Nigeria Content Online

Any time we finally
agree to take the tentative steps required to reconstruct this country,
the most striking proof of the unpleasant consequences of the inept way
the country has been governed over the years will be the way in which
distortions to the functioning of the economy now interact with every
sphere of our lives. I used to imagine that the strongest failing
described by this negative feedback loop was that of the market. We
still distrust the market. It is in the popular imagination, akin to a
beast of prey with a morbid craving for the flesh of the vulnerable in
societies. Concerned about the impersonal effect of the market on the
poor and the elderly amongst us, we have over the years acceded to
bureaucrats the right to make key decisions over how much of our
resources go towards certain sectors of the economy, and when.

Of course, this is
one of the larger paradoxes of life in this country. For simultaneously
as we invest bureaucrats with responsibility for decisions on the
commons, we can scarce trust them with such responsibility over our own
lives and property. In the popular imagination, they are no different
from bandits, able and willing to loot at will. What logic then makes
it okay that they sit in judgement over the national purse? Every day,
we see evidence of the failure of this arrangement. No sector of our
economy is where it should be considering the resources we reportedly
have expended in these directions over the years. Worse still, a number
of sectors that were in considerably decent fettle at the end of the
colonial administration have fallen way behind their peers elsewhere.

There are other
evidence. In those sectors of the economy where our favoured
bureaucrats have lesser influence, the difference is notable. Two of
these are outstanding: the wholesale and retail trade sector; and the
telecommunications sector. Here prices respond in real time to signals
from the market. Moreover, we see a general tendency for prices to go
down, or (which is just putting it differently) for suppliers to
continuously increase supply and differentiate their product/service
offerings. Alas, we also see businesses in these sectors laying off
their staff, and now and again shutting down whole assembly lines. But
this is as it should be. For only an economy, led by bureaucrats can
continue to proffer a line of goods and services when the market has
clearly expressed its preference for something else. Or how else could
NEPA (nay, PHCN) and a host of government run corporations continue to
exist?

If the “market” as
“electorate” had a choice in the matter, we would have long since shut
these institutions down a la NITEL. “Government by the public sector”
is not just one reason why this economy has not developed as well as it
might. It would seem, on this reasoning, that our system of economic
management is also implicit in our failure to develop as a democracy.
Our decision to allow the public sector directly allocate resources
within the economy is the greatest let on individual exercise of choice.

None of this is
saying anything new really. At best, I might be charged with putting a
new spin on this phenomenon. Nonetheless, there ain’t many Nigerians
who have given passing thoughts to these issues who then failed to
reach the conclusion that the way we have managed the economy over the
years adds greatly to the relatively high domestic cost of doing
business. And that the relatively high cost of doing business in this
country is a major problem across board.

So far, one can
explain the high cost in the real estate sector. This is arguably where
the public sector’s influence is most pernicious: what with the myriad
rules and regulations, including ones, which add so much to the
mortgage process, making even this inaccessible to the economically
vulnerable amongst us. However, of late, the main costs for putting up
a building in the country have remained stable. It is instead, the
labour component that has gone up. Now, in a labour-rich, and fairly
poor country, this is strange indeed. Recall the feedback loop, and
this is properly explained, however. Our youths would rather get rich,
than work trying. Accordingly, the pipeline of apprentice masons,
bricklayers, etc. has thinned, making the custom of the few available
master artisans expensive.