Our matter is very complicated.
It will take a very determined government and DIVINE INTERVENTION to rescue the naira from the progressive slide.
Why do I say this?
While we at home are feeling the worthlessness of our currency, our brothers and sisters in the diaspora are excited because every paltry sum they make abroad amounts to a heap of money back home. This to a large extent is what feeds the Japa syndrome.
Now, these diaspora based country men and women also have relatives back home for whom the currency speculation and profiteering provides a soft cushion from the harsh economic weather. Just imagine for a moment the, “I better pass my neighbor” feeling it gives.
So when many Nigerians pray for a restoration of the naira or the economy it is in many cases a half- hearted prayer. When they remember that the next 1000 dollars they receive from their son/ daughter who is based in America could make them millionaires they become confused as to what the prayer point should actually be.
It is a totally different story when those diasporans come home on holidays because if they can just manage to save 2 thousand dollars for the purpose of vacationing back in Nigeria you can imagine how much naira they will be swimming in. It is evident in how they “rush” or are “rushed” by our sisters/ daughters, in the rash of houses sprouting in our neighborhoods which belong to the “abroadians”.
Some of the beneficiaries of this imbalance are in the civil service and others in the government. Many of them will be glad to have the sham system remain as it is and may actually be working surreptitiously, behind the scenes to subvert otherwise good policies, to keep it so.
So just like the song made popular by the former governor of Rivers State, Barrister Nyesom Wike,
“As e dey sweet us e dey pain dem
As e dey pain dem e dey sweet us”
So it is a kind of a tug of war, as some Nigerians pray O God let the value of the naira against the dollar appreciate, others are praying O God how soon will the naira crash to 1500 to a dollar.
Which of the prayers should God hearken to?