BETWEEN INDIA AND NIGERIA

Today, India and Nigeria have one thing in common: Anti corruption war that has brought their economies to the brink.

Nigeria's President Buhari's approach to the war is certainly different from that of India's prime minister Narendra Modi but the harvest of both efforts presently is more or less the same.

Just last month Modi had started to fulfil his anti corruption campaign promise by  stopping India's then biggest currency notes, 500 and 1000 rupees, from being legal tender and so, directed all of India to exchange them for other notes including a new 2000 rupees note before December 30.

They had the option of exchanging the notes or depositing into their accounts in bank branches. They also could withdraw the new notes through ATMs.

It looked a simple directive but Modi had his eyes fixed only on blocking fake notes; monies earned and stashed away corruptly or what many called black money, from circulating further in the system.

What he did not see was that the whole thing will virtually lead to daily long queues all over India; deaths as people waited eagerly to exchange peanuts and massive shortage of new notes given the rate the old notes were deposited or exchanged in spite of caps placed on withdrawal and deposits.

Today, indian economy is on reverse gear; opposition groups are up in arms and the Indian supreme court is inundated with petitions and suits challenging not just the legality of the action led by the government and not by the Reserves Bank Of India but also, the legality of the new notes given words inscribed in them.

In Nigeria, Buhari's approach has had the same effect without long queues any where. There is hunger and depression across the land, political groups and parties are under intense strain, all arms of government are under investigation or attack except the government or party in power and the economy is in shambles because, acknowledges Buhari, corruption is fighting back.

But the truth really is that both the Indian and Nigerian economies had been too dependent on corruption and illegal money to stay healthy while any genuine anti corruption war was on.

However, the Indian economy was bound to fair better because it was not a mono export product economy; it had no military and paramilitary class that must be armed to the teeth and deployed to maintain internal security and above all, it has a good track of patronage of local content, encouragement of local value added and great support from Indians in diaspora.

Nigeria, on the other hand, is very entrenched in parasitism; high taste for foreign products and you chop, I chop once it is your turn, as a style of governance.

Obviously, India's present woes should be over by December 30 this year but it is doubtful if that of Nigeria will be over by December 2017.

And India too may be better off at the end of it all but it is also doubtful if, even after all past looters have been hunted down and disgraced, corruption will be a thing of the past in Nigeria.

That we will know for sure the day Buhari leaves Aso Rock and the hunter and his men become the hunted. Don't worry, the day will surely come.

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