For the past five days, undiscerning Nigerians have been in an unrealistic euphoria. The Christians have been shouting Hallelujah in their thanksgivings. The Moslems have been howling their Salams. The traditional worshippers too are not left behind, they have been saying Eriwoyah.
Everyone is happy. They couldn’t be happier. They are all thanking God for little mercies.
I don’t know much fundamentals in Yoruba, but I know if someone has said they’ll kill me. The Yoruba have a saying that, ‘Oo semu
logbe oo toguro lofa, o gbenu sidi ope. Ofe lo nro?’ It means, you can only eat after you’ve worked.
The undue happiness about the sudden rise of the naira against foreign currencies can only gain popularity in Nigeria. It can only happen here because we only belive in prayers. Meanwhile, the last time I checked my Bible I read that, ‘Faith without works is dead’.
Let’s assume some people have been hoarding foreign currency. Let us also assume the Central Bank has not been too helpful in doling out foreign money to the commercial banks for onward transfer to the end users.
OK, that problem has been solved.
However, personally, I don’t believe we’ve reached the El Dorado.I don’t in fact believe it is too clever of us be in a state of false happiness.
In the first instance, if some people had been hoarding foreign currency, and they’ve been forced to release the money, that’s good. However, it must finish some day.
Second, if the Federal Government has been forced to release its reserves, it must also end pretty soon.
Both cases are not reliable!
We can only have a near perfect solution by doing some non oil exports. By the way, there are a lot of things to be exported from Nigeria. However, they must be up to world standard.
We should also try as much as possible not to import unnecessary items. I don’t know if we still import toothpicks.
When we do all these, we should be approaching a form of balance in trade. It is only then that we could relax!
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