Words by Simon Utsu

The time has come for Nigerians to shame her leaders. We can no longer trust them or hold them to their words so I think the best thing is for individuals to take the bull by the horn and go into small and medium scale businesses en mass.

Why am I saying this? Last week, Buhari made us understand that he planned to head the Petroleum ministry for 18 months. In the same week, there was an international report that told us the second largest producer of oil in the world, Saudi Arabia might go broke in two years’ time because of their over dependence on oil and also because of America’s new found oil independence. The Saudi govt. tried to fight the shale revolution by damning OPEC and flooding the market with her crude between middle of last year and now in a bid to suffocate rivals but that didn’t help matters. This news is worrying because Saudi’s GDP is nearly twice that of Nigeria’s plus their per capita is ten times ours. Still yet, they have been advised by global financial experts to cut subsidies and ditch the tax free income system which is enjoyed by their citizens. Even without oil, Saudi Arabia can still be on her feet because it is a major destination for pilgrims. The revenue they generate from this alone adds significantly to their GDP. Can we say the same about Nigeria of now? My answer is a big NO.

Hence there is a need for President Buhari to buckle up, appoint key advisers and ministers. He needs a seasoned petroleum expert in the mold of the newly appointed GMD and also a finance Minister in that mold too (an investment guru). This is not 1977 when your tenure as a military petroleum minister coincided with high demand of crude products worldwide hence good prices or 1984 when you were the sole administrator of Nigeria. Times and dynamics have changed.

As an optimistic realist, I don’t see Buhari heeding to such advice as he has already shown by some jaw dropping economic decisions; pegging the exchange rates and limiting the daily withdrawals of foreign and local currencies.

My advice to Nigerians (including my humble self) is they should cushion themselves for the second wave of global financial crisis that is imminent. During the last one, the local banking sector was hard hit and lots of jobs were lost, this time around, I’m foreseeing an all-round tsunami that would touch both the public and private sectors with Buhari’s lack of dexterity and flexibility as a catalyst.

Hence I would advise that Nigerians shame their leaders on time by embarking on small and medium scale businesses en mass, in addition to their private/public sector jobs. This is how the modern Italian economy was born and survived through the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s. When small scale and medium scale family businesses were the order of the day. Most of the fashion brands with of Italian heritage started from there. A stitch in time they say, saves nine.

 

 

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