The whole world is confronting an inflation spiral that varies from country to country. From the United States to China, the two economic super powers are facing inflation that they are historically not used to. The European Union and Great Britain have had like the USA to raise central bank rates many times in recent times. Interest rate in the central bank in Nigeria has always been so high that commercial banks have charged punitive rates to borrowers making it extremely difficult for small businesses to thrive.
Inflation is no longer an economic issue or issue of high finance; ordinary Nigerians unfortunately are living through it. We cannot certainly blame the present government that is still at its formative period. There is no cabinet yet to help the president navigate his ways through the tortuous and slippery way this particular government has to go especially after the ruinous years of the preceding government. Unfortunately, the present government is the one carrying the can of this rampaging inflation that is affecting all of us.
I was in Ibadan over the weekend and I had a craving for yams because I have not been able to eat yams for the past month because of the outrageous and excessive price the yam sellers in Lagos demanded. I drove to the market to my yam vendor in Ibadan and she said I would be very pleased with the fresh yams she had. I was indeed pleased that at last, fresh yams had finally arrived in the market.
I used to think I could pick yams that would be good either for pounded yams or just as boiled yams good as breakfast delight. I even know the names of yams such as “efuru” “elentu” “Odo” “Aro”. My yam vendor is an Ibadan lady who had no knowledge about yams as an Ekiti man like me would have. So when I asked her what kind of yams she had, she said it was called “Gambari”. I asked which kind of yams was that? She said they were from Ekiti. I laughed and laughed thinking whether to an Ibadan woman, Ekiti people were “Gambari” which was what Yoruba call Hausa and all our Northern compatriots. Of course I immediately knew what she was saying. The yams were from Ekiti State where Ebira people from Kogi are farm hands growing the yams. After the rigmarole of the name of the yams, she brought out six yams costing N14,500 almost N2500 per yam! I could not believe this but the lady said her price was not subject to negotiations. She said she would not sell a bad stuff to me since I always bought yams from her. I had no reason to doubt her and paid and headed home phoning my friends about the cost of yams!
People may be wondering why I was in the market haggling over the price of yams. The reasons are straightforward. Since my wife passed on to eternity, I have had to do things not expected of men. Secondly my caretaker does not like yams or their derivatives and if I must bear my yam-eating father’s name, I had to go to the market to buy the precious thing myself.
The price of yams surprised me but I can understand why the price was so high. The cost of transportation has tripled since the price of gasoline has virtually tripled. This has nothing to do with the dollar/Naira rate. Most Nigerians understand that the subsidy palaver just has to end because unscrupulous Nigerians had fed fat on the scheme to the detriment of those who knew nobody in government. Nobody however expected that the impact of its removal would be so devastating as it now appears.
On Sunday when I went to church, the roads did not have the hustle and bustle characteristic of Ibadan roads on Sundays. In fact I was worried and I asked the newspaper vendor near my house if all was well. He quickly said there was no problem and that Christians were worshiping from their homes just to save money and taxi drivers were off the roads because there were no passengers to carry. This was the result of deregulation of the downstream oil industry and the merging of the official and unofficial rates of the dollar which in the long run economic analysts say is necessary for economic growth and seamless trade relations with our trading partners since we do not have a convertible currency. It is now clear to even illiterates that the cost of energy is the ultimate key to economic development. If the people generating electricity and those who are distributing it threaten to raise the unit cost of electric power, it is because they too are dependent on either hydrocarbons or hydroelectricity which are somehow related.
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We are entering a stage in which we must count the cost before we embark on any project or journey. It is not only the cost of food, energy and power that have become high globally, the cost of drugs are almost unsustainable. I was in Canada towards the end of last year and I needed to buy some drugs and I could not believe that they cost almost five times their cost in Nigeria. The reason was obvious. Canada has what Americans derisively called “socialized medicine” a system introduced into the English-speaking world by the Clement Attlee’s post Second World War Labour government in Great Britain that goes with the sobriquet of “National Health service”. The British copied this from the Bismarckian government of imperial Germany dating back to 1870. This involved paying high taxes on almost every service or transactions to pay for medical services available to all residents who are taxpayers. Since I was not a Canadian, I had to pay the market price of drugs because I had no medical insurance.
We have been playing around with medical insurance in Nigeria but our medical services remain primitive and undeveloped. The key to affordable medical services is local production of generic drugs for common diseases such as malaria, headaches, stomach disorders, respiratory problems and so on.
What can government do to fight the rampaging inflation in Nigeria? In one sentence, we must produce what we eat, what we wear, what we need to maintain reasonably good health and what we need whether for transportation, communication and security. This is a tall order. No country is totally self-sufficient. The old adage is still true that no country is an island sufficient unto itself. No country at the same time must be totally dependent on others. A country like that is inherently weak and at the mercy of those who supply it with what it needs. Our country however must plan not to depend on others for most things. There is no reason on earth for us to import textiles, food, and most domestic utensils. We must import advanced machinery in order to be self-sufficient. This should be the plan of the Tinubu government if it is to be taken as a serious government.
The recently announced reduction and cancellation of taxes on some goods and services are policies in the right direction. But it can hardly fight the kind of food inflation facing Nigeria. The solution may take a long time to put in place and the people may not be ready to wait. Public transportation has to be improved upon. Commercial vehicles traveling between states and cities can be provided cheaper fuel in designated fuel stations run by local and state governments hopefully with strict supervision so as to avoid corruption and misuse. This will reduce the cost of food and a full belly is not likely to cause trouble! Once this is done, we must bring in price control mechanism to fix the cost of commercial transportation and the cost of food and other resources. The plan of railway resuscitation should be updated and fast forwarded so that food can be moved from areas of production to the cities. One of the reasons why food is expensive is the rural banditry caused by the Boko Haram insurgency which has lasted too long. Government should do whatever it takes to put an end to this rebellion.
The problems facing this nascent government are not insolvable. Unfortunately the poor people need to be helped immediately so that they do not lose interest in the ability of their government to find solutions to the myriad of problems they are trying to cope with. The most immediate problem is food availability at affordable cost. We have faced this problem before and we should look back into our past and revise the old methods of bulk buying of food from wherever they are located to solve the present problems even if for a short time until things get back to normal production of what we need to eat and how to cheaply transport what we produce to areas of need.
