According to official statistics from the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics, unemployment in the country currently stands at 23.1%. When you factor in the number of underemployed Nigerians between the ages of 15-35, the figure shoots up to 55.4%.
The World Poverty Clock designated Nigeria as the global headquarters of extreme poverty with 91.8 million Nigerians living in extreme poverty as of June 2019. A further probe into the swathe of data revealed that within one year- June 2018- June 2019, 4 million people slipped further into extreme poverty in Nigeria. An extrapolation of the figures would reveal that in the country today, 71% of the entire population lives in abject poverty, unable to feed, shelter, clothe or meet other necessities of life.
The national currency-the naira as of May 29, 2015, was trading in the open market for N199 to 1 USD. Today, you will need N365 to buy 1 USD- a 91.7% decline in four years. The inflation rate has also risen in the last few years further dealing a bad blow to the income of the average worker who earns a fixed income.
Nigeria’s current situation confounds economists. It is a very big paradox not many can explain. The economy is in a decline even as inflation continues to rise. The government report increased food production but reality suggests that more people go to bed on an empty stomach each night.
The government has tried severally times past to award itself a pass mark on the economy but the economic data does not lie. The fact is that there is acute hunger in the land, an estimated 65 million Nigerians are either unemployed or under-employed, life has become unbearable for almost a hundred million Nigerians and there is no saying how many more will fall further into the poverty trap within the next 4 years- should things continue the way they have been in the last four years.
In about 20 of Nigeria’s 36 states, workers are owed salaries arrears of 3 months and above. In Abia, Osun, Kogi, Benue, and several other states, salary arrears owed workers of the states’ public service is said to be over 12 months. In several other states, salaries have been slashed by half to ease the burden of payment.
It is also worth stating that Nigeria’s current minimum wage of N18, 000 (about $50) is about the least in Africa with several countries like Angola, Morocco, Algeria and Equatorial Guinea paying better rates to their workers than Nigeria does.
In terms of welfare packages- health insurance, housing allowance, manpower training, and retirement packages, what Nigerian workers get is little compared to what their counterparts across the continent enjoy.
A child born in Nigeria faces an uncertain future compared to what his parents had this time 40-50 years ago. Education is in shambles and chances of getting a job on graduation thins down with each passing day. How about the news that life expectancy in the country is at an all-time low of 47?
At 59, Nigeria’s economy remains largely dependent on crude oil exports. Efforts at diversifying into the Agric sector have very yielded very little with domestic agro-output failing to feed the local population. The recent closure of the borders has exposed the lies that Nigeria was becoming self-sufficient in food production as the present government would want compatriots to believe.
The economy of Nigeria is suffering from an absolute lack of direction, the misfortune of being run by men whose appreciation of elementary economics is suspect at best, and of course, the tragedy of paradoxes: the world’s only large volume exporter of crude oil that imports the bulk of the petroleum products it uses domestically, a nation with a large expense of arable land but yet- unable to feed itself… The instances are endless and it is unlikely things would change any soon.
Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria’s current president may have recently realised the folly of running Africa’s largest economy with a committee of lawyers, persons with questionable academic qualifications and those whose fealty is only to their pockets. By disbanding the Economic Management Team headed by Prof. Yemi Osinbajo and setting up the Economic Advisory Council whose members are world-class intellectuals, experienced technocrats, and accomplished
professionals, the president may have come to the knowledge that modern economy is driven by knowledge, not a rule of thumb.
While commendations have been given to the president for having the wisdom to cast aside VP Osinbajo’s committee that supervised the nation’s first recession in 30 years, the burgeoning of inflation, an escalation in unemployment figures, the evisceration of the naira as medium of exchange and the closure of small and medium scales businesses in large numbers amongst other unflattering records, questions remain as to the level of freehand Buhari- more accustomed to command and control- would give the professors and technocrats he has assembled in his economic advisory team.
Nigeria’s economy is wobbling. This could not have been what those who made endless sacrifices for Nigeria’s independence and the restoration of democracy decades ago had in mind they dared the colonialists and soldiers to insist that the people’s rights to self-governance must never be negotiated or compromised by anyone however well-intentioned.
Urgent steps are needed to wean Nigeria off its excessive dependence on crude oil, oil refineries must be set up here to refine crude for local consumption and – possibly export. This would save the country hundreds of billions of naira spent on subsidy payment every year. The education sector must be fixed to produce skilled, knowledge workers, institutions of government have to be strengthened to reduce the “strong man syndrome.”
Nigeria deserves better. What we have now is a caricature of a national economy. Any steps at fixing the country’s economy must begin with an appreciation of the fact that the past few years have been the most tragic period for the nation’s economic history and whatever measures or approaches that had been operational in the last five years must be discarded. Time to think outside the box and employ new economic management templates.
May Nigeria survive.