NewsRescue
A most respectable and ingenious Nigerian big businessman, Leo-Stan Ekeh has just predicted the collapse of 99% of Nigerian businesses will be by March this year. Wow! It was clearly coming, but by March!
Though I am not an economist, I have lived and traded long enough to know that Godwin Emefiele’s Prison economics leads to only one thing: economic collapse and catastrophe. Is he doing this on purpose to prompt riots and turmoil to bring down Buhari or is he doing this by desperation? The real reason is not as important as the impact regardless. Punishing Nigeria’s employers for the sins of Jonathan and Godwin past is certain to destroy the country and end this regime. The CBN Forex restrictions have been employed most harshly on Small businesses. Godwin convinced Buhari as was heard from his media chat that giving Forex access to Industry(large) was the way to go. In my opinion, Godwin simply planned to save his friends while tanking the Nigerian economy and leading to the largest nation-wide job loss cataclysm in recent history. Permit me to quote from my last week’s article on how these policies are a sham:
“Big industry are owned of course by the Cabal; many such Cabal looted billions of Nigeria’s national earnings to establish their companies; but punishing them for this is not even the issue. The issue is that big industry is the small employer of labor. This is a known fundamental fact of economics especially in the developing world.
“SME (Small and Medium Enterprises) is the largest employer of labor. The companies that you and I run; we are the people that employ 75% of labour in Nigeria. It is the same in India, China, Malaysia, Brazil and so on. SMEs across the world employ anywhere between 70 and 80% of labor. The so-called big industries only employ a tiny fraction of labor.
“Developed societies have actually moved from “manufacturing goods” to service economies. Lot’s of such services are provided by small and medium enterprises who are being starved of dollars.
“The strict and partial moves being employed by the current administration in these trying times are very risky and may implode the nation before they possibly alleviate the crisis and before they may yield the needed returns. Thousands of small and medium enterprises are folding across the nation due to the shortage and denial of foreign currency. Nigeria has not yet developed its manufacturing sector and a significant amount of SMEs depend on various completed and partially manufactured materials from abroad. These businesses are unable to get access to their raw materials, tools or traded products. The implication is catastrophic.”
And Godwin Emefiele knows this. We do not manufacture yet as a nation and we cannot substitute for that in a day. You cannot force the building of a robust non-dependent economy by suddenly forcing the people with Prison economics. By stopping Nigerians from using their own money to purchase raw materials, marketable goods and services abroad and canceling the legitimate rights of people to take their profit and earnings where they want, you will discourage economic growth, and indigenous and foreign investment.
Godwin Emefiele while he gave the looters suitcases of billions of dollars has since Jonathan’s time step-wise harshly monitored and restricted the capacity of small entrepreneurs. Those who read mywritings know that I have tracked Godwin’s colonialist economic enslavement moves at every turn and warned of their implications. We are today finally at the point of literally zero economic freedom and no access to foreign exchange. Prison economics is complete and now feel the pain.
Dr. Peregrino Brimah; Email: drbrimah@ends.
