NIGERIA ECONOMY AND THE WEIGHT OF CONTRADICTIONS

By AVM (RTD) AKUGBE IYAMU MNSA fsi

Success tells what you achieved but legacy says what remains useful to other people because you were here. While you build a government and a country, you must also build beyond yourself. The distinction matters.

4.43% growth in the economy, the contradictions and limitations of the economy has given rise to deafening demand for restructuring to accommodate affordable food, energy, transportation and healthcare. A system that will change economic sunset to prosperity is the purpose of building a strong country.

From the foregoing , the task facing the Nigeria economic model is not what propaganda and sloganeering can fix. It need fundamental reset and economic readjustment where the starting point is the envelope budgetary system. The new framework should represent the culmination of efforts and strategies to give the real teeth to an economic growth Nigeria need.

Nigeria have one of the highest price of energy in the world imposed by the mismanagement of refineries and energy infrastructure that put energy above the reach of the citizens.

That is why the removal of fuel subsidy should have come with potentials to bring stability, inclusiveness and sanity to the economy but the operation has been below capacity and expectations.

Without questioning the applicability and practicality of a policy, there is a strong case for reviews and refinements of it implementation guided by lessons learned, modern economic management and applicability to ensure the survival security and livelihoods of citizens.

Poverty has moved from 40% since 2023 to 63% but Nigeria economy has carried the weight of contradictions. While there may have been gateways of macroeconomic structural overhaul through which the bulk nation passed, these have been masked by poverty, hunger, job loss and collapsing SMEs.

All these have left the citizens crying over a suffocating economic crisis where the standard of living has been completely destroyed by money illusion.

Practicability is the currency of any policy: citizens do not merely canvass for affordable cost of living but want to be assured with reasonable confidence that the cost of living will be stable over the weeks, months and years. SMEs now have limited leverage against what was obtainable years ago.

This suggests that the economy need something it has lacked for too long, the ability to fix electricity to position Nigeria as a manufacturing hub where security and safety are guaranteed.

The country may have squandered her early prosperity. The new challenge is to build a new dawn that will be endearingly generational and cannot be scattered.

The current situation is that Nigeria generated about 15.8 trillion Naira in additional earnings from subsidy removal and and floating of the Naira between 2023 and December 2025. The interesting conversation going on is that this money was not idle in government coffers but distributed to national, sub national and local government.

The aim was to help cushion inflation, poverty and worsening standards of Nigerians. The question is: WHAT HAPPENED?

AVM (RTD) AKUGBE IYAMU MNSA fsi
PRESIDENT ASSOCIATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AND CLIMATE CHANGE PRACTITIONERS

CONSULTANT ON CLIMATE CHANGE AND ANALYST ON ENVIRONMENTAL POLICIES AND COMMENTATOR ON NATIONAL ISSUES

WARNING!!!!!!
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