Some months ago, a blog carried the story about Bola Tinubu’s illness and his scheduled surgery in London. As usual, his spokesman came out to deny it and shared pictures of the man relaxing with his grandchildren in London.
Fast forward to the last 3weeks. All the governors from the southwest excluding Oyo have gone to London to watch Tinubu relaxing. I say this because we were told that he is not sick. The entire Lagos state House of Assembly, all the Senators from Lagos and most of those from the southwest, all the members of the house of reps, serving governors from other states and all manner of politicians have flown to London to see a man who is relaxing with his grandchildren.
The economic cost of these visits is what bothers me. These guys will travel with nothing less than $20,000 each. Most of them will fly business or first class and carry “handbag” along. They will all request for foreign currency which will put extreme pressure on our Naira. That is why you see the Naira is on a free fall.
They will also collect estacode in foreign currency for something that has nothing to do with their elected responsibilities. All these to go see a man who is only relaxing with his grandchildren? Elementary economics teaches us that when demand outweighs supply, price will go up due to scarcity. I expect those in the CBN to know this.
Many parents who have lost faith in the Nigerian educational system due to incessant strikes and kidnappings have also decided to send their kids abroad to study. They are also putting pressure on the Naira. You can see how our individual actions collectively affects our economy. Of course, the failure of government is primarily responsible for this mass exodus.
Aboki FX is not the problem. Our mentality for extreme consumerism and the failure of government is the major reason why the Naira is collapsing. We don’t earn enough foreign exchange to bridge the gap. Aside oil, nothing else is able to bring sufficient foreign exchange to us. Unfortunately, we have a government that is not thinking and that hasn’t been able to create a safe and secure environment for investors to come and operate.
Unless something changes drastically, we are all in for a long bumpy ride. The Naira appears determined to hit N1,000 to $1. Let’s not even go near the GBP or Euro.
