Republished: Nigeria May become poorer with presidential candidates’ economic agendas

Enoch Oyedibu

In a recent time, World Bank authoritatively reported that Nigeria’s economic growth in 2023 will slow from 3.3 per cent to 3.2 per cent.

The report tagged Africa’s Pulse, released in Washington DC also noted that it may maintain the spot or still decline further in the following year after 2023.

What this means is that there will be another decline in the current sickening economy and inflation currently ravaging the country’s nooks and crannies goods and services will drastically fall backwards. In order words, what you purchase at a higher price now may be purchased at a lower price.

This was also confirmed by Neil Irwin, senior economics correspondent for The New York Times when he said if growth slows down enough, it would better allow the labour market, housing market and markets for goods and services to balance with the rest of the economy. There will be enough surpluses and when producers have a surplus of supply as noted by Investopedia, they must sell the product at lower prices. Consequently, more consumers will purchase the product, now that it’s cheaper. This results in supply shortages if producers cannot meet consumer demand. This can affect workers’ pay and lead to workers’ underpayment. Before a shortage in supply causes prices to go back up, the recession would have heated up and this is why though decline can be as described a fair share, it is worth noting that no good comes without its devilish side.

As much as the slower growth forecasted in 2023 may be a blessing to every man on the street wallowing in the pain of hardships as a result of inflation hitting the country hard; it is still a journey to drive the country to a terrible recession.

Irwin noted that “while a slower growth rate would cause inflation to fall, it can also leave the economy vulnerable to a recession.” And if recession should hit Nigeria again with the current GDP like in 2020, it is only a matter of time for men-on-the-street to go haywire.

And the bitter truth is since 2020, when the country’s economy slipped into recession with a decline of 3.6 per cent, having contracted 6.1 per cent in the second quarter, leading to its second recession in five years, rejuvenating the economy is the job of a strong developmental leadership rather than based on theoretical statements of daydreaming proponents.

The stage at which Nigeria’s economy is, not even, the private sector as predicted in the agendas of most 2023 presidential candidates, can resuscitate without the strong and active participation of good and strategic leadership.

As depicted in Sam Amadi’s essay published in Thisdaylive, Nigeria’s economy watchers need to grow from just watching to actively participating in its growth and it must all be from home. Nigeria’s economy needs to be homegrown and can only be done through good leadership, not through handing over the building of the economy to profit-minded private sectors whose most proprietors are still the ruling politicians.

Nigeria’s GDP has hit a low cut as the country thrives only on buying-importing techniques rather than producing sufficiently. This is why the sickening GDP must firstly be treated through strategic and fashionable planning to implement grassroots production of goods and services championed by the government and not by any private sector.

For example, the pragmatism of the successful East Asian economies was a product of the pedigree, training and temperament of the leaders who happened on the scene after their independence. These leaders, particularly those of South Korea and China were well-informed about the conditions of colonialism and the ideological basis of their underdevelopment. They came from the right side of the social divide, namely the peasants (although Deng was a grandchild of a former ruler). They also were patriotic and overwhelmed with a passion for the industrial takeoff of their countries. Although they were flawed men, they were all undivided on the mission. They were not prisoners of narrow and sectional interests. One thing was very clear, they forged no strategic business or political interests with foreign or local business classes so they could exercise clear-sighted and emphatic direction of the business communities. They never believed that the private sector would develop their country. Rather, they believed that the public sector would develop the country using the private sector. Theirs was entrepreneurial governance, mobilizing and incentivizing for the long-term buck, not the short-term gain.

They did not abandon leadership to the private sector. they recognized the principles and forces of the market, and they deliberately and firmly used those to push their economies from poverty to prosperity. That is what we need in 2023 and beyond, Dr Sam Amadi quoted.

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