Mr. Godwin Emefiele’s Report: Quote
“It is either I do not understand economics and how exchange rates work or a vast majority of
us Nigerians still don’t get how we have wrecked our country with our own curious choices.
Just this morning, I was listening to the radio and the lady on air went on and on about how she
thought CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele was incompetent and should be sacked because the
Naira was now exchanging at 309 or so to the USD.
“That view pretty much echoes the sentiments expressed by many people I know and it amazes me that there are Nigerians who actually think there is some magic POLICY that can make the Naira strong in the near term. If my economics and my understanding of the way the world works are right, then that is as far from the truth as Jesus Christ is black.
“The simple fact of the matter is that apart from oil that accounts for over 90% of our revenues, we really don’t have much of an economy. We hardly produce anything, we import even toothpicks, so exactly what policy is going to be implemented that will turn Nigeria into a to pexporting economy in the near term? Where are our Apples, IBMs, Disneys, GMs, General
Electrics, Coca Colas, Empire State buildings, Statues of Liberties, Lockheeds, Citibanks,
JP Morgans, ExxonMobils, NBAs, Super Bowls etc? Let me bring that closer home.
“There was a time long ago when Nigeria had a truly strong economy and the naira was one to the dollar – even exchanged for higher than the USD, but that Nigeria is not this Nigeria. Sadly that Nigeria was laid by the British, and this Nigeria (if you don’t believe in the nonsensical imperialist conspiracies like me) – fueled by the DAMAGING Indigenization Decree, has been the creation of us Nigerians. Back then we had a booming economy. We were either the top, or among the top exporters, of timbre, cocoa, groundnuts, rubber, palm oil, etc, in the world. Nigerians
not only holidayed at home in their villages, at Yankari Games Reserve, at Obudu Cattle Ranch,
at Oguta Lake, at Ikogosi springs, at Gurara Falls, at Mambilla Platueau, etc, we attracted international tourists who brought in loads of foreign exchange. Even Nigerian schools were foreign exchange earners because they attracted foreign students.
“We had different car assembly plants – Peugeot, Volkswagen, Anamco etc. Nigerian
government officials only bought vehicles assembled in Nigeria for official cars. We had a thriving
sports industry. We were not Man United or Chelsea fans, we were Rangers or IICC fans. We had the Nduka Odizors, people made money from sports. We also had companies like Lennards and
Bata producing school shoes in their thousands, we had the thriving Nigerian Airways and the
Aviation School in the north that produced some of the best pilots in the world.
In those days if you were brilliant you were respected much more than the crass money-miss-road
contractors of today. Most of the Aje Butters I knew had fathers who were university dons. Back
then it meant something to ‘know book’. Our textile industry was alive and well. Just recently I
watched a news report on the textile industry in Nigeria on CCTV News. Though the main
focus was on the comatose status of the industry, I was stunned by the gigantic Kaduna
Textile Mill built in 1957. I could go on and on. “Today however, no thanks to our
parents (and we must call them out the way Wole Soyinka did his generation) and many of us (and
we should be remembered for failing our children if we continue like this), we have destroyed
everything. Today for instance Nigerian football (which comes easy to me obviously) doesn’t
appeal to us, we have to fly across thousands of miles to watch ‘our’ clubs play. Every year
we collectively burn billions of Naira being fans of clubs that give us nothing back, but some
‘entertainment value’ – simple pleasures for which we are ready to destroy the future of our
children. “Well people, payback time is here. Even with our ta-she-re money we all want to wear
designer clothes and carry designer bags, Armani, Givenchy, Louis Vuitton etc. We all want to
drive jeeps with American specs,our children must now school overseas and acquire the necessary accents to come back home and bamboozle their ‘bush and crass’ contemporaries that
they left behind. Who holidays in Nigeria anymore, is there Disneyland here? No one buys
made-in-Nigeria school bags for their children, after all no Superman or Incredible Hulk or Cinderella on them. “We are no longer top exporters of anything and the demise of oil
means we have zilch… zero. A country of 170M fashion- conscious people has no textile
industry. We take delight in showing how our made-in- Switzerland Aso Ebi is different class to everyone else’s. When we help our musicians grow and pay them millions, they repay us by immediately shipping the monies overseas to produce their “i-don-dey-different-level” music
videos. It makes no difference that distinctly Zulu dancers are dancing to a Nigerian highlife
song. “As stars concerned they also wed and holiday overseas to impress us all. All the musicians
who acknowledge their Ajegunle roots now speak in a cocktail of strange accents to symbolise
how much they have blown their monies overseas. Were we a more serious people, the highly
popular Kingsway Stores of the past would probably have a thousand outlets pan Nigeria
today supporting a massive agriculture industry among others, but today we have the
likes of SPAR, Shoprite, dominating the retail industry while Kingsway is dead.
“And we Nigerians make it a special point to shop from the Oyinbos who have ‘cleaner
shops’, ‘better this and better that’. For our personal pleasure we don’t mind them dominating us in our own backyard and shipping proceeds overseas. I could go on and on, but I don tire. Even as you are reading this, stop for a moment and look around you. What you see will probably explain why we are lucky it is not N1000 to the USD yet. And don’t think for a moment that it cannot get there. “Just continue to wear your Armani gear and Swiss-made lace, continue to spend your
money on Man United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Barca and encourage your children to do same. (My article tomorrow in my Saturday column in This Day is on the Nigerian champions Enyimba FC – Nigeria’s most successful club – not having a sponsor, yet Nigerian brands pay over N600m to Man United and Arsenal for sponsorship to impress us.) Ehhh, no problem,
continue to tell me the NPFL is rubbish or the clubs should clean up their act if they want
sponsorship, mo gbo . “Don’t curtail your interest in choice wines ( we were the
number one champagne consumers in the world in 2015), continue to love your American
specs, cheer the education ministry for letting schools sink to pitiable levels, don’t fight them
to improve our schools, don’t chide them for letting schools drop Nigerian history and
embrace British, America and whatever else curricular. “Carry on with your love of
French wines and Chinese silk, don’t bother about Jamiu Alli when there is Roger Federer.
Stock up on your Italian, American, British products which you cannot live without, including
the ‘baby soft’ toilet rolls produced only in that small unique village in England – the
days are long gone since you were a broke student who used wet newspapers to wipe your
butt. “Don’t even consider holidaying in Nigeria, it’s too dangerous –
you have to fulfill your dream of being Nigeria’s Henry Ford. Don’t listen to people like me who have a wardrobe full of only cheap adire that is actually cheaper than just one of your Tom Ford
blazers. Please keep dressing in fine silk made in some exotic place so you can be addressed
accordingly. “Finally keep letting corrupt leaders who have looted your
commonwealth and shipped all the monies overseas get away because to attack them does not
fit your political narrative. Let us continue with the fine life, let us all continue to work for Oyinbo. But don’t forget that there is payback time and Emefiele is not your problem. Time for us all to look in the mirror and take Action
“It is either I do not understand economics and how exchange rates work or a vast majority of
us Nigerians still don’t get how we have wrecked our country with our own curious choices.
Just this morning, I was listening to the radio and the lady on air went on and on about how she
thought CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele was incompetent and should be sacked because the
Naira was now exchanging at 309 or so to the USD.
“That view pretty much echoes the sentiments expressed by many people I know and it amazes me that there are Nigerians who actually think there is some magic POLICY that can make the Naira strong in the near term. If my economics and my understanding of the way the world works are right, then that is as far from the truth as Jesus Christ is black.
“The simple fact of the matter is that apart from oil that accounts for over 90% of our revenues, we really don’t have much of an economy. We hardly produce anything, we import even toothpicks, so exactly what policy is going to be implemented that will turn Nigeria into a to pexporting economy in the near term? Where are our Apples, IBMs, Disneys, GMs, General
Electrics, Coca Colas, Empire State buildings, Statues of Liberties, Lockheeds, Citibanks,
JP Morgans, ExxonMobils, NBAs, Super Bowls etc? Let me bring that closer home.
“There was a time long ago when Nigeria had a truly strong economy and the naira was one to the dollar – even exchanged for higher than the USD, but that Nigeria is not this Nigeria. Sadly that Nigeria was laid by the British, and this Nigeria (if you don’t believe in the nonsensical imperialist conspiracies like me) – fueled by the DAMAGING Indigenization Decree, has been the creation of us Nigerians. Back then we had a booming economy. We were either the top, or among the top exporters, of timbre, cocoa, groundnuts, rubber, palm oil, etc, in the world. Nigerians
not only holidayed at home in their villages, at Yankari Games Reserve, at Obudu Cattle Ranch,
at Oguta Lake, at Ikogosi springs, at Gurara Falls, at Mambilla Platueau, etc, we attracted international tourists who brought in loads of foreign exchange. Even Nigerian schools were foreign exchange earners because they attracted foreign students.
“We had different car assembly plants – Peugeot, Volkswagen, Anamco etc. Nigerian
government officials only bought vehicles assembled in Nigeria for official cars. We had a thriving
sports industry. We were not Man United or Chelsea fans, we were Rangers or IICC fans. We had the Nduka Odizors, people made money from sports. We also had companies like Lennards and
Bata producing school shoes in their thousands, we had the thriving Nigerian Airways and the
Aviation School in the north that produced some of the best pilots in the world.
In those days if you were brilliant you were respected much more than the crass money-miss-road
contractors of today. Most of the Aje Butters I knew had fathers who were university dons. Back
then it meant something to ‘know book’. Our textile industry was alive and well. Just recently I
watched a news report on the textile industry in Nigeria on CCTV News. Though the main
focus was on the comatose status of the industry, I was stunned by the gigantic Kaduna
Textile Mill built in 1957. I could go on and on. “Today however, no thanks to our
parents (and we must call them out the way Wole Soyinka did his generation) and many of us (and
we should be remembered for failing our children if we continue like this), we have destroyed
everything. Today for instance Nigerian football (which comes easy to me obviously) doesn’t
appeal to us, we have to fly across thousands of miles to watch ‘our’ clubs play. Every year
we collectively burn billions of Naira being fans of clubs that give us nothing back, but some
‘entertainment value’ – simple pleasures for which we are ready to destroy the future of our
children. “Well people, payback time is here. Even with our ta-she-re money we all want to wear
designer clothes and carry designer bags, Armani, Givenchy, Louis Vuitton etc. We all want to
drive jeeps with American specs,our children must now school overseas and acquire the necessary accents to come back home and bamboozle their ‘bush and crass’ contemporaries that
they left behind. Who holidays in Nigeria anymore, is there Disneyland here? No one buys
made-in-Nigeria school bags for their children, after all no Superman or Incredible Hulk or Cinderella on them. “We are no longer top exporters of anything and the demise of oil
means we have zilch… zero. A country of 170M fashion- conscious people has no textile
industry. We take delight in showing how our made-in- Switzerland Aso Ebi is different class to everyone else’s. When we help our musicians grow and pay them millions, they repay us by immediately shipping the monies overseas to produce their “i-don-dey-different-level” music
videos. It makes no difference that distinctly Zulu dancers are dancing to a Nigerian highlife
song. “As stars concerned they also wed and holiday overseas to impress us all. All the musicians
who acknowledge their Ajegunle roots now speak in a cocktail of strange accents to symbolise
how much they have blown their monies overseas. Were we a more serious people, the highly
popular Kingsway Stores of the past would probably have a thousand outlets pan Nigeria
today supporting a massive agriculture industry among others, but today we have the
likes of SPAR, Shoprite, dominating the retail industry while Kingsway is dead.
“And we Nigerians make it a special point to shop from the Oyinbos who have ‘cleaner
shops’, ‘better this and better that’. For our personal pleasure we don’t mind them dominating us in our own backyard and shipping proceeds overseas. I could go on and on, but I don tire. Even as you are reading this, stop for a moment and look around you. What you see will probably explain why we are lucky it is not N1000 to the USD yet. And don’t think for a moment that it cannot get there. “Just continue to wear your Armani gear and Swiss-made lace, continue to spend your
money on Man United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Barca and encourage your children to do same. (My article tomorrow in my Saturday column in This Day is on the Nigerian champions Enyimba FC – Nigeria’s most successful club – not having a sponsor, yet Nigerian brands pay over N600m to Man United and Arsenal for sponsorship to impress us.) Ehhh, no problem,
continue to tell me the NPFL is rubbish or the clubs should clean up their act if they want
sponsorship, mo gbo . “Don’t curtail your interest in choice wines ( we were the
number one champagne consumers in the world in 2015), continue to love your American
specs, cheer the education ministry for letting schools sink to pitiable levels, don’t fight them
to improve our schools, don’t chide them for letting schools drop Nigerian history and
embrace British, America and whatever else curricular. “Carry on with your love of
French wines and Chinese silk, don’t bother about Jamiu Alli when there is Roger Federer.
Stock up on your Italian, American, British products which you cannot live without, including
the ‘baby soft’ toilet rolls produced only in that small unique village in England – the
days are long gone since you were a broke student who used wet newspapers to wipe your
butt. “Don’t even consider holidaying in Nigeria, it’s too dangerous –
you have to fulfill your dream of being Nigeria’s Henry Ford. Don’t listen to people like me who have a wardrobe full of only cheap adire that is actually cheaper than just one of your Tom Ford
blazers. Please keep dressing in fine silk made in some exotic place so you can be addressed
accordingly. “Finally keep letting corrupt leaders who have looted your
commonwealth and shipped all the monies overseas get away because to attack them does not
fit your political narrative. Let us continue with the fine life, let us all continue to work for Oyinbo. But don’t forget that there is payback time and Emefiele is not your problem. Time for us all to look in the mirror and take Action
Reason why Naira keep depreciating CBN Governor
Adewale
Saturday, 12 March 2016
