How to make Nigeria work

CERTAINLY , Nigeria is not working. And  there is great despair that there would soon be a complete breakdown ; if appropriate governmental measures are not urgently taken . The common man is asking questions . When will the price of goods , food especially , start coming down ? Will the petroleum fuel price come down, back to N200? And  the middle class man is asking whether the value of the US dollar will come down to at least N450 soon. What will happen by the end of April, May or June  regarding the prices of goods ? The people of Nigeria cannot wait for any long periods of time. Many Nigerians are starving and dying of hunger. When will the four public -owned   oil refineries be completely repaired , and working ? These would make the foreign exchange  being used for the importation of refined petroleum available for other useful purposes . But would this eventuality necessarily shoot up the value of the naira appreciably? Also , will the working refineries bring the price of petroleum fuel down ? Will subsidy be resumed? A great deal of econometrical calculations have to be done  for the government to ensure that the socio-economic conditions of Nigerians greatly improve and to forestall unprecedented mass deaths due to hunger .

The minimum wage crisis cannot be easily or peacefully resolved  because of the vagaries of the relevant variables  such as the value of the naira compared to the hard currencies, the pump price of fuel  and the reversal of the hyperinflation. The subnational governments – state and local governments – are not capable of appreciable contributions to the socioeconomic development of Nigeria  for a number of reasons . One is the fact that Nigeria is not an industrialised economy , but dependent mainly on earnings from export of crude oil. Another is the fact that the 36-state structure of the country is such that almost all the states are not viable, due to diseconomies of scale as well as constitutional emasculation of the states which have no control over their respective natural resources , corporate affairs and taxation, and security . Nigeria urgently requires a new constitution for urgent devolution of powers, for economic growth , and to the constituent states or regions of the country . President Bola Tinubu has to map out a clear strategy or realistic process to achieve this. The issue of state police is already contentious . Only a new holistic constitution  , at first in draft form, can see us through . What does President Tinubu want to do about this before 29th May , 2025?

The state government is , for instance , responsible for urban and regional planning and development , but incapable of any significant achievement accordingly . The many sectors of an economy are interdependent , interrelated and intersecting . The sectors of transport, housing , urban and regional planning, commerce and trade, industry, banking and finance, mining, power, energy, agriculture, education, labour and employment, health , sports and recreation , tourism and hospitality , judiciary,  democracy, etc , are all interdependent . The state governments in Nigeria are performing poorly in all these sectors . And  it is unrealistic to expect Nigeria, a country of more than 200 million people with a large territory and with cultural and geophysical diversity  to be governed as a unitary system , with centralised powers over all these sectors of the economy . This has never worked for any country in the world.

How does the Federal Government intend to address the problem of mass unemployment? We cannot successfully address the problem of general insecurity all over the country without addressing the problems of mass unemployment , poverty, education, urban and regional planning , industrialization, judiciary and policing . All of this can only be done with devolution of powers to subnational governments. Nevertheless , there are some emergency measures which the government must take before May next year if the administration of President Tinubu would gain the necessary confidence and support of majority of Nigerians. Considering the many socio – economic variables pertinent to the determination of the appropriate minimum wage, it is only reasonable to say that  with the general instability of the economic conditions of Nigerians the minimum wage can only be tentatively fixed. It ishereby recommended to the federal government to tentatively fix the minimum wage at N 60, 000 on the 1st of May. This is an increase of a hundred per cent, which the federal or state governments can later unilaterally increase but not reduce . The present minimum wage of N 30,000 is too low.

• Akande writes in from Ibadan via [email protected]

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