By Abbati Bako
It seems that the economic instability in the capitalist market system is very difficult to tackle not only in Nigeria but all over the world. Even in advanced economies sometimes it seems very difficult to solve the problems of economic meltdown; 1938, 2008 and the year of Covid19 have been an excellent example to be vividly remembered in global economic interplay.
Economy is priority number one as far as human life is concerned. Likewise in the life of a nation in all countries of the world.This writing said it time without number that economic strength must not be neglected in emerging nations like Nigeria and other South-South nations of the world.
Exactly one year ago the current President of Nigeria Bola Ahmed Tinubu was sworn in as President of Nigeria to serve for 1460 days. So, today is exactly one year of the leadership of Nigeria and his score cards should be looked into especially the issue of economy. Economy is vital in human life. Likewise other issues such as security challenges, infrastructure (especially railroads transportation) , agrarian economy, healthcare, education and so on.
*Tinubu’s economic policy and analyzing stagflation in Nigeria—–
Although Nigeria may be different from other nations of the global South, policies that have been implemented by some nations such as S/Arabia, Malaysia, Algeria, South Africa or Rwanda may dip with Nigeria due to less population. But, nations such as Brazil, India or Indonesia may be the same due to higher population. But are the same ten prescriptions from the World Bank/IMF; meaning the same medicine for those who have malaria, hypertension or physiological illness by the IMF and World Bank?
Therefore, in this case you can’t implement the same policy that was implemented in those countries mentioned above without analyzing the differences between Nigeria and other global South nations; say high population or less like Rwanda or India meaning that Nigeria is the six most populous country after Brazil with about 228m plus population of which in the year 2050 the Nigeria’s population will be about 450m as has been projected by the United Nations (UN).
Hence, the country will (then) be the third most populous country after India and China and then possibly the United States of America will take the 4th position and then Brazil and Indonesia. In Nigeria the daily birth rate has been between “23,000 to 26,000 (with death rate of less than 6,000 daily) everyday compared to China/India that is higher than Nigeria with both of them’s birth rate of about 70,000 daily” (United Nations’ countries meter).
The most nagging illness that affected Nigeria is “stagflation”. Meaning that, Higher population, high inflation, insecurity, high unemployment, poverty, unproductive population, low industrial productions, economic aridity, precarity, melting economic activities and lack of electricity energy that will stimulate the economic growth in the country. The current population of Nigeria is about 75% of youths between the ages of 35 years of age to zero years.
Some of the 10 prescriptions of the IMF and World Bank are removal of oil subsidies, tax reforms, privatization of government properties, intellectual rights, devaluation of currency and giving much emphasis on healthcare and free primary and secondary schools education.
The most important question here is that; can the implementation of 10 prescriptions of IMF/WB can solve the economic aridity and other problems of Nigeria? Can the current economic policies that has been under implementation by the Tinubu’s government be able to solve the hardship and poverty in a country where only 5% of citizens have #500,000 in their bank accounts? On the other hand the United Nations’ Human Development Index (2022) positions Nigeria as number 163 among the 173 nations on human development index and other issues of development such as life expectancy, healthcare, education and so on. Hence, how can Nigeria join G20 as wished by the current Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs?
Peoplesmind
