Reintroduce commodity price control board

NIGERIA has a lot of measures to re-introduce to reform it.  It appears we do not understand the democratic system well to manage it like the United States of America who originated it.  Before our independence, under Parliamentary System, life was very pleasant and very sumptuous for us, but today, life is all hue and cries for many things had been mishandled.  Like during the parliamentary system, we had commodity boards and price control overseeing control of prices in the country.  This makes me to remember the defunct Nigeria Cocoa Board in Ibadan exporting many of our cash crops.

Why did we allow such boards to be scrapped?  The first tallest house (25 stories) in Nigeria was built in 1965 called Cocoa House.  Cocoa, Coffee, Palm products, Cashew nuts were marketable in the world then which were sources of foreign exchange for our country even till date.  In such time, indigenisation decree was issued that drove again foreign business partners away from Nigeria.  We are now going here and there lobbying for them to come back.  Such and such issues had bamboozled our economy in Nigeria.  In such time, our currency was pound sterling which we later changed to naira.  Now, it is hard for us to breech the gap of pounds and naira by our inefficiency of controlling our market prices.

Now, the rumour of increasing staff salaries has gained the ground all over the country.  It is a good thing, very good, because workers are the pillar that holds the economy of this country in their various dimensions.  They should live, they should live well, but we must also think well, as the workers are praying for their success, so also shylock traders are helping them for success because they know where they will wait for them while any amount approved for them may be meaningless in a short time, they will be shouting again.  It had happened like that in the past which boiled down to cry again like this.

To cut my story short, government should unfailingly and immediately re-introduce Commodity Price Control Board to help the Nigerian workers and other poor citizens of the country remembering that we all go to the same markets.  If you go to England, they have tagged their prices; they will never pull your leg, what they want to sell for £10 call it £30 first, they are sincere and always not greedy. If prices come down, they will bring it down, if it is up, they will lift it up slightly but in our own case, “getting rich syndrome spirit” is always the case.

Nigeria will be great if we can stop all our ragamuffin characters and the devil will flee from this country.  What is happening in Nigeria today, is reminiscent to what happened in Samaria in those days when women were donating their children for food. The same God of that time is our God today who brought succour to Samaria, He can help us in Nigeria.

• Elder Samuel Adeniran Alao, Osun State