THE reality of the Nigerian situation has remained an enigma as the Nigerian people themselves.  It is a fact that the many nations that had inhabited a lovely and naturally endowed plain called Nigeria in the past one hundred years are yet to understand themselves to actually evolve as one nation.

It is gathered from romantic statistics that there are more than 250 tribes, speaking about three hundred languages in a population of about 165 millions (or is it 170 million?), with youths forming about 60 per cent of the number.  The fact is that the crudity that surrounds the usual population census gives room for any serious doubt about any official figure.  However, one fact remains – anybody who could speak Hausa, Ibo and Yoruba with a muttering of English language is at home in any Nigerian cosmopolitan area.

That assertion reinforces the fact that such a lucky person who is employed qualifies to be a Nigerian, irrespective of his religion or his village origin.  Also, the concept of mixed marriages or actuality of it complicates the tribal nomenclature.  That idea of a tribal conflict in Warri (Delta State) presents a bit of confusion to a casual resident when belligerents have either Urhobo mothers, Itshekiri fathers or Ijaw grandmothers.

It looks as a perfect case of an ideal neighbor with mixed and unified customs and traditions – as Yoruba would always say: nobody has a father’s place who does not possess a mother’s place – which means we are all members of one and the same family.

The typical question of who actually is a member of a tribe often distorts the stated statistical figure of a tribe.  As an example, to which tribe does children of mixed marriages belong?  Some people may assert that the Man owns the child and that the child clings to the tribe of the father.  The reigning Queen of England is English while her husband, the Duke is Greek, will the heir to the throne of England claim to be Greek or English?

My readers should excuse my diversion into the genealogy of a tribe which appears as a flight into Nigerian fantasy.  It has nothing to do with formidable statistics of Nigerian economic development under President Jonathan’s Transformation Agenda.  During 2013, economic growth hovered around 6 per cent and inflation figure gyrated below 10 per cent.  The foreign exchange reserves figure soared above $40 billion mark with exchange rate and price stability strictly maintained.  An excellent performance by any standard if it is compared with developed economics where growth rate in 2013 was less than 2 per cent.

However, what has become an intricate problem of economic analysis is the presence of poverty and high unemployment in such a fast growing economy.  Many Nigerians, including some respected columnists, question the seriousness of some people who mistake the opulence of a few for the general misery of the people.  In fact, people with clear eyes (not blurred) would not fail to appreciate the grandeur that goes with newly built lovely estates in Abuja and new State capitals and also, the beautiful vehicles (including jeeps and multi-million bullet proof cars) that adorn the sturdy urban roads.

It is also true that politics has become more rewarding to many people in terms of money, power and prestige, and life is very rosy in many enviable environments.  But apart from the negligible few, the condition of many Nigerians is a sad story of abject poverty, misery and woe.  To the glamour of the city-life, is attached the parchment of the slum – which is the enviable abode of the greater percent of many Nigerians.

If, as it is often observed, foreigners see in the size of Nigeria and its endowed resources golden opportunities, it is a credit to their clear vision and propensity to rob the rich-fool of his many resources.  Since Nigeria does not manufacture what the country needs and could produce such goods at home, the opportunity is open to cheap and inferior imports.

There is no doubt that Nigeria has gone through various stages of economic exploitation in the past 100 years.  The colonial master (Britain) dominated the commercial life of the country (dictating and controlling export /import trade), and after 1960, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea monopolized the consumers internal trade.

Consumers internal trade
And now, Chinese products (often inferior) have found permanent place in our homes.  The nation’s manufacturing initiative is being crippled through assumed cheap Chinese loans and unrestricted importation of cheap foreign goods. The great problem of Nigeria is not the inability of many Nigerians to see the potentials of the country, but the greater problem lies with the leadership in following bad policies in an era of global enlightenment.

For example, what economic sense lies with an import dependent country trading with a severely devalued currency?  The low value of the naira does not allow for cheap import of necessary equipment for infrastructural development.  The Swiss in their earlier phase of economic development exported their timber to import necessary capital equipment to transform their economy.  Nigeria exports its crude oil (in crude form) to import refined petroleum products (not equipment) under a subsidy scheme that cost the nation about N2trillion in 2012.

The Federal Government, laboring under an atmosphere of weak effective demand and high unemployment has foolishly clung to a policy of tight monetary policy which has prevented industrial expansion and restricted increase in the supply of consumable goods.

It is recognized that where there is increasing demand of goods which might lead to increase in price, increase in supply will be the necessary answer to “too much money chasing too little goods”.  It is a pity that in the last three years, efforts had been directed towards curbing excessive demand for goods without a thought for expanding supply of goods to prevent price instability.

A Transportation Agenda needs not transform the nation into poverty.  In the application of its monetary policy, a little inflation is preferable to large-scale unemployment with accompanying vices of insurgency, armed robberies, killings and kidnappings.   In a situation of deficient effective demand and infrastructural deficiency, the answer lies in massive injection of public funds which are carefully controlled and not directed to wasteful projects.