Wazobia is a Nigerian who makes three million naira {N3,000,000.00} monthly, with high appetite for luxury and acquiry things, these include a seven million naira rented apartment on the island, a jeep of five million naira while his wife drives a three million naira SUV, his children all school abroad, his medical check ups and treatment are not done within the shores of the country either, not to mention the expensive parties and show off.
In all these, wazobia saved little of his monthly salary and did close to nothing in producing alternative source of income to satisfy his taste, then the unfortunate happened, his monthly salary that he solely depended on was slashed to four hundred and fifty thousand naira {N450,000.00} monthly and ‘all hell was let loose’.
Wazobia is now left with two options; either he borrows money to keep living a lavish lifestyle with the hope that things would return to normal, or he cuts down his expenses to fit the new income and possibly, find alternative measures to curtail the effect.
The story of ‘Wazobia’ is similar to what the Nigerian economy is passing through at the moment and the reason for the free fall of naira, we convert our naira to dollars to purchase foreign goods and products that can be manufactured in Nigeria, we have placed too much dependence on oil as the only source of dollar influx into the economy that a crash in price {from about $116 per barrel in june 2014 to about $30 per barrel currently} shakes the whole nation, simply because, we spend the dollars as we make it and save little for rainy days like these.
Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele sometimes in January told the senate that “45% of our foreign exchange earnings go into importation of food, fuel and fertilizer…” and the sure way to revive the economy is to produce and patronize locally made goods.
President Muhammadu Buhari {GCFR} recently said “…We are not competing and exporting but importing everything including toothpicks. So why should we devalue our currency?... we want to be more productive and self-sufficient in food and other basic things such as clothing”.
How hard can this be? Our brothers from the eastern region have proven on countless occasions that they have what it takes to produce locally made goods and vehicles {Innoson motors}, the land mass and fertile ground of the nation is enough to feed the whole country and also, export to neighboring countries, all it takes is patience and a paradigm shift in our choices, we shouldn't be importing toothpicks for Christ sake, at best, cut a match stick and pick your teeth, the problem is that some of the matches are even imported
'sef'.
The way Naira has been plummeting in the international market gives one cause for concern, giving rise to questions like ‘the naira is already devalued at N385 to $1 at its current state, so why not devalue anyways?’ In my humble opinion, devaluing the naira would only provide a temporary relief as against a future devastating effect for the generations yet unborn, if you ask me, it is better to find our way out of the problem by encouraging our locally made goods and reduce dependence on oil than devaluation.
It is an undeniable fact that times are hard for everyone, prices of goods have skyrocketed, and there is not enough money in the pocket to buy anything, but the truth is “Change is hard at first, messy in the middle and gorgeous at the end”, if by 2019 the economy is worse than this, then we go back to the polls and exercise our right and vote them out, Shikena!
#BuymadeinNigeria #Letsgivechangeachance #Timewouldtell
In all these, wazobia saved little of his monthly salary and did close to nothing in producing alternative source of income to satisfy his taste, then the unfortunate happened, his monthly salary that he solely depended on was slashed to four hundred and fifty thousand naira {N450,000.00} monthly and ‘all hell was let loose’.
Wazobia is now left with two options; either he borrows money to keep living a lavish lifestyle with the hope that things would return to normal, or he cuts down his expenses to fit the new income and possibly, find alternative measures to curtail the effect.
The story of ‘Wazobia’ is similar to what the Nigerian economy is passing through at the moment and the reason for the free fall of naira, we convert our naira to dollars to purchase foreign goods and products that can be manufactured in Nigeria, we have placed too much dependence on oil as the only source of dollar influx into the economy that a crash in price {from about $116 per barrel in june 2014 to about $30 per barrel currently} shakes the whole nation, simply because, we spend the dollars as we make it and save little for rainy days like these.
Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele sometimes in January told the senate that “45% of our foreign exchange earnings go into importation of food, fuel and fertilizer…” and the sure way to revive the economy is to produce and patronize locally made goods.
President Muhammadu Buhari {GCFR} recently said “…We are not competing and exporting but importing everything including toothpicks. So why should we devalue our currency?... we want to be more productive and self-sufficient in food and other basic things such as clothing”.
How hard can this be? Our brothers from the eastern region have proven on countless occasions that they have what it takes to produce locally made goods and vehicles {Innoson motors}, the land mass and fertile ground of the nation is enough to feed the whole country and also, export to neighboring countries, all it takes is patience and a paradigm shift in our choices, we shouldn't be importing toothpicks for Christ sake, at best, cut a match stick and pick your teeth, the problem is that some of the matches are even imported 'sef'.
The way Naira has been plummeting in the international market gives one cause for concern, giving rise to questions like ‘the naira is already devalued at N385 to $1 at its current state, so why not devalue anyways?’ In my humble opinion, devaluing the naira would only provide a temporary relief as against a future devastating effect for the generations yet unborn, if you ask me, it is better to find our way out of the problem by encouraging our locally made goods and reduce dependence on oil than devaluation.
It is an undeniable fact that times are hard for everyone, prices of goods have skyrocketed, and there is not enough money in the pocket to buy anything, but the truth is “Change is hard at first, messy in the middle and gorgeous at the end”, if by 2019 the economy is worse than this, then we go back to the polls and exercise our right and vote them out, Shikena!
#BuymadeinNigeria #Letsgivechangeachance #Timewouldtell
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