Yusuf Bala Usman and Nigeria’s economic crisis, By Ahmed Aminu-Ramatu Yusuf

Skilled army coup plotters, or army politicians – militicians for brief – battered the Nigerian financial system. This turned manifest in 1977, with Basic Olusegun Obasanjo’s “Low Profile” coverage. This degenerated into the “Financial Stabilisation Coverage” (ESP) of the President Shehu Shagari authorities.

It additional deteriorated into the “Austerity Measures” of Basic Muhammadu Buhari, and festered into the cancerous “Structural Adjustment Programme” (SAP) of Basic Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, which exists to today.

Shagari’s ESP generated heated debate throughout the state and society. It led to the Bala Usman and Yusuf Bangura “Debate on the Nigerian Financial Disaster”,publish by the Nigerian Political Science Affiliation, in its journal, Research in Politics and Society, Challenge No. 2, October 1984. Usman’s paper, “Middlemen, Consultants, Contractors and the Options to the Present Financial Disaster”, sparked this wealthy debate. He was of the Historical past Division of Ahmadu Bello College, Zaria and raised points which can be extra germane at the moment than they have been within the center Eighties.

The primary take-away from Usman’s submission was the unfavourable results the mismanagement of the financial system was having on the nation. He said that the Second Republic politicians, led by Shagari, spent billions of naira on a Inexperienced Revolution Programme and River Basin Growth Authorities. But “the overall manufacturing of most meals crops didn’t rise in any respect.” Meals imports, he said: “rose N18.8 million in 1979, N1.16 billion in 1980 to 1.86 billion within the first 9 months of 1981” An increase of “over 100% in lower than three years, in a rustic endowed with wealthy agricultural sources, most of whose individuals are farmers, and whose governments have spent over N100 billion ostensibly to spice up meals manufacturing.”

Usman identified how: “properly over 50% of the factories within the nation closed down, and the remainder grinding to a halt, working part-time, apart from the breweries, cigarette and soft-drink vegetation.” He mentioned in December 1983: “solely about 25% of the put in electrical energy producing capability of two,342 megawatts is being utilized…”

Consequently: “an estimated N750 million each year … (was) spent by 650 corporations for the acquisition and upkeep of electrical energy producing gear; with one other N36 million spent on the importation of voltage stabilisers alone.” He held the federal government primarily accountable for the disaster within the electrical energy sector, as a result of it failed: “to pay the Nationwide Electrical Energy Authority (NEPA) the lion-share of a invoice of about N500 million.”

Secondly, Usman disagreed with authorities that the financial disaster was largely brought on by the “world financial recession” and “world oil glut”, which led to the autumn in oil costs. He described this argument as “smokescreen”, “fantasy” and “mystifications”!

The educational mentioned, whereas the nation realized 83 per-cent of its expenditure from oil income, it’s buying energy “truly rose by 11.5% within the interval 1979-1982”. So why did its international trade place fall from “5.5 billion {dollars} on the finish of 1979, to 1.6 billion {dollars} on the finish of 1982, a fall of over 70%.”?

Usman identified that the then socialist international locations, with about “1.4 billion of the 4.0 billion on the planet (have been) not affected by any financial recession.” China, he mentioned, recorded a development industrial out-put of 9.3% in 1982 to 12.2% in mid-1983; and its international reserves, besides gold, “rose from 2.6 billion in 1980, to $5.5 billion in 1981 and to $11.3 billion by the tip of 1982”.

Thirdly, Usman attributed the causes of the financial disaster to the function and actions of “consultants”, “contractors” and “middlemen”. Consultants, by their “parasitical however influential, function” in rationalizing and legitimizing: “the domination of personal capitalist exploitation over and above all the things else”.

Contractors, by means of the inflation of contracts, and the promotion of “all varieties fraud, embezzlement and outright plunder of public sources in money and sort.”

The middlemen, by means of “large commissions” through which billions of {dollars} are diverted “into the pockets and financial institution accounts of a handful of wealthy and highly effective Nigerians.” The disaster, Usman added, was worsened by “profiteering and expatriation.”

However contractors, Usman emphasised, performed a central function in inflicting the disaster. Which was why he quoted Balarabe Musa to drive house his level: “As a substitute of a democracy through which you could have in operation a authorities for the folks, by the folks, and of the folks, you could have a contractocracy through which authorities is for contractors, by contractors, and of contractors. Politics is being decreased to a struggle between one gang of grasping tycoons, every backed by their international enterprise masters and others; and every waving some tribal or sectional banner to confuse and divide the folks.”

The problems Usman raised stay cogent to today. If something, they’ve turn out to be worse. Second Republic politicians had disgrace, patriotism, nationalism, and industrialisation of their dictionaries. Not the militicians and politicians that succeeded them!

Whereas Shagari refused to devalue the naira, regardless of immense strain from the Worldwide Financial Fund (IMF), World Financial institution (WB), and the then United States’ President, Mr Ronald Regan. Nevertheless, the naira has miserably been devalued from 724kobo/$ in 1983 to about N1,600/$ on 11 February.

Additionally, whereas through the Second Republic had over 239 state-owned enterprises (SOEs), the militicians and politicians that succeeded Shagari, legally seized and outrightly bought these SOEs to themselves and their colleagues. Additionally they plundered our sources underneath the guise of “privatisation”!

Additional, whereas Second Republic politicians tried to guard SOEs, their successors succumbed to SAP. That is the programme which de-industrialised Nigeria; ignited large unemployment; promoted reckless importation; crippled our rising home-market; and vastly devalued the naira. SAP additionally severely undermined Nigeria’s industrial would possibly, which through the Second Republic, was manifested within the ‘made-in-Nigeria’ items displayed and bought on the streets, retailers and markets in West and Central African international locations.

These issues Usman held as being accountable for the financial disaster in 1984, nonetheless exists at the moment however in worse dimensions. As an illustration, since 1985 Nigeria has been working lootocracy – authorities of looters, by looters, and for looters; plundertocracy – authorities of plunderers, by plunderers, and for plunderers; banditocracy – authorities of bandits, by bandits, and for bandits; lumpencracy – authorities of lumpens, by lumpens, and for lumpens, amongst others.

This reveals the elemental limitations of Usman’s evaluation. Capitalism is for the buildup of capital; a system of ‘monkey dey work baboon dey chop’. To those elites, something completed to build up capital for particular person ends, even on the expense of the state and society, is nice and high-quality, so long as it doesn’t essentially endanger the system.

Contractocracy and all the opposite cracies that emerged for the reason that Eighties, are solely types of capital accumulation, which supplies concrete energy, wealth, and fame to ruling courses. For, so long as these cracies don’t result in the expropriation of expropriators, or the buildup of the accumulators, by plenty of individuals, then good and high-quality. However as soon as these cracies drastically threaten the system, that’s once they turn out to be severe financial and political crises for ruling courses.

The financial disaster that has confronted Nigeria since 1977 has had devastating results on the working plenty. Nevertheless, for the assorted wings of the ruling courses, it has been an financial growth.

Ahmed Aminu-Ramatu Yusuf labored as deputy director, Cupboard Affairs Workplace, The Presidency, and retired as Basic Supervisor (Administration), Nigerian Meteorological Company, (NiMet). Electronic mail: aaramatuyusuf@yahoo.com