Nigeria has no reason to be poor. The country’s human capital is one of the richest in the world. Nigerians are some of the most energetic go-getters in the world. The country is blessed with abundant natural resources, fantastic climate and one of the greenest landscapes on earth. Ironically, Nigeria currently ranks among the poorest and most unstable countries in the world.
Today, based on the parallel market exchange rate of $1 to ₦900, it will take about two and half years for a Nigerian earning one naira a day to earn a dollar. And before the end of the two and half years, the same ₦900 will no longer be enough to get the person $1. The naira equivalent of $1 may have jumped up to ₦1,500 or more.
What is happening to the Nigerian economy is scary. The naira has been depreciating over the decades, but the rate at which it has depreciated under the regime of Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) has been frightening. It looks like something that is not under any control; like a paper falling from the sky.
The Central Bank of Nigeria has thrown everything at it in a bid to stop the free fall, to no avail. In August 2015, the CBN took the weirdest action in its bid to stop the rapid fall of the naira. It got labourers with chainsaws and machetes to cut off branches of trees under which black market currency exchange operators gathered in Abuja, the Federal capital Territory. As far as the CBN was concerned, the moment the illegal operators could not get the shade the trees offered them, they would stop their operations.
