By Deolu Oyebode
All the policies that International Monetary Funds #IMF introduced to Nigeria has brought pains and severe pains at implementation. The books are there. Right from the days of Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs) during the regime of General Ibrahim Babangida. He was wrongly advised that the SAP will liberalise Nigeria’s economy, promote privatization, deregulate markets, and encourage export-led growth. Most of the Western ivy Tower trained Economists at that time said it was the best thing to happen to the country. It looked beautiful but lo and behold, it led to exacerbating poverty, inequality, and social unrest by cutting social spending and subsidies.
IMF also proposed tight fiscal policies, including reducing government spending and subsidies, to address budget deficits and inflation at the beginning of the 4th Republic. It was a failure and the economy started failing.
Thesame IMF recommended Exchange rate reforms. At this instance, Nigeria was encouraged to adopt flexible exchange rate regimes to promote competitiveness and attract foreign investment. Which led to the reliance on FOREX as against our Naira.
These policies have been argued by scholars and ideologues as responsible for Nigeria’s reliance on external borrowing and vulnerable to volatile global markets, hindering long-term economic independence. Not only that, also reducing the purchasing power of our Naira at FOREX.
Now, Nigeria has devalued the Naira. Unfortunately, the western policy has further brought first-class pain on the people. Everything is expensive. The Naira is at the lowest in the Nation’s history since independence. There are inflationary pressures and increased costs of imports, which negatively impacting consumers and businesses.
I strongly lend my voice with the Senior silk, Femi Falana, the Senior Advocate of Masses, on this matter. I don’t need to be an economist to know that these policies are telling much on the people. It is an honour that my leadership during my activism days in National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) conferred on him with this award as Senior Advocate of the Masses and he has not falter in representing and voicing the voice of the voiceless.
Where there is hunger, there is crime.
African problems can only be solved with African Solutions.