Editorial Suite
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THE economic managers in the country, albeit Nigerians have been living in denial of the true state of the economy. In the last two years, the hard facts stared us in the face about the impending dwindling revenue to the country. But nobody paid attention. Nobody took action. Even when the news broke that the United States of America was no long buying Nigeria’s oil, those who were in charge of the nation’s cash cow — the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation waved the threat aside, saying that the country will find new markets to supply the almost 50 percent of the country’s oil which the America hitherto was buying. As at that time, the tumble in oil price had not occurred.
It is pertinent to observe that tentative efforts made by the managers of the fiscal side of the economy to save some money for the rainy day was severely criticised and rebuffed by the errant state governors who wanted to empty the treasury once oil money flows in. Then they saw no need to put some money aside just in case the unexpected happens. So the ding-dong over saving money in the excess crude account went on between the governors and the federal government. They wanted to share everything at the Federal Accounts Allocation Committee meeting. And so the country moved on as if tomorrow will never come; as if nothing was happening and the country continued paying lip service to the idea of diversifying the economy to broaden the revenue base and make Nigeria less dependent on oil which constitutes about 95 percent of our revenue.
Now the ugly times have sprung on us and both the fiscal and monetary managers are grappling and dishing out measures a bit late to keep the country on the straight and narrow path to avoid more economic woes. But the austerity measures that have been reeled out so far will make life difficult for everybody, especially the masses. Is there a way out of the present predicament? Realnews cover story for this week entitled “Wobbling Economy: Hard Times Ahead of Nigerians” provides you the answer. It was written by Anayo Ezugwu, our hard working reporter. Enjoy it.
Maureen Chigbo
Editor
mechigbo@yahoo.com | mechigbo@realnewsmagazine.net
— Dec. 8, 2014 @ 01:00 GMT
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