Open letter to PMB
Today, we are taking stock. The hyper-inflation in the country and the increase in the rate of the dollar have already affected the life of the average Nigerians. Those that are opportune to engage in meaningful trading are taking due advantage of the situation to increase relative price of commodity on the daily basis. If […]
Today, we are taking stock. The hyper-inflation in the country and the increase in the rate of the dollar have already affected the life of the average Nigerians. Those that are opportune to engage in meaningful trading are taking due advantage of the situation to increase relative price of commodity on the daily basis. If not, how does the dollar affect the price of groundnut, pepper, corn?
Let us look inward at our naira to control our domestic economy. During the regime of president Olusegun Obasanjo, Professor Chukwuma Soludo who was then Central Bank Governor advised the government to implement decimalization by removing the nation’s higher currency denomination like the 1000, 500, 200, and 100 naira to allow 20 naira as the highest denomination, but he was stopped by the some vested interests. I may not know the stance of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on this issue, but I believe that if the 1000, 500, 200, naira is removed from the domestic economy living the 100, 50, 20, and the re-introduction of coins as a legal tender, it will kick start the dwindling economy and check mate inflation in the system.
The government should also play its constitutional role of price control mechanism. Market shop rents, living houses, electricity bills, water rate etc should be reduced. In my elementary school we learnt that government provides certain essential infrastructural facilities which if left in the hands of the private individuals will be expensive to provide and will be costly for the citizen to pay. These are capital projects such as bridges, electricity, roads, schools, hospitals, etc. Government provides such facilities purposely not to make profit but to meet the needs of its citizens. So government should look carefully at privatized establishments and to regulate their operations. For example, governments had built and equipped power installations but were given out through privatization to be managed and subsidy removed. Instead of a marginal hike in tariff consumers are now paying increment of over 300% even when this power is not regular. Even if it is regular, it is very expensive. How can the lower income earners afford it?
Government should control prices of commodities by also reducing tax in certain products to meet the needs of the citizens. Efforts should be intensify tax collection on landed properties, valuable assets, cars etc. Toll gates on federal roads should be awarded to qualified contractors like Julius Berger, Dantata & Sawoe among others who have such equipments to maintain the roads.
Okpe Andrew Abah, Benue State University, Makurdi.