A few days ago we celebrated our fifty-ninth independence from the colonial government of Great Britain. There weren’t so many celebrations as the country hasn't had so much of great turns in the past years, a recession hit us early in the first term of president Mohamed Buhari, because of various reasons both good and bad. Good in the sense that a lot of illegal flow of ill-gotten wealth ceased to flow from the usual sources, there is a general sense of caution in corrupt spending of government funds. Bad in the sense that it came when the nation's main source of wealth had lost its value in the international market from an all-time high of over ₦300 per barrel of bonny light to just a miserly sum of just over ₦59 per barrel as of the time of writing this post.
In all this, there have various great things happening, the surprising cash inflow from the customs to the control of smuggled subsidized fuel to neighboring countries by the border closure, even though prices have skyrocketed because of the new demand placed on local rice producers it will be most likely be temporal because of the amount of private-sector investment in rice processing. The forex restriction on milk has also been hard on importers but awesome for job creation and livestock farmers, as the only way to have a high yield in milk production is to have cows in particular locations with steady access to water meaning ranching is not just an option on the table anymore but now the only chance for milk producers in the country. The central bank has put out information that fish importation might soon join the list obviously they would felt great that policies are causing good ripple effects even in the short term. Too good to be true? there are some corrupt elements enjoying all these village dances that this government is up to, but before we feel this writing is all too positive and being too supportive of the current government, I would like to take us to the future we all want for this country, a future we have always dreamt about, a 24 hours power supply, a future where ₦500 note will buy me an iPhone, that the naira will be strong enough to replace the west African CFA and the naira will become the true economic currency instead of the American dollar.
Mental Discipline
Looking at this government with the current new economic team it will be good to note that Nigeria has never lacked great minds or great ideas either. During the October 1st event organized by pastor Poju Oyemade's church covenant Christian center, the platform; ''redesigning the Nigerian economy with new ideas'' Bismarck Rewane coincidentally also a member of the newly inaugurated economic team made mention that mental discipline was as important as the great ideas in the execution of any creative ideas that the country may come up with. Will President Buhari be mentally disciplined enough to stay the course when making difficult decisions that might seem like political suicide, or will just rescind economic decisions for cheap short term political points, well only time will tell.
More taxes
The international monetary fund (IMF) gave a rebuke of some major economic decisions in their report after their team's visit to Nigeria, but still supported increasing our value-added tax. looking at other competing economies on the African continent Nigeria has a very low vat compared to Ethiopia, Ghana, and South Africa which stand at 15%,12.5%, and 15% respectively. Senator Abaribe before seconding the budget
presented to the senate, also stated that the 2020 budget was a budget of taxation. He also repeated the similar fears the IMF raised about our projections for the price of oil being optimistic. My take is the future is bright enough when you have Ghana with a growth rate of 8% while we are struggling to sustain 2%, the country has to hope the heavens align the stars for our good because projections now don't seem anywhere good.
Politics
2023 is just by the corner and a lot of strategic moves and plays are all being put into play. The most obvious ones would be the current dust about the vice- president Osibanjo. Regardless of what may fly around on the major news outlets, I believe the major players going after the credibility of the VP are not in the north or southeast but are back home in the west. If the current permutations are right and the west will be given the go-ahead to contest for the seat of power in Aso rock come 2023. the VP might just a stumbling block to the ambitions of some heavy hitters from the west geopolitical zone of the country. only time will tell.
#Sexforgrades
Still, in the season of sexual abuse, the BBC gave some things to talk about in the past few days also, a university of Lagos lecturer was caught on the wrong side of the camera, doing some very wrong things. He's been suspended for now, pending further investigation. When the news broke out some notable women came out to share their experiences from the current governor of Ekiti state's wife Bisi Fayemi to the former acting nddc managing director Mrs. Ibim Semenitari all came to acknowledge having experiences during their undergraduate days while in school. Hopefully, this government will come up with some stringent laws or policies to put an end to all sad stories so we can have some level of actual punishments that will discourage this from going on.
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