Wobbling economy: Citizens and the choice candidate for 2023
To say Nigeria’s economy is challenged would, to many, appear an understatement — a light one to describe the troubles of the economy. The profile of the economy has recently become so debilitated that the scourge of its impacts on economic and social life, with deforming effects on societal fabrics, have left unsavoury sensations for the Country. The political atmosphere has not been expunged from the impacts.
In fact, the disposition of majority of citizens to the forthcoming general elections would largely be influenced by the State of the economy. Citizens have largely been left at the receiving end of worsening living conditions informed by the wobbling failure of the economy. The multiplier effects have seen the scourge of societal deformities with threats of various forms, which insecurity has formed a major string, strangulating peaceful coexistence in the entire Country.
Loss of jobs, rising unemployment and inflation rate, capital flight have begun to take dimensions which are growing beyond the elastic limit of tolerance. Harsh economic environment has continued to push the rate of failure of businesses to a mind boggling level. Capital flight and the closure of businesses have continued to evoke astronomic unemployment rate in the Country. Investments in the Country have continued to shrunk deeply, as the closure of businesses and the strings against start-ups keep reflecting the challenges of a wobbling economy. Threat signals to foreign investors keep rising, by time, to expose the economy’s strings of downturn.
In its April 2022 investment highlights, the Nigerian Investment Promotion Council (NIPC) disclosed the Investment in Nigeria’s start-up sector has continued to nosedive, falling massively by 78.2 percent to $57.55 million in April across 10 companies from $263.68 million in March. The highlights showed that the 10 companies span different sectors including fintech, maritime (freight forwarding), insurance, financial services and banking, among others. The start-ups investment status had fallen by 67.6 percent in March after recording a 376 percent increase in February. The affected companies include Umba, a Nigerian digital banking platform, ZirooPay, a mobile platform for small businesses to accept card payments via a mobile app and EMV-certified card reader, Leatherback, a financial services provider, Afriex, a fintech firm that runs money transfer system that utilises block chain to enable users to send funds by converting them into stablecoins, OnePort 365, a digital freight forwarding startup that makes it easier to transport cargo to from, and within Africa, and ImaliPay, a financial service start up, that provides broad spectrum of financial services to gig workers.
Others are Etap, a Lagos-based insurtech startup, Simpu, a B2B SaaS platform, Syarpa, a Nigeria-based fintech company and Rise.ng a tech startup. A breakdown of the investment highlights show that Umba raised the highest capital during the period under review at $15 million, followed by ZirooPay, which raised $11.4 million, while
Leatherback and Afriex raised $10 million apiece. Others are OnePort 365 ($5m), ImaliPay ($3million), Etap ($1.5million), Simpu ($1million), Syarpa ($500,000) and Rísé.ng ($150,000).
In full effect, the profile of poverty has bundled up to create disturbances and resistance against peaceful coexistence in the Country, as more persons keep resorting to various acts of illegitimate sensations in form of reaction, response and/or protest to the situations. To some, going the way of aggression has been their posture to the situations, which have manifested in various ways including terrorism, insurgency, banditry and their allied formations. Others whose formation of illegitimate ventures would take mild form of aggression such as robbery, kidnapping, hooliganism, and the likes, are giving in to same, while there are those whose instinct would suggest to them to indulge in illicit ventures as trafficking of persons and drugs, cyber crime, and various forms of fraudulent acts, among others.
All these have formed the hold for unwholesome exchanges to create illegitimate sectors of illicit industries. The society thus, has been engrossed with the scourge of crime, which worsening economic conditions cannot be expunged from as a striking force of impetus.
As election drum-beats keep booming, these conditions would in no small way influence the posture of citizens. While some would take it the negative way to largely relapse to apathy, some in another negative sensation may see the election as a chance to again sell their votes to the appeasement of cheap tips by politicians and money bags, who are hell bent on assuming the corridor of power for purposes which largely would not represent the clamour of the masses.
It is pertinent that at this time when the Country is suffering the brunt of economic collapse among other strains borne by failure of governance, it is only rational that citizens seek critically for the best candidates whose track record bear relevance of credibility with capacities, giving close resemblance to capabilities to deliver on the pressing needs of the economy and the efficiency of governance paramount to change the prevailing narratives in the Country.
Apathy may not be the best response to protest the years of failure of governance, neither will vote selling, among other negative disposition would, but rather the critical disposition of citizens to intelligent selection of the choice candidates across all levels of government, whose track record has proven the eligibility of credibility to keep to the task of governance.
