Few weeks ago, I alerted Nigerians to the inescapable reality of a collapsed Nigerian economy. On that occasion, a lot of people attacked me suggesting that I was a prophet of doom. Despite the hard facts I presented, die-hard Buhari apologists insisted that Buhari method of managing the economy was on course, but I had warned that the president lacks the capacity-both intellectually and physically to tale the Nigerian state out of the woods.
Intrestingly, Muhammadu Buhari has finally admitted to the total collapse of the Nigerian economy. In his own confession yesterday(Aug 11th 2016), Buhari said that the Nigerian economy has collapsed under him. However, he mad another shocking remark probably aimed at rubbing in the naivity and insensitivity of the Nigerian people.
According to Muhammadu Buhari, though it is true that the economy has collapsed, Nigerians are not feeling the pains primarily because of the “prudent way” his administration is managing the economy. I find this comment hugely embarrassing and inept. How can any sensible person say that Nigerians are not feeling the pains of the current hardship? A story is told recently of a woman who had just finished pounding her foo foo and went inside her house to bring plates with which to dish the food. To her utter shock, she came out and saw that the food had disappeared. Still confused, an elderly man at the balcony opposite her house beckoned on her and asked her to check the hut behind her house. The woman then went to the hut as suggested and found a man, his wife and six children swallowing the foofoo with ordinary water. This family had not eaten anything for days. That is the Nigeria we are living in today. Hence, for anybody to suggest that Nigerians are not feeling the pains is, without sounding immodest the height of wickedness and leadership idiocy.
Nigerians are dying every day on account of the present hardship. For any person to say that we are not complaining suggests two things. The first is that the person is a fool and obviously insensitive to our pains or secondly, the person is not living in this country. Both assumptions are correct in this instance but moreso the second assumption. Tucked away in the comfort of Aso-Rock and surrounded by a battalion of marabous and hired security mercenaries, even an otherwise intelligent leader will begin to lose touch with reality.
Advertisement
Muhammadu Buhari has predictably lost touch with the Nigerian reality and that is why he could be bold to say that Nigerians are not feeling the pains. This is not surprising essentially because Abuja has become a theater without audience. The cast is the audience. They stage the play and clap for themselves. This is akin to what happened in Northern Ireland after the Second World War. After the war, the people became very disillusioned and desired a change in the status quo. The government that came into power after the war hit on the expedience of infrastructural development.
The entire Northern Ireland was converted into one huge construction site. The people were constructing a road, and midway they realized that the road they were constructing led to nowhere. Suddenly, they all began to disperse realizing that they have been duped. That is exactly what is happening in Nigeria today. The truth is that it takes intelligence to run any economy. The worst thing you do to yourself is to have a dunce run affairs that bear directly on your destiny. The collapse of the economy has not come to me as a surprise but even the worst is looming.
In the next couple of months, the economy will move from recession to depression and that would complete the cycle of tragedy that this government has brought upon us. I think Buhari has failed and woefully so. He should resign or be impeached. We need a sound mind as a president; not an ethnic and religious jingoist.
Advertisement
Views expressed by contributors are strictly personal and not of TheCable.
3 comments
I still don’t know why TheCable keep publishing this man’s article. He always poor out his hatred for President Buhari. You could see so much bitterness in his articles. Nawao, all in the name of #Biafra. May God heal Nigeria from its current state, but first we need to heal our souls before God could help us. God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Amen
M.I,instead of healing your own soul of hatred,you are there insinuating otherwise,you didn’t make any point,but Dr Arthur make a clear and glaring point.Buhari is nothing but a local herder who knows next to nothing about economics(ancient or modern)micro or macro.May God deliver Nigeria from people like you.
I am probably not qualified to speak on Nigerian matters as I am not a Nigerian native nor have I ever been to that part of the world. I only beg to compntemplate that they like my people in Zimbabwe have been chansing this illusive called change. Nigeria has 2 possibilities right now, economic collapse or economic development. Let us consider how these choices resulted. 1. Economic collapse from a lack of economic growth, 2. Economic development from a series of growth. Now that we know that, how then does this apply to Nigeria? Well they say guessing is the method of a gambler, calculating is the method of an investor. As an inspiring investor, may I calculate? Well let us not meddle with the most complex parts, let us visit the basics. Wealth is the accumulation of profit, poverty is the accumulation loss. Wealthy nations, people, companies, etc have focused their time on making it a habit to make more with what they have. Every opportunity they were given they made more than they spent. Poor nations, people, companies etc spent more than they made… Every opportunity they were afforded, they chose the path of for whatever reason they chose, to use everything they had and as a result even when it was all spent they kept on spending until now with little left, they are still looking to spend more. How does this relate to Nigeria? Well sometime between 2013 early 2015 (please correct me if my dates are wrong), Nigeria as an oil producing nation met a difficult reality. USA their top customer discovered a cheaper alternative to the high quality crudes Nigeria delivered them faithfully. Their discovery is called shale oil. No longer did they have to wait for the Nigerian superior oil to reach American waters, neither did they have to incur the cost of freight insurance etc, and most importantly USA companies could join in in making profit with oil in their native land (though stolen from Native Americans, they occupy it as their own… Though a topic for another conversation.) And so faced with the loss of a guarantee of selling 40% of its yield of crudes to USA they needed a new customer. China has been the speculated anser, however Nigeria is yet to reep this 40% reality of China purchases, and so the focus will shift to natural gas. Seems like a really fruitful refocus, however there are hurdles there too. 1. Russia has been under sanctions for a long time, but with the falling of oil prices banks sold off their invesments to the highest bidder. Russia bought off most of these assets and so has a global reach much more powerful than was previously possible. And so most European companies are now revisiting the sanctions to now go back to Russia for natural gas because they are easy to do business with, not cheaper or better quality, just easier to do business with. (will explain some other time why). 2. Canada, with the recent elections in USA and the elected victor Donald Trump more interested on an America first focus, Canada its number 1 supplier is also looking towards Europe to sell its natural gas to new markets so as to weather the coming economic crisis USA poses if they stop buying their oil and natural gas. 3. USA, with Trump the ability for American companies to sell their oil and gas outside of the USA may actually happen, When it does, the Kings of ease of business may not win the whole market, but the section of the market they do win will be significant to affect Nigerias percieved market share, and so, for Nigeria, some but not as much as they actually want in terms of revenue. There are alternatives, however they are difficult to communicate… Not for a lack of knowing them, rather more for a lack of an audience that will actually understand. Not meant as an insult, but just like in Zimbabwe, I am sure Higher education which doesn’t account for many factors that influence a win or a profit, blind or blinker the audiance so much that unless the script messsage or narative fits what they have been conditioned to be the right one, we could talk until Christ comes back, it will result in naught in terms of constructive and measurable results. Last though, understanding is the desired result of education… Or must I say what we persive as education, why what we percieve? Because the etimology or simply the root of the word education is from a latin word “educco”. And so to accurately understand what education is we mustr search out the meaning of the latin root to understand how to measure the english word educations when we have them. Educco means to draw from WITHIN, not without but WITHIN. Meaning the purpose of education is to teach us to draw knowledge from within, not from professors, not from politicians, not so called super business thinkers etc, nope, but from WITHIN. The actual cause of our problems is not capitalism per se. It is the form of capitalism that yields losses if the intention is constructive. What is it and why? Its called predetory, where the occupier of power depends upno preying on the masses, sucking every dollar out of them. Bleeding them dry, then moving on to new victims. They are finally out of victims, and so have no possibilities, their only focus now is upon oppression. In order to overcome them, we need to put on a constructive form of capitalism that focuses on not just one slice of bread, nope… Rather the whole loaf enough to feed the household, that way all have the opportunity to develop further what they are purposed to be rather than conditioned. And so for the last word, all poverty can be naturally converted to immense wealth if the method of thinking is converted from a spendthrift one (spending everything, the little, or the nothing the subject has) to, an accumulative mindset (accumulating more than what is in hand, and if there is spending its spending a fraction of the profit and not the principle.) There lies all potential…