The Poison Pill of Selling Nigeria’s Crude Oil in Naira

It was an unmistakable political advertisement: a factory man explains how Mitt Romney (competing against Obama for the US presidency) had asked them to build a stage, and how Romney later came, and fired all of them while standing on that stage. How do you ask people to build a stage so that you can be visible as you fire them? The message was politically lethal. (The advert below)

That takes me to a new hypothesis on the future of Nigeria’s economy. Yes, why not just collect Naira when you ship oil – and forever abandon the US dollars?  Femi Falana posits: “Human rights lawyer Femi Falana has urged the Nigerian government to adopt a radical economic strategy to strengthen the naira against the dollar. In a recent appearance on Channels Television’s Politics Today program on Tuesday, Falana advocated for Nigeria to join the BRICS economic bloc…He suggested that selling Nigerian crude to foreigners in naira rather than in US dollars could bolster the country’s currency.”

Aso Rock, over to you! This is indeed a new perspective because he posits that we need more Naira, and not actually more US dollars, and by doing that, we can disintermediate US dollars. I do not buy into that because if you collect Naira for crude oil, you will still need US dollars to import toothpicks, TV sets, SUVs, private jets, etc. For this to work, it means our factories and warehouses (the modern and the old) must be firing.

Simply, if we try what Mr. Falana is proposing, Nigeria will crash because this is nothing but a poison pill: take it and die even though it may appear to be helpful at the beginning.

Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, Urges Nigeria to Join BRICS, sell oil in naira

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