By Nik Ogbulie
While the Nigerian government has been ready exhibiting her huge economic potentials, including a huge human resource to the global investment public, the same discerning public have also been busy with commissioned economic intelligence experts who file tonnes of reports on Nigeria. One of such reports must have to do with political intelligence which we believe is the major bulwark that impacts investment in the country. The main reason for this is that every investor looks at whatever that may impact or influence the dictum called “entry and exit” as major business considerations. This becomes more serious in a state that largely depends on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) as major source of inflow or a growing trend of diaspora revenue base.
What is the issue here is that the major economies that battling investment difficulties try as much as possible to fence off political instability as the main way of looking good before any possible investment interest so that long term investor can come in and then begin to tinker the possibility of any growth strategy. But a situation where there are obvious developments against entry, any level of investment interest will fail as people fear the security of their funds and even life.
The political development in Nigeria in the last 15 hours where a state of emergency with a barrage of conditions have been imposed in the country exposes the incompetence of the Nigerian leadership. Apart from the fact of the economic sensitivity of the region where the emergency was declared, the fact that the government has been scouting for investors across the world would have been enough reason to effectively manage this development in an attempt not to scare some interets most of whom the government has been going about assuring of their commitments. Nobody knows how the Federal government would be able to define all these conflicts so that investors would not juxtapose the issures so that the ugly pictures it tends to create.
Since the last 15 months, the Federal Government has been making futile efforts to attract investors from mid-income economies. This failure has mainly been based on the fact of poor political stability which the Nigerian Presidency has frantically denied. The reality on ground here is that the entire country has been captured by the state through the applications of various obnoxious tools , most or all of which have remained largely vindictive and groffly innimical to progressive political, economic and social development so much so that Nigeria has remained ranked as one of the most difficult places to be considered for long term investment in the world.
Much as government’s decision to throw away the right of the citizens to be ruled democratically as may have been offered by the
constitution, the fact remains that the timing is so poor and lacks proper reflection, considering the various perceived efforts that the world would soon be coming to Nigeria. It is the biggest poor sence of blatant insensitivity for a government that has gone to some of the poorest countries in the world to close its eyes to the consequences of a state of emergency in a State that has the biggest Petroleum Resources and accounts for about 40% of its Petroleum based income.
The Presidency , its legislature and the Executive Council have demonstrated the biggest level of ignorance about citizen’s democracy and how it can boost economic development. What happens in the country in the next six months is that instability in the various realms of the economy.
Indications are also rife that the Bola Tinubu led government has already narrowed its interests on his second term political bid for 2027 even as he has barely completed two years of his first term bid of four years. Inotherwords, the government may spend only three years for real developmental work out of the constitutional period of eight years. This indicates why 2023 and 2024 budgets are still running concurrently at a time the 2025 budget still has a lid on.
Invariably, the strategic development plans for the Nigerian economy have been abandoned in favour of adhoc measures that also favour the dictates of political will.
The lopsided attention and swift decision on the political crisis in Rivers State may be one sever development global investors will critically consider before taking a flight into Nigeria as strong indications have shown that cancellations of meetings and advisories are being reported by investment advisors across the country and beyond. Funds already remitted into the country are being recalled since the last 20 hours.
Strong government sources have indicated that since the Rivers State development has been imminent since the last elections, some investors that have pledged their support had commitment. This perceived backlash may have justified the not response from active investor .
