Perusing seasoned recommendations with flexibility, openness towards reviving Nigeria’s Economy

As several offsprings within the social fabrics of the Nigerian society continue to spring forth, clues have been drawn from the potency of the worsening state of the economy as a strong underlying factor evoking myriads of these storms. Hence, it is not far fetched that the reconditioning effects of the debilitating profile of the economy have been linked to the overwhelming manifestations of defects in the working fabrics of other societal institutions in the Country. The political and social architectures have not in any way suffered less from this debilitation. The heightening rate of social ills with collision that have continued to produce destabilising forces in the Nigerian society, have arguably been tied to the failing status of the economy. The justification of such argument would easily be supported with the angularities of the tough times many citizens are faced with, under situations of harsh conditions where making ends meet has become a mountain to many.

The expression of entangling reflections of economic downturn with such indices as rising inflation and the devaluation of the Naira which have deeply weakened the purchasing power of Nigerians, are subjects which have reduced thousands of citizens to sharp practices, and at some mischievous levels, criminal escapades just for survival. The conditions which have weakened many enterprises leading to some suffering liquidation towards winding up, while some have had their productive capacity downsized to cope as the struggles linger, are undesirable. These downfalls have led to  job losses with increasing rate of unemployment. As rightly noted, the inability of several Nigerians, particularly  the youth to secure reasonable employment, has created dysfunctional architectures precipitating many to resort to mischievous crafts. Hence, youthful energies which should have been channeled into productive use, are lamentably being deployed increasingly into criminal ventures. The collision of all these social defects have compounded most recently to confusingly enmesh the society in shambles.

In the light of the State-of-the-Nation, concerned stakeholders who do believe in and understand the relativity of the worsening state of the economy to the prevailing national turbulence, have continued to make their submissions known to the Government. Although several of such submissions have not seemingly attracted government patronage, it is high time attention needed to be paid to them. Most recently, the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) following its 26th Summit  had in its recommendation report presented on Tuesday to the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, advised the Federal Government to retool its economic policy to overcome present economic challenges. According to the Group, heeding the advice is imperative to enable the Country to capitalise on the opportunities inherent in the changing dynamics of the local, regional and global economy, so that no Nigerian is left behind. In its submissions, the Group while noting that the pandemic has accelerated the need to urgently retool economic policies, had averred that the Nigerian business space is over-regulated and must be opened up for economic prosperity. It had argued that moving the Country’s economy out of the prevailing state of despair demands that all governments must lead the way towards its recovery and resilience. The NESG submitted that the feat is achievable if the government would remove bottlenecks and expand economic opportunity for all Nigerians through sound policies, strong institutions, and responsible public investments (especially pro-poor investments).

In addition, it also urged governments at all levels to unlock more private sector participation by removing sectoral rigidities that inhibit the potential of businesses to drive economic growth. On recommendations, the Group had tasked the government with pursuing policies that will lead to macroeconomic stability, economic growth which will outpace population growth, create jobs, stabilise inflation and reduce poverty. Also on its recommendations is the  unification of forex rates into the single and market-driven window. Other areas of economic interest forming parts of the NESG’s submissions to the Federal government are: Improving the coordination of fiscal, monetary and structural policies; to aggressively attract FDI (Foreign Direct Investment); deregulation of oil and gas sector by passing Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB); tightening fiscal coordination and intensifying public investments in social sectors amongst others.

Since, these submissions are not the first of their kind, the question of the readiness and willingness of the custodians of State Powers to break barriers and override clustering interests to implement such plausible models evaluated and recommended to be strong enough in redefining the Country’s economy, has been a subject of controversy. It is known that several seasoned submissions from reports of grounded studies and economic deliberations from conferences, bearing rational and pragmatic path ways to offer solutions to the woes of the Country’s economy are in existence, but many have only been reduced to the archives.

As situations in the Country continue to wax gross following the worsening of economic conditions, the fact that it is required of the Government to move out of the cage is no gainsaying. While argument may be placed that the Government is working, it is imperative to note that such alluded efforts may have to be channeled in patterns within architectural working frames that dovetail strategically under an informed system of harmonious policies that speak to the demands of present conditions. Hence, mustering efforts under economic architectures that are not in tandem with the demands of the present, will only yield resistance against the entire system. In this regard, working within the frame of a system where the collision of unmatched policies which are incompatible to respond to present demands manifest, will only continually lead to frustration of efforts.

It is therefore imperative for the custodians of political power architecture, to shift from the obduracy of close-mindedness to move away from the traditional patterns of the prevailing system. It is thus, essential that custodians of State Powers come to the light of open mindedness to recondition the working patterns of the economy with the thrust of flexibility; giving considerations to the banks of seasoned submissions which over time have been advanced as ready solutions to the overwhelming economic storms the Country is currently enmeshed in.

In this light, it is important that the Government dig into the archives, collate all seasoned submissions so far averred in recent times by resource stakeholders and give premium considerations to further test their pragmatic validity with present conditions to ascertain their relevance. Where the vitality of resourcefulness is established, adopting same by shifting grounds and breaking the limitations of perceived barriers is a courageous step the custodians of political power architecture should not shy away from, to salvage the Country from fundamental deficiencies which have brought her to the state of shambles.