By Ahmed Ghani Hassan
Many Nigerians are suffering the difficult circumstances that have resulted in the average Nigerian being unable to eat even one meal a day because of the country’s runaway inflation. This is because the government’s policy of devaluing currency through the practice of “economic liberalism” and they are merely saying this would allows market forces to prevail. According to my perception is a jokes and unrealistic.
The former president Buhari was encouraged by Christine Lugarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), to phase out fuel and energy subsidies entirely in January 2016. and make money less valuable.
In an interview with Aljazira, former President Muhammadu Buhari expressed his strong disagreement with the IMF’s advice, claiming that “a country that plays around with its currency is a country that has enormous production capacity, infrastructure interms of power communication, and their security are absolutely perfect.”she had further questions to ask the former president: “Don’t you think is against the IMF?” he replied her ‘Why can’t it be against the IMF if it’s against the National interest,’ he also swiftly answered to her. Nigeria currently imports everything from rice to toothpicks.
Therefore in my view, this policy would effectively eliminate local production; no nation on Earth could implement it without at least 50% of significant subtraction, and a balance of payments would need to be reached before the policy could be implemented.
In his inaugural speech, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu implemented the IMF’s advice to remove the oil subsidy. He then flexify our monetary policy, which has worsened the situation and increased economic uncertainty. Even though he is now repaying the oil subsidy through a back door, the IMF has advised him to completely stop paying for fuel and electricity subsidies, which will worsen the country’s already dire circumstances and increase the risk of killing innocent life, which resulted in the deaths of over a thousand people in January 2024. Additionally, there is expected to be a food crisis in certain regions of the country in May of this year.
President Tinubu met with the governors on Thursday in Abuja to discuss problem-solving measures under the tensions of inflation and insecurity. They agreed on six high points of emergency and discussed measures including establishing a state police force, prohibiting the importation of food, investing in agriculture, and so on. I therefore supported some plans to ban food imports in order to increase domestic production, but those plans would take time to be implemented. Right now, Nigeria needs a quick fix to its current problems, such as stabilizing the value of the Naira and reintroducing the marketing board to keep inflation under control. However, there is a covert objective in the State Police investigation from the President’s home region in the west of the nation.
Another drawback of the state police is that they may be used as a tool to manipulate elections by intimidating political rivals and state governors who utilize the state electoral commission to rig the results.As a result, neither the country’s insecurity nor its unity can be resolved by the creation of the State Police; instead, the only option to improve security in the nation is to equip the Nigerian police and combat corruption.
In addition to our economic regression, the Nigerian government has negatively impacted our foreign policy, harming our relationships with our closest neighbors and hindering our ability to integrate internationally. This is due to their inability to find a diplomatic solution. Because of our business ties, particularly in Northern Nigeria, and our bilateral agreement to combat terrorism, it is evident to all that Nigeria and Niger are one family despite our differences in nationality. As a result, both countries are losing billions of Naira as a result of the Nigerian government’s approach regarding the coup in Niger. The Nigerian government needs to reschedule diplomatic discussions in order to rectify the mess that occurred during its eight months in office.
Ahmed Ghani Hassan
18/2/2024
ahmedghanihassan@gmail.com
