The true Story of Nigerian Politics and the Naira

We live in a world of earning. To hope to attain is to plan to earn. This is the meta-logic that applies to all entities; be they people, businesses or nations. To hope to build or have a strong currency without first having a strong economy powered by strong institutions is to be completely divorced from the truth of how functional economies work.
For a long time Nigeria as a country, has been run by leaders who couldn’t see farther than their noses. Our policies, plans and projects have largely been created in the spur of the moment. Our leaders made a living out of being a reactive economy and in the seasons of plenty, we settled into our chairs, loosened our belts and went about filling our bellies till we could take no more. Our coffers were full but in spates of misadventure that was inspired by gluttonies, we ate both the harvest and the seed we needed for the next planting season.
On many occasions and across different administrations, the Nigerian leadership was faced with moments of decision; moments, when the onus of progress rested solely on the quality of decisions of our leaders. That was when the type of popular politics employed by Nigerian elites showed its truly flawed nature. Leaders that had been elected on the foundation of vested interests couldn’t deliver the quality they didn’t have and consequently caved in.
When we had to make hard choices we avoided them. When we were faced with tough choices, we looked for the easy way out. Our bellies of course were full, so we could barely move our feet. When our nation was rich with demand, we begged china for help and they
manufactured for us. When our children wanted food we scolded every nation we could with our big wallets and they went to the farm for us. Our luxury was great – at least for those among us who could afford it.
With merry hearts and a full stomach we roamed the international streets calling alike where we were wanted, and unwanted. Our house, once beautiful and growing was gradually going to ruin but we didn’t spare the moment. The world loved us. We weren’t harsh. Nigeria was like the friend who gave but wasn’t worth giving to.
Our leadership and our elite obeyed the golden rule and treated all our foreign neighbors and partners nicely; even though we didn’t have enough, we sold electricity to Benin Republic, we sold Natural gas to Ghana, we let Cameroon have some portion of the oil rich Bakassi peninsula, we kept our border with Niger and Chad hopelessly open and our list could go on forever. But for some reason the failing state of our house never bothered us so much.
Like Esau, we could hunt, but nurturing wasn’t our forte. However unlike Esau who sold his birthright once in his lifetime, Nigerian leaders sold our birthrights so often that we had to device new ways of selling it. First we sold our agriculture on a platter of oil, then we sold our oil on a platter of foreign exchange, next we sold our best and brightest minds, then we sold our security and now we are selling our naira. For all the great imagination I have, I cannot even predict what Nigeria will sell next.
However as we continued in the culture of momentary gratification, we failed to realize that the universe is governed by more than one law. Equally as strong as the Golden rule, is the Law of the Harvest. A very accurate version of the law would be: as the earth remains, seed time and harvest, shall not cease – whatsoever a nation sows, that it will also reap.
Now we return to the present, 2016.

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