MALLAM Audu used to have a kiosk as you crossed from Moremi Hall to Awolowo Hall in Ife in those days. We bought little items from from the wares he displayed close to the health centre. After payment was made, Audu was usually not so quick with giving out the change, so, we would yell at him in our smattering knowledge of the Hausa Language: “Mallam,bani Changi!

MY family journeyed some 390 miles (about 630 kilometres) in roughly six hours to visit with and welcome 2016 in the company of my long-time friend, Tony Aduro, and his wonderful family in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Tony and I go way back to our days in Nairobi, Kenya, in the 1990s when we served as officers in the Association of Nigerians in Kenya. Fate brought us back together in the United States and we have kept in touch.

When oil companies fail to pay, bankers are in a fix. But, not just bankers; we are all in a fix. Shareholders of Nigerian banks, already waving off a bad 2015, will again have to endure two economic woes – low or no dividends and plummeting share prices. Currently, only two banks shares are above N15 per share: ECOBANK and GTB. None of the others is above N6 per share.

Ironically, despite his well attested frugal administrative style, President Buhari has unexpectedly, pumped up recurrent budget from N3.97Tn in 2015 to N4.28Tn in 2016. The downside of this expansion is that the additional borrowing will certainly increase government activity in the capital market, so that government will invariably continue to outbid and crowd out the real sector from access to cheap loans.

The new year will be quite challenging for Nigerians. They need no prophet nor soothsayer to predict this. The country’s situation evolves from its reliance on a mono- culture; oil. Politics is the largest and most productive industry in the country with being in government, the most profitable investment. With falling crude oil prices, the economy is bound to wobble, and unpalatable policy dishes served. Wisely, the Government benchmarked the 2016 Budget on a very low figure of $38 per barrel down from the $53 last year, and $76 for the 2014 Budget. Based on a 2.2 million barrels quota, it is hoping to make a daily income of $83.6 million or $30.514 billion in 2016.