MUST NIGERIA CLOSE HER BORDERS OR DISPOSE CRITICAL INFRASRTUCTURES TO SURVIVE ECONOMIC RECESSION?  

Nigeria's National Assembly (NASS), resumed plenary after eight weeks recess and the two chambers went in different directions that barely had relevant contents to improve the state of the economy which is in a temporary recession! The Senate, in an attempt to outsmart the Executive, through Senate President, 'Bukola Saraki, proffered that outright sales of critical government infrastructures would assuage the challenges of the present economic recession. The House of Representatives (HOR), on its part went into a rowdy session when Hon .Aminu Jibrin, the arrow head of the HOR 2016 Budget Padding, raised a motion and insisted that some major principal officers, including the Speaker and the Majority Leader, should step down to make way for proper investigation into his several unproved allegations against Speaker Dogara and others! But while NASS was on recess, the grapevine rumored that the Federal Government toyed with the idea of raising funds through the sales of some very active and strategic infrastructures, like the NNPC, NLNG and or the AJAOKUTA STEEL INDUSTRY, to beef up dwindling revenues from crude oil! Though government had neither confirmed nor denied the rumours making the rounds, it is instructive to note that members of the National Economic Council (NEC), are working round the clock to maintain the tempo of revenue gains from the non-oil export earnings in the agricultural, mineral resources, industrial, manufactured/food products, and transport sectors, whose productive capacities have been enhanced since the much serious drive for diversification from crude oil! And according to an authoritative Presidency source, if such a drive was ever considered by government, there would definitely be a provision for the “buy-back" option when the economy improved! Saraki who submitted that, Executive should raise capital from assets and others sources to shore up foreign reserves had been widely criticized by sound economists who believed that such policy would tantamount to robbing unborn generation of Nigerians of their inalienable national heritage of immense economic values when other options through diversification were already yielding fruits! The HOR on their part adjourned plenary last Thursday, 20th September, 2016, without meaningful debates on neither the state of nation nor of the economy!  

CLOSE THE BORDERS NOW?

Other economists and political pundits claimed that a drastic approach, like what the Chinese and Korean Socialists countries which "closed their borders" to other nations, adopted between the 19th-20th Century to  forcibly entrench socialist ideologies on a largely illiterate population, could work for Nigeria of the 21stcentury, as an option instead of discarding critical assets for pittance to political predators who are waiting on the wings to buy them with their illicit gains from OIL MONEY! According to these schools of thought, Nigerians must henceforth embrace Nigerian products and shun any form of importation in all forms in order to allow local industries to thrive with the campaign slogan drive of, “What we don’t produce, we don’t need!”  

What Are The Options Left To Salvage The Economy?

First it is important for all patriotic Nigerians to believe that the recession challenges are temporary and would be surmounted sooner than envisaged. Second, advocacy in respect of the true perspective and position of the recession must be explained by the federal government through all its information media and orientation agencies to the grass root and solicit for patience and perseverance. Third, concerted efforts should be employed by all stakeholders in the economy to stop the wastage of precious funds through criminal vandalization of the crude oil commercial pipelines in the Niger Delta Region of the country because, acts of terrorism of any dimension would always KILL THE ECONOMY of any nation; no matter the number of its natural assets! Fourth, purposeful efforts should be made to maintain the tempo of agricultural export products which had begun to pick up towards the tail end of the second quarter with encouraging statistics released by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), recently. Jigawa State, according to reports had taken the lead to produce seven "Agriculture millionaires""within the past one year through bumper harvests which accrued to them for embracing generous loans from the Nigeria Bank of Industry (NBI), and that all cash crops had reduced with at least 30% in prices! We solicit an aggressive replication of the Jigawa State example in all states of the federation for the diversification policy to agricultural, minerals, industry, mining, textiles, etc. to be pursued by governors with patriotic zeal.  


I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A Olufon. 08130669886, 08098194390.  08080243066   g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.