🔵The Last Dance: Buhari's Economic Warfare on Tinubu🔵

In Nigeria, pain is a mass identification mark amongst a major percentage of citizens especially if convinced to think they're inflicting damages on "corrupt" politicians by their suffering.

It's like there is this mass euphoria of brotherhood in shared national economic afflictions. Maybe this is why politicians rate the populace so low. People whose lifestyle and economic power have been taken away from them still believes they're inflicting heavy damages on Tinubu by not vocally demanding an end to the ludicrous money redesign policy implementation of Buhari's government that has grounded the economy.

Elections will come and go, and we are assured that the suffering will continue. This is because, a bad policy smells. The idea that the new money redesign is going to curtail vote buying during election and make Nigeria El Dorado is nothing but a mirage to divert attention of citizens from the real issues.

The real issues at hand is that after Buhari's trial and error ridden economy management has caused massive amounts of inflation, insecurity and unemployment, they want to engineer a calculated recession to withdraw most of the fake money they printed between 2020 - 2022.

Remember that most governments around the world embarked on printing spree after the Covid-19 devastation. Now what happens is when you print money out of thin air (with no real value benchmarks like Gold, oil, silver or other minerals), the inflation levels in the country must rise. It is estimated that between 2020-2022, the Nigerian Federal Government printed an estimated 1.4trillion Naira and infused it into the economy.

The resultant effect today in 2023 is an inflation rate at 21.82%. Nigeria's inflation rate for 2019 was 11.40%. In three years (2020-2023), Nigeria's inflation rate jumped by 10.42%. This is the highest in Nigeria's history and highly unprecedented. In contrast, Buhari's government met Nigeria's inflation rate at 9.1% in 2015.

However, by comparison Nigeria's inflation rate for 2019 was 11.40%, a 0.7% decline from 2018. Nigeria inflation rate for 2018 was 12.09%, a 4.43% decline from 2017 inflation rate
which was 16.52%.

From the figures above, you would have noticed that prices of goods and services were cheaper in 2019 than they were in the years that followed. According to the figures, Nigeria's inflation rate was on a downward spiral until the epidemic hit.

The Covid-19 pandemic hit the global economy hard, and Nigeria was not spared. The government's response to the pandemic was to inject more money into the economy, which, as we have seen, resulted in higher inflation. Inflation is like a hidden tax on the people, as it reduces the purchasing power of their money.

The government's decision to introduce a new currency design has been met with criticism and suspicion by many Nigerians. The government claims that the new currency design is to curtail vote-buying during elections, but many believe it is a ploy to withdraw most of the fake money printed between 2020-2022.

It is not uncommon for governments to manipulate their currencies to serve their interests. In fact, the ability to control the currency is one of the powers of the state. However, when a government loses the trust of its citizens, the value of its currency also drops. This is because people lose confidence in the ability of the government to manage the economy.

The total currency in circulation in Nigeria was estimated at 3.2 trillion Naira at the end of 2022. According to the Central Bank of Nigeria, 2.1 trillion Naira has been withdrawn as at early February, 2023. The CBN claimed that N700bn is the amount of cash needed for their functioning vision of a “cash-less” Nigerian economy. If Kaduna State Governor El Rufai is to be believed, the Chief Economic Adviser to the President, Dr. Doyin Salami notably disagreed with this estimate. According to Dr. Doyin, at least 2 trillion Naira of currency needs to be in circulation for Nigeria's economic sustainability. Other experts variously estimate the number to be between N1.2 trillion and above.

By its own admission, only N400bn worth of new notes had been printed by the CBN as at early February. The current cash shortage was therefore designed from the beginning to cause the hardship it created.

The so called N700bn that was to be printed would have been grossly inadequate anyway. Despite this, only N400bn was printed in the new currency and most of it unavailable to the banks. To quote Kaduna State Governor, El Rufai, "How can the CBN collect N2.1 trillion from citizens and print only N400bn? Is this not a clear case of economic sabotage?"

Nigeria has a long history of corruption, mismanagement, and a lack of transparency in government. This has eroded the trust of its citizens in the government. It is, therefore, not surprising that many Nigerians are suspicious of the government's motives for the new currency design.

The Nigerian government needs to address the root causes of the country's economic problems. This includes corruption, poor infrastructure, and a lack of economic diversification. The government also needs to be more transparent in its economic policies and decisions. Buhari had eight ( years to fix Nigeria's most important assets - our four refineries. What happened?

Nigerians must also take responsibility for their economic future by holding their leaders accountable and demanding more from them. This includes asking the right questions and making informed decisions during elections.

In conclusion, the new currency design by the Nigerian government is just one of the many symptoms of a deeper economic problem. The government must address the root causes of the problem, and Nigerians must take responsibility for their economic future.