It appears that this Oil price plunge of nearly 55% in value since June, when Brent traded above $117 a barrel and U.S. crude above $107 (now $53 a barrel), will hit us even harder than first imagined. This is why I think OBJ has been forced to defend the plans he made when in power, in anticipation of such happenings. The concerns of oversupply in high quality U.S. shale crude, Saudi Arabia refusal of production cuts as a means of boosting prices because it will amount to the kingdom reducing its market share, greater supply from Iraq and other OPEC countries etc, all point to one direction; prices may continue falling! If this were to continue, the income which the Federal Government of Nigeria receives, will continue to fall. State governments will be allocated less and less amounts from our Federation Account. There will be less money to do things which our people expect government to do. In very unlikely situations, some governments may struggle to pay salaries of their employees. This is especially so for those who had no effective fiscal management policies and indeed personnel to manage the now restricted funds available. The signs for 2015 are definitely not looking good indeed! It makes us listen to OBJ more intently than previously. If it is true that he kept sufficient savings for such a time when he was President, what happened between now and then that we have been caught totally unprepared for such oil revenues fall? What happened to all these savings? Why is it that when countries like Saudi Arabia are increasing their spending on their people (because they prepared effectively for these raining days), Nigerians are having to undergo another round of austerity measures? Why must we (Nigerians) be the only ones to always have the bitter pill of austerity measures? Could this be because those who design/implement our economic policies were only taught this kind of solutions when they trained for their roles? We truly need to start thinking outside of the box in this country. Doing the same thing over and over again, will not guarantee us a different set of results. Our generation has had more than its fair share of such austerity measures. There MUST be another way to do these things! #CHANGE2015
Posted on: Tue, 06 Jan 2015 06:50:22 +0000
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