By PHILIP OBIN
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.
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