I was recently at an event in Lagos, Nigeria and a top Economist was predicting that Naira will likely hit between N1,600 – 1,800 to a Dollar by the end of the end of the year, 2024 and immediately, I heard murmuring in the hall.
It’s exactly ten days since that event and the Nigerian Naira is inches away from N1,600/Dollar. So, basically, by the end of 2024, you’re likely going to see a situation where the Naira is exchanging at N4,000 to N5,000/Dollar. How prepared are Nigerians for this looming disaster of historic proportions? This is what happens when you copy answers to pass an exam but can’t defend your paper.
There are good and bad sides to floating the Naira but whatever side you’re on, you can never negate the fact that this is an exercise that must be implemented with strict adherence to TIME and LOGISTICAL factors. If the logistics aren’t in place and the time isn’t right, you get exactly what we have right now – where the country is fast turning into a nation of beggars.
The last time I saw this level of begging and suffering was during the COVID lockdowns of 2020. And this is looking like it’ll even surpass that. I went into a very popular supermarket in Lagos a few days ago and the shelves were empty. I’ve known those guys for years! And they’re not alone.
Many like them are going empty too. And this is largely due to the internal disruptions emanating from this floating thing. Imagine then when the global impact of these raging wars around the world and disruption to marine transportation in the Middle East and elsewhere begin to hit home to local businesses, you’ll see people snatching cars and stopping food trucks on the road to get something to eat.
We will see forceful break-ins and more commercial kidnappings spread across the length and breadth of Nigeria. It won’t be an Eastern thing anymore, as you can already see. And it could get worse. Talk about watching a giant ship sink. If this floating policy has gone very badly, why not eat the humble pie, retrace your steps and seek redress immediately, except of course it was intentionally set in motion to further pauperize the general population and leave them eternally incapacitated, which I believe the colonials would love very much.
Bottom line: Until the slave masters stop dictating our internal economic policies to serve their imperialistic goals of perpetual enslavement, political leadership in Nigeria will always turn out a circus of very bad actors who would stop at nothing to sacrifice the greater good of the altar of twilight glory’s hour – the real opium.
Written by Joseph Okechukwu
