Devaluation of the currency, brought about mostly by the lack of foresight of the Minister of Finance, and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, CME, will savage all business sectors in Nigeria. As the price of crude oil slides further away, downwards, from the $78 per barrel, on which the original budget, now discarded, and the second one based on $73, now in the dust bin, were based, the outlook becomes bleaker for everybody in Nigeria. The CME can no longer be relied on to provide a reasonable guide to what has become a murky future for Nigerian businesses – mega, large, medium, small or micro. Everybody is suddenly at risk.

It would be in keeping with the spirit of the times to join our cheerful voices with the rising chorus of congratulations to Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, the Minister of Mineral Resources, on her appointment as the President of OPEC. We live at a time when congratulations swamp the advertisement areas of newspapers, which a media animal like us would be the last to complain about.

On Thursday, November 27, 2014, the PUNCH, on page 14 reported as follows: “Don’t blame me for naira devaluation – Okonjo-Iweala.” In the report, the Minister of Finance, was quoted as saying that “Nigeria has what it takes to manage its way through. Benchmark for the budget 2015 had been lowered to more realistic $73 per barrel. Never in the history of budgeting in Nigeria had a Finance Minister been so often wrong as Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala had been this year. But before presenting the irrefutable evidence, a quick remark is needed about her self-acquittal from blame for the devaluation. Certainly, the Finance Minister cannot be blamed for devaluation.

It does seem clear to many of us who still have, and are guided by a sense of history that Nigeria derailed from its historical course, and drifts, when it abandoned Zikist ideology as its foundational myth. Much of Nigeria’s history, particularly since the civil war, has been shaped by a cynical disregard and disinterest in nation-building.

“Senate President David Mark is scared”. That was the title of a media report that caught my attention the other day. I could not immediately fathom what could scare the nation’s 3rd most powerful citizen until I read the story. It was only then I realized that despite the immense power of his office characterized by his retinue of aides as well as his background as a former military commander, there is not much difference between Senator Mark and my defenceless self who can shiver merely because the end of the year’s harmattan season when everywhere is cold has set in.