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Let us
Let us ‘dollarise’ our economy
AGAPTUS NWOZOR
THE
feelings which can riot in the veins of Nigerians, especially those outside the
cosines of federal appointment, and which struggled for ascendancy during the
celebration of the fifth anniversary of democracy were those of pain, sorrow,
anger and frustration. All these emotional dispositions were, of course,
incongruous to the happy event that democracy day represented. There were
cacophony of voices, but all were in unity in the condemnation of the federal
government in its re-enactment of the painful circus of fuel and allied products
price increases. Of all times paradoxically, this coincided either accidentally
or intentionally with the day Nigerians were supposedly celebrating the triumph
of the people over the jackboot of military dictatorship. Whoever masterminded
these latest increases must have a morbid sense of humour. These latest
increases suggest the triumph of a clique over the helpless, impoverished
masses. Expectedly the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has lived up to its
reputation as the bulwark of the people.
As reactions to the fuel hike unfolded, I
was intrigued by the reactions of Alliance for Democracy (AD), the Senate and
the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) of the masses. There is a similarity in the
position of all these groups — they demanded the reversal to status quo ante.
My confusion is, which status quo ante? At each successive fuel price
hike the war-cry of the NLC had been that government should revert to the old
price. Since Obasanjo’s tenure in 1999 and since he started getting kicks out of
fuel price hikes, never have the people through the NLC succeeded in making him
revert completely to the status quo ante. And yet this is a democratic
regime where opinions of the people should matter. The best the NLC had ever got
was a compromise and that was before Obasanjo perfected his strategies. The rate
of increases, not to talk of the magnitude or margin, is dizzying. Nobody knows
which price is the status quo ante for sure. Different oil marketers (both
"dependent" and "independent") before the latest increases sold at different
prices ranging from N39.50-N43.00. And this is at the root of the confusion
surrounding the looming imbroglio between the NLC and federal government as to
which is the proper pump price before the last strike. Not even the court was
enamourred of this confusion as it ruled that the price of fuel should revert to
N38 per litre. But I do know that not even NNPC mega stations located in major
Nigerian cities sold at that rate. And for other oil marketers, it was a
different kettle of fish. Whichever one the NLC is insisting on — N38 or N42 per
litre, the fact remains that the federal government set on its ways and as usual
is insensitive to the plight of Nigerians. I guess we have not heard the last
about fuel price hikes in the life of Obasanjo’s administration. We have created
a Frankenstein monster and now we can no longer control him.
The purpose of pooling our commonwealth
together is to ensure the greatest good for the greatest number of people. But
the greatest numbers of Nigerians right now are wallowing in poverty. I see no
hope as Obasanjo delusively saw. With the way things are presently and their
envisaged trajectory, Obasanjo’s second odyssey in governance is a misadventure.
I am not persuaded by his confidence and unfounded self adulation that made him
arrogantly score himself B+ in his assessment of his government. President
Obasanjo’s economic experts are lying with their economic indices. More and more
people are sliding down the ladder into abject poverty through a combination of
deliberate federal government policies. It does not seem to me strange that
Obasanjo’s economic experts are touting economic successes when in real terms
inflation is on rampage and has eroded whatever little value that still remains
in the purchasing power of Nigerians. Cheryl Payer in her book, Debt Trap,
exposes the operations of the multilateral institutions. "They turn loose the
trained economists who have already been indoctrinated on their native countries
to occupy important positions in the Ministries of Finance and Trade and on
Special Commissions for Economic Planning and Development. These co-called
technocrats have been indoctrinated with the Western liberal ideology of
development and tend to support IMF diagnoses and prescriptions. The Fund itself
runs an institute for the training of Central Bank and Finance Ministry
officials, and disperses its graduates, indoctrinated with the Fund ideology,
throughout the Third World where they form an ‘old boy’ network of support for
Fund principles.
In case the NLC has not fully grasped the
deep-rooted insensitivity of this government to cushion against its unpopular
economic policies, it had better reviewed all the actions of the government
since 1999. Apart from the incessant increment in fuel prices which all
entreaties of Nigerians could not avert, Obasanjo in spite of wise counsel never
fully implemented his budgets nor stayed at home fully to tackle Nigeria’s
myriad of problems. Gani Fawehinmi (SAN) will have serious trouble updating and
revising his booklet on Obasanjo’s overseas adventures for the booklet to retain
its relevance.
The way things are going, the only option
for peace and progress is to dollarise our economy. Why should we continue to
have a paper whose worth is tied to the dollar and which the dollar has made a
toilet roll out of owing to its perennial devaluations? Why should we use this
same paper when most official denominations of expenditure (imports, exports
debt servicing etc) are calculated in dollars? It does not make sense to me.
When it serves the parochial purpose of our elites they mersmerise us with cross
border analysis in dollars but at other times they hoodwink us with analysis in
naira. What makes sense to me is that our local currency is used as an
instrument of the ruling class to maintain the pauperisation of the people. They
borrow and stash away our money in dollars and play all sorts of economic
abracabra with dollars to our collective detriment. The outcome of the
latest NLC-championed strike can appropriately be termed ephermeral victory. The
intervention of the judiciary could well be part of the grand plan by the
federal government to outwit the rest of us. In the long-run, through the
instrumentality of a court of higher jurisdiction, the court will reverse itself
and as well reverse whatever victory we think we have achieved.
There should be a new angle to the labour
struggle. The NLC should agitate for the payment of Nigerian workers in dollars.
If Nigeria earns her revenue in dollars, borrowed from both Paris and London
clubs in dollars and service and pay amortisation in dollars, it is only logical
that our economy be dollarised. The argument about sovereignty or patriotism or
for that matter prestige, crumbles under the weight of our deep-necked
indebtedness. After all, a debtor has no prestige; he jettisoned it the day he
borrowed and became indebted. The international competitive prices should not
only affect us negatively. It should also affect us positively. After the
present fuel price war, we shall engage in another war — the dollarisation of
Nigeria economy. Only then will peace reign and Nigeria become a fertile ground
for FDI which Obasanjo’s uncountable foreign trips have not brought about.
•Nwozor is of the department of political science, School of Postgraduate
Studies, UNN.
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