The Closure of 800 Companies in Nigeria and the Failure of the Current Government

What a nation! Nigeria’s finance minister thinks that the closure of about 800 companies in Nigeria in 2023 was due to the economic policies and conditions inherited from Buhari’s administration: “Our government inherits the assets and liabilities of the previous administration. The 800 companies or so did not make up their minds overnight. They stayed until they could stay no more” Wale Edun.

Yes, they were dying when we took over, and under our watch, they just died. We did not apply first aid, etc, to have resuscitated them. Of course, when a nation does not require debates for important positions, there is no way to get leaders to be prepared. Sure, debates will not do the magic, but debates force you to prepare for anything, and by doing that, you get into details you would have liked. The end result is that you become more prepared, because you become more knowledgeable.

In secondary school, I was the head of the school debate society as the Library Prefect. When junior students sent topics, I had to prepare on those topics to be in a position to moderate their shows. Then in FUT Owerri, when I ran for Director of Research, one had to super-prepare for the Manifesto night. In those experiences, debates did one thing: they pushed me to prepare!

Our Honourable Minister is right: things were bad, but because no one really paid attention to those issues, we took over power and did what we did without considering what was going on. If not, if companies were dying under Buhari, the medicine would not have hiking energy cost (via removal of subsidies) without consultation, floating Naira (without giving companies time), etc.

We respect these men and women, but let them not think they own Nigeria alone.

Nigeria’s Finance Minister Attributes 800 Companies Shut Down in 2023 to Policies of Buhari Government

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