As predicted, it came just as we wrote: “Nigeria will either pause the full floating of its currency or return back to fuel subsidy within 6 months. Nigeria’s weakest currency stability point remains that it has to continue importing petrol since it does not have any working refinery. That creates a vicious circle since those importing fuel will mark up prices, to cushion for the next round of import, working to stay ahead of currency deterioration, in a system with no official benchmark.”
Today, NNPC* said: “We are the only company importing petrol into the country. None of them can do it today. For them, access to foreign exchange is difficult. We create foreign exchange (FX), therefore we have access to FX, while their access to FX is limited.”
Yes, fuel subsidy is back and NNPC* is now the sole importer of petrol into Nigeria. In the Igbo Nation, the elders will say “anaghi eji ukwu abu o ati utiri” [you do not stretch yourself with both legs engaged at the same time]. Now, we need to return to the first principle and do things thoughtfully.
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They are playing ludo and draft with our economy, they act before think, and after the damage is already, they go back to the very place they shouldn’t have left in the first place. Nobody gets punished for messing things up here, so they will continue to mess many things up.
Reality has a way of putting everyone where they truly belong, all it takes is for time to do its thing, and each person’s shallowness and capacity deficits will be unravelled.
As always, what is bigger than you is bigger than you, and if you refuse to acknowledge that, it will continue to embarrass you.
We have been running, but we are yet to take a step forward, but the ground has been sprinting…