. He only has three of his four years’ term to effectively reshape the political and economic structure of Nigeria. Haggling or waiting for the second term before making some decisive and longer lasting moves to reposition Nigeria is a luxury the ravaging hawks may not permit.
. Ola Emmanuel is a business planning consultant
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