These are not only hard times for the whole world but also the right moment for individual countries to re-invent themselves
IT is clear to those who pay attention to signs in their lives—be they individuals or countries—that these are not only hard times for the whole world but also the right moment for individual countries to re-invent themselves in preparation for post-pandemic reality. The coronavirus pandemic has created a new awareness of the place of human beings in an interconnected world—easy to spread diseases that started one country to all the continents. Nothing has demonstrated the equality of us all before nature better than the reality of coronavirus pandemic. Many countries, especially those the pandemic met in a situation of reasonable preparedness for eventuality and those countries, like most of the postcolonial states in Africa that received the pandemic in a state of economic paralysis, have been forced by the pandemic to look back at their folly.
Regardless of whether petroleum becomes a victim to the pandemic, the post-Covid19 moment in Nigeria will be ripe for reform, as the country is likely to come out of the pandemic much poorer and less capable of make noticeable presence in the life of citizens any better than it has been in the last 20 years. And whatever reforms the country chooses to make should include preparing for post-petroleum ethos that may come, despite assurances by political leaders of return of petroleum to its former economic importance in Nigeria’s economy and governance. The complication of Nigeria’s decades of failure to nudge the country in the direction of politics of peace and prosperity before the pandemic will still require self-reform, if Nigerians seek to live in a country that spends its resources on nation building, rather than on geopolitical scheming by any ethnic group in charge of the national government.
In a recent paper, “Nigeria’s Economy After Oil: How should we prepare?” by Bode Agusto, the author called for three strategies considered crucial for Nigeria to move beyond dependence on revenue from petroleum: Improve income distribution; better manage population; and grow output. These three suggestions capture important aspects of needed economic reform. And many spokespersons for the federal government would say that many of the suggested steps to change the old economy are already receiving attention at the table of the Buhari administration. However, such steps are so far baby steps, especially that until now, reliance on oil revenue remains crucial to the economy, thus explaining what seems like collapse of the nation’s economy once the pandemic arrives and oil revenue collapses.