Why The Nigeria Economy Is In Recession

There has been strident debate about what caused the present recession of the Nigerian economy. Federal Officials like Lai Mohammed appear to lean towards blaming the past Administration. But recent events point to some shift in the blame game.

Vice President appears to hold the opinion it was caused by Niger Delta Militants. Earlier prominent voices like Emir of Kano Alhaji Sanusi, Pat Utomi,Okonjo Iweala appear to put the blame on wrong policy choices. Whatever is the cause the effect is now snowballing downhill like a tsunami and we must all join hands to save the Nation.

To get a solution we must arrive at the root cause and begin to deal with it. Dealing with symptoms to score temporary political advantage must be discouraged if we must mitigate the on rolling negative effects.Indeed we need to establish an economic emergency without delay.

Economic recession is not a one time occurrence but a result of constant depletion of political and economic capital of a political system by those governing it. To avoid such accumulation in time, continuity between governments was specifically instituted in democracies.

Smooth transitions were encouraged and hand over notes made. Elections provided an opportunity to achieve a continuous up building to avoid gaps before a new government gets to grapple with challenges after it gets to office. Peaceful elections were praised because it gave greater guarantee for all these things to happen.

Well Nigeria achieved all the above conditions when the outgoing President Jonathan handed over peacefully choosing not to go to tribunal perhaps a first in Nigeria's political history. I believe this action was a statesman's way of saying look there is a bigger challenge we have to join hands to face than the position. The economy may not have been perfect but it was the largest in Africa for the first time and political capital was high because foreign investment was booming. Of course there was power shortages,corruption and unemployment of youths and the hope was that the new government would go ahead and tackle those building on what exists where progress has been made.

This dream died every day before our very eyes. The problem was that the new managers did not seem to understand that you don't fight on after winning an election but you try to unite and heal so that you can retain the existing advantage politically and economically. The damage began when the government failed to take advantage of the audience granted by the United States President aimed at further empowering them to walk the economic ropes their predecessors excelled in internationally. The biggest point of damage was the famous interview of President Buhari where he showed he did not understand inclusiveness,a vital key to nation building. It was a seemingly harmless assertion that he would not treat the 97% that voted for him the same way with the remaining 5%. It was a key public definition of mindset which his minders could not prevent the world from getting an advance peek.

Yes it made all the difference.The nation is an organic whole interdependent like the world is. Election is just an imperfect device to elect a leader and may not even be a true barometer but it is used. The nation is one because votes are equal .There is no North or South or West or East. We all buy from the same market.

Use same currency, and therefore as today suffer same economic depression. This is the role played by a basic education. You get to understand this basic requirement of the constitution you swore to defend and these journalists know where to place a telling question and this opportunity was lost.

So we lost momentum of the economic miracle unfolding and instead initiated and continued an electoral conflict that should have been concluded and sooner than later sent investors packing.Then created a between demand and supply. The global oil price fall boosted by Nigerian Niger Delta renewed crisis was just a symptom of spiralling effects of lack of policy inclusiveness and continuing unresolved systemic conflict after the elections.

Like some diplomats appear to say,this economic downturn may continue for five years if not quickly checked by backward integration of what should have been done earlier. Stop all wars because it affects the economy and impacts on productivity and investments. You cannot fight in many fronts as a country at one moment without losing economic capital. To retain economic advantage created by the last regime,go back to their hand over notes and start again.

And do it fast.