Before the advent of SFEM, it was the vogue for economic experts to eulogise and lecture us on the beauty of a free market and how markets forces, if allowed to work without undue interference from the state, can salvage our economy.
Those of us who thought otherwise were insulted and called unpatriotic. Our protestations that there is nothing free about market forces went unheeded. So too, were our feeble voices of protest. Instead of public opinion, government was advised to listen to experts and their opinions have been around for sometimes “ and you can not talk about the mismanagement of Nigerian economy or the transition from oil boom to oil doom without mentioning the roles they have played.
Thus, as part of efforts to invoke the gods of market forces, privatization was resorted to, the Structural Adjustment Programme was predicated on free market forces and the withdrawal of undue government interference from economic affairs. The Naira was to find its value in a market dominated by big transnational corporations with headquarters overseas.
Interestingly, not long after, soon after the SFEM took off, some ˜financial gurus began to complain that the Naira could be undervalued, while others said that there was need fro some central mechanism. So now, market forces, which are free, under which realistic values are determined can bring about under-valuation. Whoever heard about such a thing before SFEM. Naira, we were told, could never be undervalued or overvalued, it could only certainly find its true and realistic value in the market.
Now, true to speculations of skeptics, spiraling inflation is here with us. Even those who do not want to believe have to concede to this reality. The simple mathematics of SFEM (Dont mind my bolekaja understanding0 teaches us, that prices are not very high because, before our Naira was unrealistically overvalued. Now that it has been brought down to its true value “ we have to readjust our belts. The reality of the situation is that, we cannot afford to ignore the fact that the value of the Naira today cannot be equated with what it was before. So, we have to pay higher for whatever we need. This should go on even if peoples pockets are torn into shreds till the Naira finds its value, production is boosted and the economy finds itself readjusted.
Thus, if this is the philosophy of the SFEM market forces, the launching of the campaign against inflation is in bad taste and very deceptive “ similarly, to tell motorists not to hike the cost of their services would be denying them what by the grace of SFEM they should have. Firstly, it must be pointed out that market forces, and not government, should determine the value and state of everything. By virtue of the guiding principles of SFEM, government declaration of any price increase is illegal cannot be in the interest of SFEM and should not be.
My humble argument is that you cannot set a chain of action in motion and expect people to be indifferent “ or blame them for reacting to what you have done. In this case, newspaper houses, transporters, who want to adjust their belts should not be told to stop. And we should not be deceived into believing that the current inflationary trend was unexpected. If indeed it is unexpected then it means that, as several Nigerians charged during the SFEM ˜enlightenment period, the gurus of SFEM did not fully understand what it stood for. If, on the other hand, they knew and advised government about inflation, then there is no reason for giving the impression that it is an unexpected side effect.
The other alternative question would be whether we are now afraid of the monster called ˜Market Forces which we ill-understood after opening the Pandoras box. If this is the situation, then as a human rights regime, we should be told the truth however bitter.
There is no two-way about it. SFEM and indeed, all economic policies border on survival, very few people, if any, joke with their survival. Fewer still would want to die.
By Rima Shawulu
The Standard, Thursday, December 18, 1986, page 4