BEWARE OF ECONOMIC RECOVERY AT ALL COST

It is cheery news of sorts that soon, the World Bank, China and the African Development Bank will  come to Nigeria's aid by extending soft loans to help cushion the effect of today's foreign currency squeeze.

No doubt, once such inflow comes in, the Naira should be able to recover considerably and thus reduce impact of naira exchange rate induced pressure on production cost of many products and services.

But, then, it must be remembered that the resultant economic recovery must be of the more permanent type resulting from more local value addition, more innovation and restructured tastes and public service delivery.

If not, what Nigeria and Nigerians will reap from the current downturn will be too ephemeral to last.

It may just be like the nation's gain from the civil war of the 60s: Nothing tangible.

At the time the war was on, Go On With One Nigeria (GOWON) made sense and the mantra then was: To keep Nigeria one, is a task that must be done. And indeed, it was done with General Gowon as the head of state, encouraging all to embrace no victor, no vanquished.

But did Nigeria and Nigerians gain apart from staying together as one nation? Nothing. We did not capitalise on the opportunities for technological growth the war offered neither did we quite succeed in fashioning true unity.

Part of that was because petrol dollars from crude oil sales became so bountiful and under the control of the centre government that it made more sense to reconstruct with imported materials and ideas, to shun expertise unless it came from  the side of the victorious.

Now once again, Nigeria has another war on its hands. Economic war for national survival and so, she must beware of the economic logic of a prostitute: All is well so long as the much desperately needed money comes to hand and back readily touches the ground in service

That will be economic recovery as a task that must be achieved at all cost.

The point is that today China is a major trading partner, I beg your pardon, trading overlord of Nigeria. So much trade flows only in one direction as exports to Nigeria and it is hoped that whatever is got from them is not just aimed at entrenching this further.

Also, the World Bank is known to be less stringent with its loans when compared with the IMF, set up more appropriately to help nations out of the kind of stranglehold now applied on Nigeria by foreign exchange earnings sharp drop.

Most times, a nod from United States of America is all you need to be guaranteed world bank support but then, unless it is targeted at poverty alleviation through local production increase, greater public service efficiency and more technology of the local kind, again, only low cost of funds will be the  benefit.

This is because, when tough times demand restructuring to get out of the rot, recovery at all cost without true restructuring will be a waste of time.

For example, when the Emir of Kano, delivered a major paper recently diagnosing Nigeria's present day economic woes, he made so much sense but then it was also very easy for him to fall into the trap of the prostitutes economics at the same time.

At a point he said that crude oil offered spending money and that Lagos was needed more by Nigeria now, not those who still insist on being treated fairly as the proceeds of crude oil is being shared.

Just like the prostitute, he so easily forgot the one who supplied the money yesterday to kick start Lagos as the nation's economic hub. He forgot too very conveniently that when Sanusi Sanusi was the governor of the central bank of Nigeria, bureau de change dealers from Kano became second only in number to Lagos.

And what where they doing? Monthly round tripping dollars officially allocated to them by the CBN while the ones from whose land the crude oil that earned the dollars was extracted, had grudgingly given 13% derivation and centrally controlled NDDC to show for it all.

Now Buhari is preaching economic sacrifice for recovery; war against corruption and militancy yet he still can not wait for the economy to fully recover before boring holes in the economic tank through free meals for school pupils and condones subsidy of pilgrimage.

So, if Nigeria must survive these times well, the restructuring required includes that of the mind set of the likes of Sanusi Sanusi and even President Buhari that tends towards we and them; not us as Nigerians when some national issues are on the table for consideration.