Nigerian economy and COVID-19 money ‘miss road’
It may be apt to say that the microeconomic environment of the Nigerian economy and COVID-19 are twin brothers with regards to “money miss road”. The latter is an insidious virus that creates a shutdown in economic activities while the former comprise our ruling elite and the captains of industries plus the downside, out of […]
It may be apt to say that the microeconomic environment of the Nigerian economy and COVID-19 are twin brothers with regards to “money miss road”. The latter is an insidious virus that creates a shutdown in economic activities while the former comprise our ruling elite and the captains of industries plus the downside, out of which most, do not play the games by the rules. The micro economic environment, on the whole, sees the cash flows into the economy, here over 70% of FX and value added are generated from oil and gas, more of a cake destined to be shared as “money miss road”.
Former Chairman of EFCC, Farida Waziri had cause to lament that the privileged ruling class need their heads to be examined given the rapacious greed manifested from the management of the public treasury. She came face to face with “money miss road” public officials that schemed and plotted, one would say in financial language, through direct and indirect stealing, the disappearance of public funds into their private accounts and even inside overhead tanks and sewages in their enclaves.
Now with the palliatives supposedly meant for the poor under the COVID-19 lockdown, there are manifestations of disgraceful “money miss road” in the distribution of the “manna” from the federal and the state governments.
Sometimes in the early 2000, I visited a former minister in Abuja at his Ministers Hill residence. They own the residences arising from the Obasanjo “bonanza” in the name of “monetisation” gimmick, which paved the way for the civil servants to hypothecate their official residences built for civil servants to the technocrats and political office holders that were on the ground in the Obasanjo era. From the top of his house one would be standing near an altitude of about 1.5 km above sea level.
When we met with the minister, I said that I observed his immediate neighbour demolishing his house built by Julius Berger (JB). The owner contracted the same JB to demolish the house and rebuild another for him. I lamented and inquired from the ex-minister about what I saw and what was actually happening. Was I day dreaming or was it for real? He said it was a manifestation of “money miss road”.
Akin to this demolishing of a high-profile exotic property, so equally does the Naira in the Nigeria economy miss road be it in the Executive, Legislature, and the Judiciary. Across the states and the local administrations, the stories are no different. Hardly will one visit a Government House or a LG chairman in Nigeria and not notice that the machinery of government is on line. The bulk of the functionaries remain relaxed watching Arewa 24, up north or other similar channels in the southern enclaves.
In the banking sector, bogus loans and advances are the theatres where money miss road for the top guys in the banking sector. My cousin served with UBA and has high regards for the late COS to the President, Abba Kyari whom we served at NNDC between 1984 and 1988. He told me, Abba Kyari was different kettle of fish relative to the CEOs now and then.
Kyari, he says, was very down to earth and neither used influence peddling or advantage as the CEO of the then UBA to work out money miss road schemes for himself. At the NNDC I knew he did not know how to drive a car. Yours sincerely can write a book on how “money missed road” as a result of the fraudulent activities of the “high fliers” in the system. One area they had and still may use as a loophole is the FX and the other on the credit advances areas. Contracts and administrative expenditure are material and juicy parts of the banking operations in the money miss road schemes.
A one obligor concept in rational lending scenarios looks at limits on lending to a limited liability. If say, for my family or a group of companies with 10 members and we have a limit of say N10.0 million for the group, it means the total my wife, my children and myself and others as a group, could only access will not be more than the N10 million. But the “money miss road’ so-called “high flying” bankers would consider each of us as a limited entity and extend 10 times as much. This exposes the bank to a risk of as much as N100 million instead of N10 million.
When the bogus loans turn delinquent, the depositors and shareholders loose. As the bubble burst, the regulatory environments have to clean the “mess” from the public treasury like coronavirus pandemic. The CBN had to clean up the bad and doubtful loans most of which were extended and were from day one designed to go bad since there were no adequate securities and prudent disbursement measures put in place. The collapse of merchant banks and the mergers of ailing banks arose out of contrived money miss road schemes.
Going down to memory lane, it may be apt to recall the good old days when the Naira was stronger than the US Dollar. After graduation from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria (ABU) in June 1975, we could manage N150 per month as NYSC allowance together with a bicycle allowance of N150 to align with it for the scheduled one year or about 360 days. After the NYSC, we started on grade level 08 at N3,414 per annum. With the meagre allowance on a net basis, the take home pay played at around N350 per month. With a wife and a child, one could get going.
The Chinese wonder how a country sells its oil and gas and then come and share it in a money miss road monthly scheme called Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) meetings. The Chinese would rather apply it to develop the national infrastructure, save and invest for their people. Under Obasanjo, 16 billion US Dollars was lost, among others, but not “looted” as some crooks like us to believe since he is not dead to be insulted like Abacha that locked him in prison. In China, each region would exploit its potentials as the north, east and west regions did their economies before the 1966 coup.
But because of religious and tribal chicanery, where money actually missed road as EFCC will tell is suppressed by those who dominate the press and being experts in deceit and harbingers in the manifestation of self glory but deep in their hearts are devils with human face than their religious pretentions really orchestrate. While they have cases to answer with the EFCC and cannot declare their assets publicly, yet will open their mouth and shout “Abacha loot”. What of their own loots that they use SAN’s to abuse the judicial system and appear in wheel chairs as supposedly “sick” in the body but in reality “sick” in their heart of hearts.
That is why no positive development has manifested in Nigeria that will lead noise makers to join G7 nations of advance countries. Rather, there is more of the slave mentality of the Oyibo and the promotion of the socially engineered moral decay of the West among the “western” educated elite. It is only when the country comes together and the talents of diverse parts accepted and the selfless contributions of all and not narrow sectional agenda that we can move forward.
Engr. Abubakar A. Fari [email protected]