OPINION: Nigeria's Latest Out Of Recession Declaration Is Ridiculously Ambiguous

By Tobenna Obiano.

It is important to set the records straight, keeping aside sentiments and speak truth to power. Let us educate those who feel we are all a bunch of fools.

It's sad that Nigerian leaders often misconstrue that all Nigerians have saw dust as grey matter inside their skull. That a few or even many Nigerians don't know their left from their right or may not be disciplined enough or willing to go extra miles to make verifications for clarifications, it doesn't in any way equate or mean that we are all ignorant people. We think. We worry. We ask questions when confused.

Wikipedia does a distinctive and definitive explanation about Recession and what it entails.

In economics, a recession is a business cycle contraction which results in a general slowdown in economic activity. Macroeconomic indicators such as GDP (gross domestic product), investment spending, capacity utilization, household income, business profits, and inflation fall, while bankruptcies and the unemployment rate rise. In the United Kingdom, it is defined as a negative economic growth for two consecutive quarters.

Recessions generally occur when there is a widespread drop in spending (an adverse demand shock). This may be triggered by various events, such as a financial crisis, an external trade shock, an adverse supply shock or the bursting of an economic bubble. Governments usually respond to recessions by adopting expansionary macroeconomic policies, such as increasing money supply, increasing government spending and decreasing taxation.

In Nigeria of today, after a careful understudy of the explanatory part above, is Nigeria currently anywhere away from Recession? Your guess is as good as mine.

Two days ago, Nigeria was greeted with the "goodnews" that the nation has recovered and are now out of recession. It have been received with mixed feelings, to a divide, it's a goodnews, while to others, they are left only in a state of confusion. I belong to the later group, even worse. For me, it's an insult on the sensibility of the Nigerian populace for such declaration to be made at a time like this.

What rationale did these guys use to arrive at this bogus claim? What indices were understudied to make such hasty uninformed conclusion? What are the radical turnaround of events in the land from backwardness to positivity has been witnessed that as Nigerians, we didn't take notice of such progress for this Government to make such startling declaration.

Well, welcome to Nigeria where lies and distortion of facts plus bogus claims and unguarded rants are only a way of life for the ignorant political class aimed at winning cheap political gains and as well, deceiving unsuspecting persons. As the saying goes: "all men cannot be fools at thesame time, nor can all men be fooled at different times".

If there is still this level of hunger, joblessness, devastation and hopelessness in the land, and you proudly claim to have driven the nation out and away from Recession, you must be sick in the head. Infact, you need immediate medical attention with particular focus in areas of the brain that relate to psychotic and psychological instability. You may not entirely have gone mad, but you obviously are nearing same. You need to put on your thinking cap.

What the heck? Nigeria is out of recession? When? Where? How? And the helpless, hapless and  gullible are buying such unfounded rhetorics. Nigeria is a joke and her leaders, a shameless set of actors and actresses. They lie. They are corrupt stricken. The are not disciplined. They are shameless. They have no guts to push to succeed.

It's only in Nigeria that people who ordinarily shouldn't come anywhere near positions of power, miraculously make their ways to leadership circles where they direct the affairs and manage the activities of people who are far better than them in virtually every form of the word. Nigeria continually recycles persons who are always first from behind as their leadership class. It's unfortunate.

The Finance Minister, Kemi Adeosun is a big shame. It's unfortunate a character as such can be left to manage the economy and finance of a nation that is rich in human capital like Nigeria. What progress has she ever made aside improving on her phonetics while dishing out figures which when one carefully calculates, it never measures up. If Nigeria has such person as her economic minister, even miracles don't happen under such class of a individual. Good Mathematics or Calculus grade should be put under compulsion for would-be economic ministers.

Since the advent of the Buhari led Government, this nation has hit an all-time rise in unemployment rate. Infact, between his taking over as President of Nigeria till date, over 3.5million Nigerians have lost their jobs. Today, Nigerian universities graduates thousands and floods of employable graduate, they are jobless, helpless and hapless.

The level of joblessness in the land is actually the very reason why various criminal activities and such in those class are carried out nearly on a daily basis and without qualms.

Today, if the Boko Haram boys aren't slaughtering people in the North like goats, the Fulani herdsmen in the middle belt are raping and maiming people. If ritualists aren't killing for ritual purposes in the Southwest, their brothers in the East are kidnapping while their neighbors are bombing oil facilities and are into oil bunkering. This is a verifiable fact.

As if those aren't enough, to even beat up the polity all the more, Biafran agitators and majorly, members of IPOB are kicking to be let go out of Nigeria, while Arewa Youth gives Igbos ultimatum to vacate Northern Nigeria and even Yoruba youths are asking both Igbos and Hausas to vacate their land. What a nation!

Joblessness is a  big problem. The teeming employable yet unemployed Nigerian youths who have nothing doing resort to involving themselves in various classes of vices. An idle mind they say, is the devils workshop. If people were to be gainfully employed and very busy, insecurity crisis would have been drastically reduced, but no, the Government don't care. Even with this level of joblessness, they claim we are out of recession.

The indices can be reviewed? Let us look at essential commodities, even perishables to foodstuff, livestock to other basic needs. The price for a loaf of bread hasn't fallen. Fruits and vegetables aren't anywhere less. A cup or module of garri costs how much? How much is a bag of rice in Nigerian market? What of a bag of beans? How much is a liter of petrol or kerosene or diesel?

Most investors left Nigeria in droves when this Government took over. President Buhari set up an EFCC which claimed to have arrived with an iron-fist, where even successful businessmen and women cannot make deposits into their bank accounts without being harassed by the officials of EFCC and their foot-soldiers.

What about power crisis. This is the worst making in our nation. The current Minister of Power once said that any serious Government should be able to fix and end electricity problem within 6months. Yet, after nearly 36 months of this Government, there hasn't been any remarkable improvement in power generation or supply. Adequate power supply is very important inorder to run businesses. This is also why most businesses formerly set up in Nigeria have since parked up and relocated to Ghana and other more serious nations.

What is the flow of wealth today? What is the exchange rate of our money? What is the value of our naira rate to international money market? Aside those, has the life of Nigerians improved? How many Nigerians are gainfully employed? How many Nigerians pay their bills? What's the rate of taxation and how do Nigerians meet up to those? These are questions awaiting answers and should be cleared if any progress must be made.

I write from the Caribbean island. Today, hurricane IRMA is underway and has already hit hard some nations here. We are all worried of what may become of us if it gets very serious. These are natural disasters and it's not a making of the people. Now, back home in Nigeria, the leaders and led cause our own earthquakes, hurricanes and tsunamis. There is no such thing in our land, we engineer our own. Sad!

And while I go into a mall or take a taxi or stop to eat in a cafeteria or take a bottle of Heineken in a bar, and I convert our monetary value, I simply get heartbroken. Even Trinidadian and Tobago dollars dwarfs Nigerian naira. Nothing works, absolutely nothing.

I was watching a local channel for news, and schools in Port of Spain, not in America or some part of Europe has said they aren't ready to resume because air conditioners in secondary school classrooms has to be replaced or installed and internet facility upgraded or new ones fitted back. I was once at University of West Indies in Barbados and right from the university's main gate, I got assess to free wifi. It was Strong and working efficiently. How many Nigerian universities have functional air-conditioners fitted in their lecture theaters? How many have free internet asses? Do we even have electricity to power those?

There has been an ongoing ASUU strike. Ofcourse, it's now more of a ritual happening after every four years and while our universities are left under lock and keys, with our undergraduates at their homes, whilst the Government is lackadaisical in responding to them, some Nigerian Doctors have also joined, yet someone thinks our system is flourishing and progressive, and that we are out of recession already.

The most stupid news of last week was that Nigeria's President had concluded plans to travel to the United States to honor President Donald Trump's invitation to the White House. This is a man who's house and nation is on fire.

Benue State has been flooded and media houses even in Nigerian and social media champs that are Nigerians aren't updating us on that, instead they prefer to tell us to make the hashtag, #PrayForHoustonTexas while no one knows it's important to ask the world to join us in solidarity and make the hashtag #PrayForBenueState go viral. Those were both flood disasters and none is more devastating or less important than the other.

Since that devastating hurricane and subsequently, flooding hit Texas, America's radical Caesar, Donald Trump has visited Houston twice to show solidarity to the thousands of affected people and raise the American spirit. He has gone ahead to donate the whopping sum of US$1million. The Nigerian President doesn't care. To him, Benue doesn't matter. He hasn't taught it wise to visit Benue State either to show solidarity or donate even from Government purse and taxpayers money. Instead, American trip is all that he's thinking and it remains top of priority for him, a clear case did misplaced priority.

Even Benue State Governor who once proudly gave out wheelbarrows as a way of empowering young people from his state, I reliably gathered hasn't been anyway helpful. The level of suffrage and devastation in Benue today is heartbreaking. It's sad.

Thank goodness for the power of social media which they now target to shut down. Nigerians that are active on social media fired shots endlessly and that must have informed for why the American trip was cancelled and reschedule.

Meanwhile, the weekly Federal Executive council meeting would not be holding this Wednesday, because our cluesless political class are yet to recover from Sallah celebration. This is our nation. These are our leaders. How can we make progress with these class of individuals?

It's important that we do not get deceived, misled or confused. Nigeria is still in deep trouble. We haven't recovered from any recession. Nothing serious has changed, nothing!

Until there is a clear distinction and improvement in the lives of the people and economic viability, it's all tales of lies. Recession is real and we are still in it.