ECONOMY CRISIS AND IMF LOAN: Nigeria Opts For Self-Medication

The message delivered by the IMF Managing Director, Ms. Christine Lagarde when she visited Nigeria earlier in the year was that only Nigeria can help herself out of her economic quagmire. I also re­membered her advising Nigeria to address some structural defects ob­served in the economy if Naira de­valuation was not an option.

President Muhammadu Buhari has also been using every opportu­nity of any of his foreign trips to ex­plain that Naira cannot be devalued further. Even when the local neo-co­lonialists sharks in concert with their foreign partners went the whole hug campaigning for further devaluation of the Naira, they got the snub of the President. Consequently, they em­barked on destructive campaign - ‘Emefiele Must Be Sacked’. Yet, the President stood solidly behind the CBN governor.

A bold and reassuring statement ever made by any official of govern­ment in Nigeria, even in the con­tinent to any neo-colonialist in­stitution, is the one credited to the Nigeria’s Finance Minister, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, at the just conclud­ed annual Spring Meetings of the two multilateral institutions – IMF and the World Bank in Washington D.C. where she was quoted to have told the IMF boldly that “IMF could be a doctor, but for Nigeria our mes­sage is not sick, and even if we are, we have our own local remedy”. In medical science at times there can be a critical choice between going with a doctor that will worsen your case or seek self-help. In the context of the current economic situation, it’s obvious that Nigeria has rightly set­tled for the later.