Dateline 1985: I had received a monthly pay raise from N30 to N50 as a shop attendant. Of this amount, I would make savings after taking care of food, my clothing and meeting other regular expenses. The same 1985, precisely August 27, the military regime of Muhammadu Buhari was ousted by his Chief of Army Staff, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, to become the self-styled military president of Nigeria.
Barely 12 months into the Babangida regime, the duo of International Monetary Fund and World Bank penetrated the government, ensuring that they sold the idea of an economic package that will move Nigeria from command economy to free market economy.
That became what would define the government. According to these western world’s financial institutions, Nigeria needed to foster an unregulated, capitalist development model, with the government playing only supportive roles in a refurbished economic environment with reduced ownership and control of enterprises by the government.
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This gave birth to the Structural Adjustment Programme, to which immediate response from the economy was an astronomical inflation jump in a space of three years, from 5.4 percent in July 1986 to 40.9 percent in 1989. The IMF-World Bank “goodies” loaded into the SAP (if you would call it that) were subsidy removal on petroleum products and agric inputs such as fertilizers, privatisation and commercialisation of state-owned entities, interest rate deregulation and, worse of all, liberalisation of trade – opening of borders to allow unhindered movement of finished products.
The opening of borders as counselled by the Bretton Wood institutions turned Nigeria to a dumping ground for cheaply produced foreign products at a period local manufacturing companies were dying in Nigeria. Since then, Nigeria has never recovered from the downward spiral, and prices of goods and services that spiked has never retraced their steps southward. The value of the nation’s currency, as strong as 80 kobo to $1 around 1983 is today at an average of N1,500 to a dollar – no thanks to the deregulation advice.
What precipitated the trip down memory lane above was a question posed to me by someone: “Is it possible for prices of products and services to come down to pre-June 2023?” Learning from the past, the SAP-induced economic turbulence resulted in hostile income redistribution, increased crimes and insecurity, erosion of purchasing powers of the people and destruction of consumer spending, hungry and unhealthy people, heightened tensions on the streets and among institutions, as well as poor investment attitude.
The period Nigeria is at present (since January 2023) can be likened to the SAP era. The demonetisation exercised introduced January 2023 coupled with the removal of subsidy on petroleum products as well as the unification and floating of the forex market unleashed again every malady of 1986 SAP. The emphasis on free market economy means prices of products and services will be skyrocketing when demands outstrip supplies in a situation where local production is low and the deluge of imports will not allow the economy respond to local production intervention efforts. At best, prices of agric produce may be fluctuating between the peak and off-peak periods; but it is more plausible that the people will need to face the reality by upping their wealth creation games to improve their earning powers, if they want to better the already-battered living standards.
Free market system upholds the need for the people to take charge of their affairs and economic wellbeing. It means waiting for government (without making personal and individual moves) to deliver the economic largesse in form of interventions here and there may be an exercise that further tends to poverty. No interventions from the government side, other than attending to policies and the benefits of such policies – while not forgetting the effects of such policies (the costs) – may solve the people’s basic and existential needs sustainably.
Therefore, folding of arms and expecting government to deliver may be dwelling in fools’ paradise. The cry of “Ebi npa wa o” (we are hungry) is good to alert the policy makers to the situation of things but everybody must wake up to attend to his or her life. To wait for prices of goods and services to be brought back to pre-2023 is to condemn oneself to hunger and penury. Begging for people to give may not be an effective strategy either. Everyone must rise to answer his or her father’s name by thinking through the better way to create wealth and improve his or her standard of living in today’s Nigeria.
. Ola 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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