When we talk about the dollarisation of the Nigerian economy and the damages it has caused the economy, the greatest culprits are the politicians, socialites, government’s top brass, social party freaks, and their children.
Not only do they derive unassailable pleasure in foreign currencies, goods and services they use must also be foreign.
They take pleasure in flaunting hard currencies, even in government’s Ministries, Departments and Agencies, and buying imported pepper, milk and all the inanities that occupy their preferred shopping malls dotting eyebrow locations. They believe that this is the only way to communicate and show others that they are better than the rest of the millions of people living in Nigeria.
Starting with those occupying leadership positions in government, to young parents with children in private schools, not leaving out the most cantankerous, the traders in local markets who believe they have to flood everywhere in the country with foreign economy rejects, Nigerians lack self-control, and their senses of dignity are on the low side. They are very self-centred. Once they are okay in their individual states, they have little or no concern for the general well-being of the millions living around them.
It is only when they are threatened that they will make noise; otherwise they don’t see how their conducts, their values, and their lifestyles affect the next person they owe duty of care directly or indirectly. They couldn’t see how their liberties become stumbling blocks unto those that are observing their conducts from near distances or through means of communications. If therefore we are serious about salvaging Nigeria and her economy, we have to deal seriously with these people by cutting them to size and instilling in them that it is a serious crime to turn Nigeria to a satellite of foreign economies and a lawless environment.
One thing is clear: Nigerians need stronger hands before they can comport themselves. In everything they have a way of misusing freedom. That is why the corner the people have boxed themselves in requires very drastic and urgent sanitisation. The Central Bank of Nigeria has a lot of work to do and I believe that the starting point is to do something radical about the use of foreign currencies as legal tender in Nigeria and by converting all personal domiciliary account balances to Naira equivalents, and ensure that a maximum balance in corporate domiciliary accounts is also set.
Likewise no one, individual or corporate entity, doing business in Nigeria should charge or demand payments for goods and services in foreign currencies. Also, laws banning the misuse of naira in social parties should be implemented, starting with government functionaries and the ‘big boys’ who believe they are above the law.
Why is it that the economy of Nigeria always defies measures and it seems as if no solution offered is good enough to put an end to the socio-economic menace bedevilling the land? In the piece written by Kingsley Moghalu and titled: “The political economy of Nigeria: Challenges and opportunities for reform,” and published in BusinessDay, November 30, 2021, he posits that: “Questions of poverty and the possibility of widespread creation of wealth for and by citizens, depends, largely on how a country’s politics and political system, laws and government frame the national economy and how productive the economy can be. There is no shortage of brilliant economists in Nigeria, but 90 million of its 200 million citizens live in extreme poverty. It is the country’s politics, which is focused on power capture by the elite and the consequent opportunities for corrupt enrichment, patronage, and rent creation, rather than economic productivity and improving the standard of living of citizens broadly, that has framed this outcome and reality.”
Nigeria’s economy is more of low income, mixed economy and emerging market, with declining production and deteriorating manufacturing, improving financial, service, communications, technology, and entertainment sectors. Though considered the largest in Africa, the living standards are very abysmal with 133 million people among the population (more than half) considered to be multi-dimensionally poor (2023 statistics). It means this is not the time for anybody to live the way he or she in terms of tastes and lifestyles, especially if the tastes and lifestyles will further worsen the conditions of the multi-dimensionally poor.
There was a time in Nigeria when a US dollar exchanged for as low as eighty kobo. That was over forty years ago, around 1980, a time when local production could be considered as booming. It was still a time when the country as a whole was benefitting from the productive years of regional governments and the federal government was returning budget surpluses to the regions.
However, the leadership of the country distorted the working system and those involved watched with their eyes opened as the industries collapsed, one after the other, within a space of seven to eight years with the devaluation of the currency in the late eighties. Today, the struggle is about how to have a unified exchange rate with the currency exchanging between N1,400 and N1,500 to a dollar. Why the monumental destruction of the value of the country’s currency?
There was a time in Nigeria when over ninety per cent of products needed by Nigerians were produced locally and the export markets were not left unattended to. I could recall that as a hundred level student, I wrote a letter for a holiday job and I got a three-month employment (with benefits including lunch tickets) in a reputable match production company based in Ibadan, Oyo State.
Using the automobile industry as a reference, back then in the seventies and early eighties, Nigerians had access to locally assembled cars, buses and trucks. The Volkswagen plant was in Lagos while Peugeot operated from Kaduna. Leyland in Ibadan was producing trucks and buses and ANAMCO based in Enugu was sharing the buses and trucks market with Leyland. Ferrodo, Exide, TSG and IsoGlass were all located in Ibadan and were seriously engaged in producing brake pads, discs, batteries, windscreens and other components for the automotive plants in Nigeria and those in others in West African countries. Steyr in Bauchi was servicing the agricultural sector by producing tractors and other implements. Dunlop and Michelin were producing tyres for the vehicles rolling out of the assembly plants in Lagos and Port Harcourt respectively with raw materials sourced locally from plantations located in Ogun, Ondo, Midwest (Edo and Delta) and Rivers State. Vono, in Lagos, was producing foams for the vehicle seats and home use. Why would the country’s currency not be stronger in value with the level of productivity!
Things were not just happening in the automobile industry only. Household items such as radio and television sets were assembled by Sanyo in Ibadan. Berec was producing batteries for the radio and touch lights. Refrigerators, freezers and air conditioners were the preserve of Thermocool and Debo Electronics. What more? Nigerians were not wearing bend-down-select as is rampant today. UNTL Textile Mills in Kaduna, Aswani and Chellarams in Lagos were producing clothing materials from cotton grown in Nigeria. Defence industry had DIC. Kwalipipe in Kano, Duraplast in Lagos, NGC factory in Ibadan producing gas cylinders, Nigerian Wire and Cable in Ibadan, NOCACO in Kaduna and Kablemetal in Lagos and Port Harcourt; Bata and Lennards producing shoes and others too numerous to mention that were involved in real time production. In the early eighties, these companies, UNTL and DIC had their own football clubs that were doing excellently well in the national league. Likewise African Continental Bank and New Nigerian Bank, Stationery Stores, as well as Bendel Insurance all jostling with other company-owned football clubs like IICC and Leventis United to win laurels.
Will Nigeria ever bring back and ever witness the golden age again or it is gone forever? Are the cankerworms and caterpillars consuming the country going to continue with the destruction mandate without let or hindrance? One must ask Mr President, what will it take to bring the companies mentioned above back to business in Nigeria. Or the country must remain a satellite of foreign economies in his own time with the unemployment situation getting worse, and politics will be the only thriving industry for the privileged few?
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. Emmanuel is a business planning consultant and founder of Leacent Incorporated Trustees, a network of entrepreneurs and group of cooperatives. He works with a team of international consultants to conceptualise and plan agribusiness and housing projects. As a certified trainer authorised to use the International Labour Organisation’s enterprise development modules, he trains entrepreneurs and organises workshops and seminars for potential and practising entrepreneurs as well as business managers and cooperatives. He also speaks and facilitates at leadership and management workshops on invitation. His book: “Business Planning Made Easy: Step by Step Guide On How To Turn Your Idea To Profitable Business,” is the latest of the books authored by him. Tel: +234(0)9068602954 (call and sms), +234(0)8023257707 (WhatsApp only).
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