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Nigeria, our great and powerful neighbor, never ceases to amaze me. Just when you think they can not do anything that might surprise, they find something to surpbad themselves.
Before the events of last Saturday, when the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had announced the postponement of the elections four hours after the polls, I was fascinated for weeks by an article of the Central Bank of Nigeria.
Mr. Godwin Emefiele, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), said in a speech that the various initiatives to encourage domestic production had resulted in a significant reduction in Nigeria's monthly import bill, which is increased from $ 665.4 million in January 2015 to $ 160.4 million. October 2018, representing a 75.9% decline and an implicit economy of more than US $ 21 billion on food imports alone during this period.
According to him, many Nigerian entrepreneurs took advantage of policies aimed at increasing local production to engage in domestic production of restricted items with remarkable success and a significant positive impact on employment.
The most dramatic decline was the cumulative reduction of 97.3% in monthly import bills for rice, 99.6% fish, 81.3% milk, 63.7% sugar and 60.5% milk. corn.
Restriction
Now this information has almost cut my breath and when I overcame my astonishment, I decided that Nigeria had obviously cracked what we had trouble breaking. I sent the article to anyone who, in my opinion, would be interested.
It was the backstory. In July 2015, the Central Bank of Nigeria banned 41 items from accessing the currencies of the interbank foreign exchange market.
The restriction was not directed at the goods, they were neither prohibited nor restricted by Nigerian Customs or the Federal Government. Importers of restricted items were simply invited to obtain their foreign exchange needs from self-sufficient sources.
Governor Emefiele has made waves: "If we continue to support the growth of smallholders and revive palm oil refineries, rice mills, cbadava processing plants and tomato plants, you can not imagine the amount wealth and jobs that will be created. in the countryside.
These could include a new set of smallholder farmers who will be engaged in productive activities; new logistics companies that move raw materials to factories and finished products to the market; new storage centers to be built to store locally produced goods; additional growth for our banks and financial institutions as they will be able to provide financial services to support these new businesses; and finally, the millions of Nigerians who will be employed in factories to support product processing. "
I said a strong Amen to that while I was replacing Nigeria and Nigerians by Ghana and Ghanaians in the speech. Planting for food and creating jobs was in my mind and I could see in my mind the new logistics companies that were transporting raw materials to factories, etc.
I thought about the first time that I had gone to Nigeria, with the kind permission of the Daily Graphic. The civil war in Biafra had officially ended a few weeks before and there were vehicles in the streets of Lagos carrying biafran license plates. For years, I have cited this as proof of Nigerians' willingness to move on.
Then, I thought about getting out of Murtala Mohammed airport two days after the death of General Abacha and the first daring cuff I saw in a newspaper put up for sale: Abacha Gone, May He Rot in Hell. Nobody seemed surprised or shocked by this title.
In the early 90s, I was thinking of an apocryphal story surely related to the way in which Nigeria had settled the dispute with Britain about Nigerians invited to fill visa applications the size of a medium-sized booklet , which the Ghanaians had been doing for about two years.
It is said that a big British Airways plane arrived at Murtala airport, it was asked to wait, three Nigerian immigration agents entered the airport. plane and went straight into the first clbad compartment where they asked the pbadports of about five British travelers. the page with Nigerian visas and stamped CANCELED on visas.
I will add that at that time, Nigeria still had influence and that the London-Lagos route was the most profitable for British Airways. The British changed the visa requirements for Nigeria. To date, the number of luggage allowed between London and Lagos is higher than that of London and Accra.
Once, I attended hearings on the budget of the Senate of Nigeria. Now do not remember how and why the case was raised, but I certainly remember a senator who rejected Ghana as having a "lower national budget, well below the budget" of the State of Lagos ".
But I have brought my mind firmly back to the issues of the day. The INEC, called an election with less than five hours at the opening of the ballot box. This one beats anything and everything.
The Maldives also made it
But again, maybe not. Once, I went to Maldives as a member of a team of Commonwealth election observers. It is a long flight from Ghana to Maldives.
I arrived there, we were deployed and sent to my islands. The Supreme Court of Maldives ordered the cancellation of the elections at 3. 52 am on the morning of the scheduled vote.
The Electoral Commission did not even know that the Supreme Court was sitting on an electoral matter.
I can not and I should not compare the Maldives to Nigeria.
In a way, I can not understand that the same people who are able to restrict the import, and these are my favorites on the list of 41 items: toothpicks, rice, cement, margarine , palm oil / palm oil / vegetable oils, processed meat and meat products, processed vegetables and vegetable products, poultry chicken, eggs, turkey, private planes / jets, Indian incense, canned fish in sauce (Geisha) / sardines, wheelbarrows, cookware, metal cans and containers, enamelled containers, wooden doors, glbad and glbadware, kitchen utensils, crockery, textiles, oven cloths, clothing, products plastic and rubber, cellophane packaging, soap and cosmetics, tomatoes / tomato paste, bond purchases / Eurobonds / foreign currency; the same people can not organize elections. In modern language, I have SMH.
But think carefully about my friend Ofeibea who works for an international broadcaster. She went to the Democratic Republic of Congo to cover their elections. She was supposed to be home for Christmas; she stayed there for seven weeks after postponements, court injunctions and other related African electoral acts.
She arrived at her base just in time to prepare to cover the elections in Nigeria. Now that President Muhammudu Buhari has ordered the police and the military to be "ruthless" with vote riggers, we have no idea how long Ofeibea's visit to Nigeria will last.
Amazing Nigeria.
I greet While waiting to hear the President
I know exactly what I would like the President to say when he goes to Parliament tomorrow.
I guess most people have their own text of what they want or expect from the president when he will speak in Parliament about the state of the nation.
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