ROBBING SANUSI TO PAY AGANGA WITH FOREIGN RESERVE

You want US dollars and pound sterling? Work hard for it with your sweat; sell your goods and services at international market, then collect. Please forgive some of us for being so hard headed. We just don't get it. How anyone can float hard currency that the Country does not print for every Sanusi and Aganga to buy anything they want anywhere in the name of freedom and democracy beats us. Everything America and Europe have, we all want but we do not earn the currency to pay for it. So Central Bank makes our foreign reserve available for any import that catches our fancy. Poor toothpicks have been picked on to death for making a case on our choice of import to emphasis our foolishness.

United States can print dollars and the rest of the world will buy it. China can print renminbi to make it cheap relative to the dollar so that more manufactured goods can be bought and exported to Africa, Europe and America. Those exported goods provide jobs in China and also build infrastructure creating and expanding cities and small towns that in turn raise the living standard of the people of China. If Nigeria cannot print dollars, it cannot not float dollar for every Sanusi and Aganga that wants to buy American and Chinese toys and gadgets. Only our manufactured and refined exports can control the value of naira not Sanusi or Aganga. Raw petrol we have, refine petrol not enough to even export.

Let us complicate the situation a bit more by throwing in devaluation of the naira. No patriotic Nigerian wants us to go back to the days of IBB when we sold out ourselves so cheap. Middle-class and working-class have not recovered. Many went to their grave poor and hungry. Moreover, if we devalue our naira, there are no domestic goods and services that will be so cheap in the world market that every country will be running to Nigeria to buy. Otherwise, cheap naira could have spurred production at home creating jobs for our youths and most able persons willing to work. Our devaluation did not create jobs.

The oil we sell is a necessity and it is dictated by world market demanding no action on our part. During the Arab oil boycott, Nigeria was the biggest supplier to some countries including the United States. It did not make us as unique or special like Saudi Arabia. Also, we do not have the largest oil reserve. We sell our oil to countries that have more reserve than we do. They build large reserve at home and buy ours to grease their economic activities. Whatever they use our oil for and ready to buy more from us, we can also use our own oil for the same thing to increase and boost our made-In -Nigeria exports. But if our goods are not attractive to us, we cannot attract world market, remaining consumers of theirs. One choice we have that every Sanusi and Aganga knows is that refined oil technology is already in the Country because we have some refineries. Why can't we be exporter of refined petrol as well?

So our progress is postponed and we blame God for not saving Nigeria when we know only Nigerians can save Nigeria. Many of us hate to believe that our politicians can be bribed to water down Petroleum Industry Bill or to delay gas flaring with impunity because the big oil companies dictate how they can bribe a country to ignore the air it breaths to reach economic independence. The blame game goes round and round. It is the reason we import almost everything and if Sanusi does not make hard foreign currency available, they may close shops leading to more problems. In that case, we humbly ask what will happen when we run out of foreign reserve. Everything we have been trying to prevent will stare us in the face. We have been told to stop blaming ordinary Nigerians for our low foreign reserve in spite of high price of oil in the international market that brings in more revenue as our reverse remain stagnant.

The percentage taken by the so called industrialists and business men that import “necessities” for their factories is what takes the lion share. Yet these industrialists, factories, importers and exporters have not lowered the unemployment in the Country. They in turn explained that any country that cannot encourage businesses by providing electricity and other infrastructure taken for granted in competing factories in other countries, cannot blame them. Good point! Is that an excuse for spending more on imported raw materials than the income you bring into Nigeria?

If we have strong export market, like refined petrol, clay brinks and agricultural industries made possible by dependable generation of power, more jobs will be created and the spending power of more people working will be increased. Since we love made in Nigeria (wink) and we patronize ourselves, there will be reduced demand for imported products and that will increase our foreign reserve. Many experts are blaming the governments at the Federal and state levels for too many mega projects that are heavily dependent on our foreign reserve. Most of the projects are inflated like spending one million US dollars to build one kilometer of road, creating world record. Not even US dollars printers spends so recklessly.

The obvious commodity is refined oil which Nigeria after all these years does not have enough of to serve us domestically at home. Therefore we sell hundreds of whatever crude oil to buy only one whatever refined oil from outside. Those of us that are neither educated enough nor mathematicians, use of our native intelligence tells us that if we are spending a hundred whatever to buy just one whatever, we are going to end up poorer like our grandfathers that sold gold to buy mirrors. Nigerians are building oil refineries in other countries but not at home. Some claim that oil is too cheap in Nigeria to make a profit while some blame too much subsidy to import refine petrol.

If you are following our logic or native intelligence and it makes some sense, you may wonder why we are spending so much money subsidizing importation of refined oil as Sanusi and Aganga cry out when we can spend that money on something else, like helping the poor. The poor and the working-class say: thanks but no thanks. The only benefit they derive from Nigeria being an oil producer is lower oil price like Venezuela. Any savings from the so called oil subsidy will disappear into deep pick-pockets. If that is the case, we may as well spend the subsidy on more refineries increasing supply to bring down the price at home and for export. It must be noted that in some areas we are already paying through our noses.

Without taking sides on oil subsidy, it may be noted that United States enjoys the lowest price of refined oil amongst the developed countries and any outrageous increase always become an election issue. Indeed, some economists have calculated the amount of factories and jobs that would be lost if the price of oil goes above certain limit. But we cannot use America whenever it suits us and dump it when it does not support our case. For example, U S is practically one of the biggest debtors in the world. Some of our economists have argued that as long as our foreign reserve is used to build infrastructure and service the economy, it is fine; compared to using foreign reserve to gamble shoving up naira.

Only local manufacturers that depend on local materials should be encouraged. Nobody else deserves foreign reserve that will sooner or later runs out if we do not prioritize our wants and concentrate on our needs. Africans outside copy those at home and those at home copy those outside. There must be something we can do before we run out of the main source of hard currency, which is easy oil at home. More of it is sold as raw material than the refined petrol, enough of which we do not even have at home. We made do and live within our means before oil, feeding the rest of West Africa. All we are preventing is eventualities that are bound to happen if we do not stop wasting our foreign reserve in the name of freedom to buy whatever we want.


Source: Farouk Martins Aresa
Story from The Nigerian Voice News:

Published: Thursday, May 12, 2011

Where is the kernel
The story is too long abeg

Good story, you refine your oil, you save the dollars needed for importation of refined products.

hercules07:

Good story, you refine your oil, you save the dollars needed for importation of refined products.

You are dead right, that is why the article was posted.

The head of some people have to be drilled to put sense into it before they understand a simple story. Here we aree bleeding left and right and some hard heads still do not get it.