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The
death of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua will usher in stability to the
nation’s economy, some finance analysts and capital market operators
said on Thursday in Lagos.

Martin
Oluba, a professor of economics and President of ValueFronteira
Limited, a consulting firm, said Mr. Yar’Adua’s demise “may not really
make any additional impact” on the economy apart from stabilising the
system which the new president, Goodluck Jonathan, has been trying to
achieve while acting as president.

“I
think people in business, before now, have come to terms with the
reality of Yar’Adua’s inexistence within the system,” Mr. Oluba said.

“People
have since seen Jonathan as the man in charge. The only thing that has
happened now is that it has concretized the fact that those who had
tried to create some disequilibrium or frictions within the system can
now go and rest permanently and leave the current government to achieve
some stability in the polity,” Mr. Oluba said.

More positive impact

On
the reaction of the capital market to his death, Mr. Oluba said, “I
think we would expect some more positive impact at the capital market
because the distractions faced by the current government would have
been put to an end. People will have more confidence in the market
because we are not going to expect any change again.” He added that a
lot of things depend on expectations.

“We
are not going to expect now that Yar’Adua’s wife is going to create
problems when it comes to getting a new president as we approach 2011.
We are not going to expect again that some people who are allies of
Yar’Adua and had been very loyal to him would come back and begin to
forment trouble. His death actually put to an end to such ripples that
would have come from that quarter,” said the economist.

On
the crisis that may erupt in the appointment of the nation’s vice
president, Mr. Oluba said, “I don’t think there is going to be much of
a problem if the president appoints who will be his vice. Troubles can
only evolve if he appoints a candidate that is not very acceptable to
the people.”

Greater stability

Also
commenting, Rasheed Ola Yussuff, chief executive officer of Trust
Yields Securities Limited, said the economy will soon start to reflect
the new development.

“I believe the capital market will also start reacting from tomorrow (Friday),” Mr. Yussuff said.

“The
man has been ill for quite some time and there is this uncertainty in
the economy, but now that God has put finality to it, hopefully that
will bring some stability,” said Mr. Yussuff, who is also the chairman
of the Association of Stockbroking Houses of Nigeria.

Tunde
Oladapo-Dixon, chief executive officer, StockPicks Consulting, another
stock broking firm, said President Goodluck Jonathan now has the power
to act fully. Nigerians should see, in the economy, more actions from
the presidency and activities in the ongoing reforms in all sectors.

“Those
actions in the long run will affect the capital market because the
psychology of investors would have change to the fact that this is a
new era. Very soon everybody will want to be a major player in the
market,” he said.

Meanwhile,
Sola Oni, the spokesperson of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, said trading
activities will resume today at the Exchange after its operators
“complied with the public holiday declared on Thursday by the federal
government as corporate citizens.” The late president remains the only
Nigerian president who had visited the nation’s stock Exchange. He
visited the NSE on 7 November, 2007, barely six months in office.