Nigeria’s bad economy, its cause and its effects

The economic landscape that determines the quality of achievable performances of economic goals is characterised by the nature of activities taking place within a system that is managed with operational policies (majorly the monetary and the fiscal policies) as established by those in authority. The integrity of the policies is relational to the overall assessment of the existing corporate governance in the system. The government’s policies for agricultural activities, for instance, differ much from those for manufacturing, or for mining in the oil industry. These respective policies could either favour economic growth or have adverse impact on the economy, which significantly depends on how dedicated and committed the concerned public officers are to the wellbeing of the state. Human influence is, therefore, observed as a significant factor that plays a far reaching determining role, on whether the economy would fail or succeed. Patriotic citizens put at the helm of affairs to control the economic fortunes of the state, would eschew corrupt practices in discharging their civic and official duties; which anchor on spelt out policies that are freely and selflessly structured not on their personal terms and conditions but solely in the interest of the state. Unpatriotic individuals on the other hand, however, operate with hidden personal agenda, self aggrandisement that could only brood corrupt practices, to the detriment of the state’s interest (which could be interpreted as official corruption). This second analogy is the roadmap that manifests in “bad economy”, at the end of the entire flawed policy implementation in all the economic activities. This sort of unfortunate outcome in economic performances is indicative of low moral values inherent in the highly placed corrupt officials, who are in charge of the dysfunctional operational guidelines.

Effective and efficient operational guidelines, in effect, are determined using the laid down processes and procedures that are constantly and diligently applied. In a situation whereby the actions go off trajectory on the stipulated guidelines, where such actions are known without further investigation to be ill-influenced by personal greed, at the detriment of the interest of the state, then such a state is bound to start suffering from poor performances in governance that would trigger off instant economic losses (characterised as bad economy at macroeconomic management level).

The daily economic and commercial activities that go on in a country are substantially influenced by government policies, backed by extant laws. When one considers the ongoing monetary policy of redesigning Nigeria’s local currency (i.e., the N1,000; N500 and N200 notes) by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), it is only fair to give an interpretation that the measures being taken in the exercise would restore a firm grip by the CBN over the currency in circulation; and that this would (as suggested by the monetary authorities) positively impact the value and worth of the local currency at the foreign exchange market. The oil industry landscape, on the other hand, gives a full narrative of what effects a bad economy does to her citizens (hardship and inflation). Policies established, like the “almighty” petroleum subsidy regime for the refined products imported into the country, is a classical example in this case.

The present economic challenges being experienced in the country is the fault of very few individuals who did not implement the right policies that would have improved the lot of citizens through good governance. Such public officers are either naïve or myopic in their visioning, in the wrong decisions they took in the past which negative effects are now being felt by the general public in the bad economy the country is experiencing.

In this bad economy, every item in the market is outrageously priced out of normal proportion. The nation’s oil industry, at the downstream sub-sector, ought to have been “a safe haven” for most Nigerians, if past policies and planned programmes used in running the sector were well channelled and effectively implemented by setting up the right infrastructure that would have since the ages supported local refining of petroleum products for the economy. It is indeed very painful that the present dysfunctional economic situation was triggered by a chain reaction among interrelated economic activities that are operational on a daily basis within the nation’s economic space. Such unfortunate development that trends high rate of inflation is not unconnected to the poor management of the natural resources that otherwise would have received a boost through value addition in the manufacturing landscape of the economy. Whenever one considers the escalated prices of products and services (including the exchange rate), it makes one’s heart bleed! The exchange rate @ N740/$, PMS @ N320-370/litre, Kerosene @ N1,000/litre, Diesel @ N900/litre, cooking gas/LPG @ N850/kg, a bag of rice @ N46,000; a loaf of bread @ N1,000; flight fare now @ N80,000 within the country.

The current bad economy, notwithstanding, it is however hoped, that the future leaders of this country shall aggressively address it, for the interest of the masses (i.e., the generality of Nigerians) at the least!

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