During the last presidential campaign, on a particular day, I was in my sitting room sipping some beer and listening to the then presidential aspirant of APC, Muhammadu Buhari address a group of “young entrepreneurs” in Lagos. In his words, he accused the government of then president Goodluck Jonathan of mismanagement of the economy. He said that our national currency was then, one dollar to two hundred naira. He went on to promise that if elected into power, he is going to make sure that Naira values almost the same as the Dollar.

I chuckled immediately I heard that, almost aspirated. “Politicians and their empty promises”, I said aloud. With a sound knowledge of how the economy works, I knew that was close to impossible. Unsurprisingly, a sizeable number of Nigerians took it literally, leading to foul language and abuse on social media.

To get back to my write up, I took the statement for what it was, an effort to convey to Nigerians that when elected the president of the country, the Muhammadu Buhari was going to stem the fall in the value of Naira and work to make the economy better.

Fast-forward two months later, the situation as regards the value our beloved currency is far worse. Naira has now lost 25% of its value since the president assumed power. Our stock exchange is loosing Billions of Naira every day as a result of the uncertainties. Investors are simply not putting their money in the economy. The different economic agencies don’t have a coherent path to follow in improving the economy.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has become the judge, the jury and the executioner, constantly exceeding its boundaries every day. The apex bank unilaterally decides what should be brought into the country via imports, which is able to access foreign exchange without any existing direction by the Presidency, Federal Executive Council or even the finance ministry.

All these are core results of the current Government not setting a direction for the economy. The money being hemorrhaged by the economy may possibly bring us down from our rank as the Africa’s biggest economy and worsen life of ordinary Nigerians. As Nigeria basically runs a trickle-down principle based economy, withdrawal of funds from the top, inevitably makes it difficult for ordinary citizens to access money to use for their survival.

In developed countries, the government always leads because they know the effect of what directionless stance, even for a day will have on their economy.

The president, President Muhammadu Buhari needs as a matter of urgency to appoint a finance minister, get an economic adviser and draw up a viable economic policy. The president should also create unified policy enforcement by our different economic agencies. This singular action may be able to reverse the fall in the value of our currency and thereby increase its purchasing power.

To the ordinary Nigerian, that may mean that a bag of rice will sell at N10,000, the initial price it was selling two months ago, not N15,000 that it sells currently, or buying a bowl of rice at N450 instead of N600 currently.


Source: The FCT Post - http://www.fctpost.com/2015/08/05/our-dear-countrys-directionless-economy/

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Buhari is working.

Chidiebele Samuel

Writes from Enugu


Got to be a biafran..

All your doom and gloom wishes, back to sender..

Worthless Enemies of Nigeria..

And the wailing continues!!!!
You have 8 years to do this let's see how far it takes you