Ewolewoo!!

A lot of people have spoken so much grammar about our economy. They have analysed with the mindset of world bank and IMF experts. They have told everyone who cares to listen that there is a ‘smooth way out’ of our economic abyss. In their opinion(s), the Government is not seeing the “superb points” that they’re bringing up.  However, the truth is this: Oil price is low. It’s so low that everyone is just confused.

You cannot be selling crude oil at about $30/barrel and you still want normalcy. You are dealing with a system that was under strain even when crude was selling at over $115/barrel. This same system is supposed to be very normal when the crude oil price is so low? How it would happen still baffles me.

At $115/barrel, the system felt the strain of 36 state  Governors  + FCT with their state legislators and civil service. It felt the strain of 109 senators and their retinue of aides. It felt the strain of 369 House of legislatives  and their retinue of aides. It felt the strain of 774 local government councils with their chairmen, councillors and civil service. It felt the 36 ministers with aides and civil service. It felt the strain of the Presidency.  The corruption angle was felt too in no small measure!! As we speak, we still want the system to carry on as usual at $30/barrel. How?

If you are a civil servant but you are blaming Buhari for not doing enough, then it is most unfortunate.  If you want Buhari to do what you want,  the way you want it as a civil servant, then the over-bloated civil service structure would have to be reduced. Yes, it is simple. That Buhari is resisting the retrenchment of civil servants at this critical juncture should be termed as a “sacrifice”. If it were Private business many civil servants making noise as we speak would have been at home. If the income has reduced, drastically in this case, the expenditure would be reduced drastically too. This is a no-brainer.

Forget grammar, we live on oil. We dwell on oil. We think of oil. Our business acumen derives its funds from oil. Nothing else matters. That is the reason, no one gave a damn when factories where closing left, right centre because there was no need to bother. We were not interested at all in the least because we were making our money from oil. The factories just disappeared but we were ok. That is the reason agriculture was neglected because we had “oil money” to import agricultural products. It is very simple..

We could allow custom men to be so rich and we didn’t care. Why would a custom man be stupendously rich if he is not stealing your money? We never bothered at all. We took it as normal because we were getting oil money. Goods were being struggled in all the time yet we never bothered because it never mattered it was oil money galore.  Suddenly, we want to analyse and over analyse the economy. The economy has major problems because of oil and we were never prepared.

Why won’t Buhari chase people for money? Why would he leave them?  Why would he just allow looters to sleep easy when he is not sleeping easy? It can’t work.

We  don’t want Buhari to retrench workers. We don’t want him to increase V.A.T.  We want him to continuously bail out the electricity firms. We want him to do a lot of things yet we are aware that the funds are not just there.

Oil money has been the plan. The whole structure has been on oil money. The real question is whether we are ready to follow the painful process of diversifying to other segment of the economy. Are we ready to forgo the easy billions flowing from oil and face the hardcore business of gradual but steady kobo-kobo from other businesses? Are we ready to painfully  reduce the expensive structure we’ve got in this so-called democracy?

If oil price continues to fall, we might have to face the painful decision that every business man or business concern takes in the period of alarming drop in income….Ewolewoo!!!