Nigeria, Buhari, Economic Hardships
Adeleke Glory
Interestingly, It is not a surprise that Nigeria has been faced with a whale of economic devastations and recessions in all its public and private organizations since the president Muhammadu Buhari assumed office in 2015.
Bizarrely, Nigeria has since then, happily transverse to its second half of the economic recession in five years since 2015, though later whipped by the cataclysmic change, hallowing by the ruling party.
Dr. Yemi Kale, chief executive and statistician-General of Nigeria Bureau of Statistics said, Q3 2020 Real GDP contracted for a second consecutive quarter by -3.62 percent cumulative GDP for the first nine months of 2020 stood at -2.48per cent, which contracted by 13.89per cent in Q3, while the non-oil sector contracted by 2.51per cent in the same period.
While the covid-19 pandemic and associated lockdown imposed in the early month of the pandemic contributed significantly to this recession, it is not a valid excuse to avoid confronting the more important causative factor of the long-standing weak, obscene, willow, lanky and shaky economy of Nigeria, in the Buhari-led administration. Nigeria economy was in distress long before the emergence of Covid-19 palawan. So, the cowardice of the nigerian government won’t do here.
The current administrative government needs to be conscious of intellectual competent and leadership with political will and visionary politics backed up by sound economical reasoning which can identify and work with the best minds among our compatriots to create a positive and accountable economic transformation.
Nigeria’s economy has been facing the worst recession in four decades, says “New World Bank”
The report notes that the economic devastation has affected the most vulnerable in particular women, economic activities have been disrupted and women’s livelihood has been especially, overly, impacted.
Over 40% of Nigerians employed in non-farm enterprises reported a loss of income in April-May 2020.
In addition, the fall in remittances has affected household consumption because half of Nigeria live in remittance-receiving households of which about a third are poor.
Professor Chinedu Ezirim, noted that “when production of goods is increased and in good supply relative to demand, the price would automatically drop” encouraging production in every sector of the economy will check inflation and bring down prices of good and services.”
The professor explained that “increased production would enable Nigeria to reach out to the rest of the world, pointing out that an increase in export of goods and services would enable the country to generate more foreign exchange earning that would, in turn, bring down inflation and improve the standard of the living of the citizen.
Our export needs to be limited to oil alone. There is a need to diversify the export base of the country which will result in the diversification of goods and services, instead of the country’s current mono-product economy that is dependent on global oil pricing benchmark that Nigeria does not has a tinge of control.