It is a shame that this administration simply sat back and
expected our Naira to positively respond to the “body language” of the
President. The global standard is for a forward-looking government to come up
with hard-headed policies to shore-up the value of its currencies. Such a
government must also show by its actions that it is committed to enhancing the
value of its currency. The truth be told; there has not been a single pragmatic
policy in the last nine months to protect the Naira. All we’ve seen were
cosmetic and crude arm-twisting tactics that gave us no result. At a point, the
Buhari administration placed all sorts of funny restrictions on the use of
domiciliary accounts. This took our Naira nowhere.
Rather than facing the realities of the situation, this
administration and its apologists have been spending precious time blaming
crumbling crude oil prices and the Jonathan administration for our economic
woes. They often forget that almost 40 other oil exporting countries are also
affected by falling oil prices. Some of these countries are doing fairly well
because of pragmatic fiscal and monetary responses to the falling oil prices.
As a result, their currencies are not plummeting as much as the Naira is doing.
A government that has spent the last nine months blaming its predecessor surely
has no business in power.
The manufacturing sector that would have helped to ease the
pressure on the Naira is gasping for breath. Jonathan may not be the best in
terms of what this country desires in a president, but during his
administration, some of these manufacturers were exporting to other West
African countries and earning hard currencies for this nation. Under Jonathan,
our manufacturers were happy and industrial capacity utilisation went up
substantially. All sorts of stifling policies rolled out in the last nine
months have combined to incapacitate this sector. Now, the increase in
electricity tariffs and policy somersaults are creating more problems for
Nigerian manufacturers. Some of them have closed shop or relocated to other
West African countries where production environment is conducive. Many can now
understand why the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria and the Nigerian
Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture faulted
all the policies designed by the Buhari administration to stimulate the economy
and salvage the Naira.
Some of the actions and inactions of Buhari have left Nigerians
wondering whether he is genuinely interested in defending the Naira. This
government is yet to cut avoidable expenditures with huge foreign exchange
components. By official figures, this administration spent N2.3 billion
maintaining the ten aircraft in the Presidential fleet in the last five months
of 2015. The bulk of this is in forex. About N5 billion will go into the same
aircraft maintenance in 2016. We can’t continue doing this if we are talking
about shoring up the value of the Naira. Our globetrotting President and his
ministers must also cut their foreign trips to conserve our forex. Our journeying
governors must also be checkmated to preserve foreign exchange. Again, why
should a government struggling to save the Naira sell forex to pilgrims at
concessionary rates? That was what Buhari did last year. Our president has to
put aside sentiment and do the needful to save the Naira.
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