PLUNGING NAIRA – BEFORE YOU BLAME
EMEFIELE LOOK AT YOURSELF

It is either I do not understand economics and
how exchange rates work or a vast majority of
us Nigerians still don’t get how we have wrecked
our country with our own curious choices. Just
this morning I was listening to the radio and the
lady on air went on and on about how she
thought CBN governor Godwin Emefiele was
incompetent and should be sacked because the
naira was now exchanging at 309 or so to the
USD. That view pretty much echoes the
sentiments expressed by many people I know
and it amazes me that there are Nigerians who
actually think there is some magic POLICY that
can make the Naira strong in the near term. If
my economics and my understanding of the way
the world works are right, then that is as far from
the truth as Jesus Christ is black.

The simple fact of the matter is that apart from
oil that accounts for over 90% of our revenues,
we really don’t have much of an economy. We
hardly produce anything, we import even
toothpicks, so exactly what policy is going to be
implemented that will turn Nigeria into a top
exporting economy in the near term? Where are
our Apples, IBMs, Disneys, GMs, General
Electrics, Coca Colas, Empire State buildings,
Statues of Liberties, Lockheeds, Citibanks, JP
Morgans, ExxonMobils, NBAs, Super Bowls etc?
Let me bring that closer home.

There was a time long ago when Nigeria had a
truly strong economy and the naira was one to
the dollar – even exchanged for higher than the
USD, but that Nigeria is not this Nigeria. Sadly
that Nigeria was laid by the British, and this
Nigeria (if you don’t believe in the nonsensical
imperialist conspiracies like me) – fueled by the
DAMAGING Indigenisation Decree, has been the
creation of us Nigerians.Back then we had a
booming economy.

We were either the top, or among the top
exporters, of timbre, cocoa, groundnuts, rubber,
palm oil, etc, in the world. Nigerians not only
holidayed at home in their villages, at Yankari
Games Reserve, at Obudu Cattle Ranch, at Oguta
Lake, at Ikogosi springs, at Gurara Falls, at
Mambilla Platueau, etc, we attracted
international tourists who brought in loads of
foreign exchange. Even Nigerian schools were
foreign exchange earners because they attracted
foreign students. We had different car assembly
plants – Peugeot, Volkswagen, Anamco etc.
Nigerian government officials only bought
vehicles assembled in Nigeria for official cars.
We had a thriving sports industry.

We were not Man United or Chelsea fans, we
were Rangers or IICC fans. We had the Nduka
Odizors, people made money from sports. We
also had companies like Lennards and Bata
producing school shoes in their thousands, we
had the thriving Nigerian Airways and the
Aviation School in the north that produced some
of the best pilots in the world. In those days if
you were brilliant you were respected much more
than the crass money-miss-road contractors of
today. Most of the Aje Butters I knew had fathers
who were university dons. Back then it meant
something to ‘know book’. Our textile industry
was alive and well.

Just recently I watched a news report on the
textile industry in Nigeria on CCTV News. Though
the main focus was on the comatose status of
the industry, I was stunned by the gigantic
Kaduna Textile Mill built in 1957. I could go on
and on.

Today however, no thanks to our parents (and
we must call them out the way Wole Soyinka did
his generation) and many of us (and we should
be remembered for failing our children if we
continue like this), we have destroyed
everything. Today for instance Nigerian football
(which comes easy to me obviously) doesn’t
appeal to us, we have to fly across thousands of
miles to watch ‘our’ clubs play. Every year we
collectively burn billions of Naira being fans of
clubs that give us nothing back, but some
‘entertainment value’ – simple pleasures for
which we are ready to destroy the future of our
children. Well people, payback time is here. Even
with our ta-she-re money we all want to wear
designer clothes and carry designer bags,
Armani, Givenchy, Louis Vuitton etc.

We all want to drive jeeps with American specs,
our children must now school overseas and
acquire the necessary accents to come back
home and bamboozle their ‘bush and crass’
contemporaries that they left behind. Who
holidays in Nigeria anymore, is there Disneyland
here? No one buys made-in-Nigeria school bags
for their children, after all no Superman or
Incredible Hulk or Cinderella on them.

We are no longer top exporters of anything and
the demise of oil means we have zilch… zero. A
country of 170m fashion-conscious people has
no textile industry. We take delight in showing
how our made-in-Switzerland Aso Ebi is different
class to everyone else’s. When we help our
musicians grow and pay them millions, they
repay us by immediately shipping the monies
overseas to produce their “i-don-dey-different-
level”music videos. It makes no difference that
distinctly Zulu dancers are dancing to a Nigerian
highlife song. As stars concerned they also wed
and holiday overseas to impress us all. All the
musicians who acknowledge their Ajegunle roots
now speak in a cocktail of strange accents to
symbolise how much they have blown their
monies overseas.

Were we a more serious people, the highly
popular Kingsway Stores of the past would
probably have a thousand outlets pan Nigeria
today supporting a massive agriculture industry
among others, but today we have the likes of
SPAR, Shoprite, dominating the retail industry
while Kingsway is dead. And we Nigerians make
it a special point to shop from the Oyinbos who
have ‘cleaner shops’, ‘better this and better that’.
For our personal pleasure we don’t mind them
dominating us in our own backyard and shipping
proceeds overseas.

I could go on and on, but I don tire. Even as you
are reading this, stop for a moment and look
around you. What you see will probably explain
why we are lucky it is not N1000 to the USD yet.
And don’t think for a moment that it cannot get
there. Just continue to wear your Armani gear
and Swiss-made lace, continue to spend your
money on Man United, Arsenal, Chelsea and
Barca and encourage your children to do same.
(My article tomorrow in my Saturday column in
This Day is on the Nigerian champions Enyimba
FC – Nigeria’s most successful club – not
having a sponsor, yet Nigerian brands pay over
N600m to Man United and Arsenal for
sponsorship to impress us.) Ehhh, no problem,
continue to tell me the NPFL is rubbish or the
clubs should clean up their act if they want
sponsorship, mo gbo . Don’t curtail your interest
in choice wines ( we were the number one
champagne consumers in the world in 2015),
continue to love your American specs, cheer the
education ministry for letting schools sink to
pitiable levels, don’t fight them to improve our
schools, don’t chide them for letting schools
drop Nigerian history and embrace British,
America and whatever else curricula.

Carry on with your love of French wines and
Chinese silk, don’t bother about Jamiu Alli when
there is Roger Federer. Stock up on your Italian,
American, British products which you cannot live
without, including the ‘baby soft’ toilet rolls
produced only in that small unique village in
England – the days are long gone since you
were a broke student who used wet newspapers
to wipe your butt. Don’t even consider holidaying
in Nigeria, it’s too dangerous – you have to fulfill
your dream of being Nigeria’s Henry Ford. Don’t
listen to people like me who have a wardrobe full
of only cheap adire that is actually cheaper than
just one of your Tom Ford blazers. Please keep
dressing in fine silk made in some exotic place
so you can be addressed accordingly.

Finally keep letting corrupt leaders who have
looted your commonwealth and shipped all the
monies overseas get away because to attack
them does not fit your political narrative. Let us
continue with the fine life, let us all continue to
work for Oyinbo. But don’t forget that there is
payback time and Emefiele is not your problem.
Time for us all to look in the mirror and take
responsibility.

www.theheraldng.com/see-why-the-naira-may-fall-to-the-dollar-at-1000/

Buhari should resign and Jonathan should take over!! Kilode?

j

Hmmm...i'm totally speechless!

Waoooow....am stunted, you're so on point @op