With 32.70 per cent headline inflation, 40.20 per cent food inflation, and bread inflation of 45 per cent, all caused by the removal of subsidies from petrol and electricity, and the government’s policy of allowing market forces to determine the value of the Naira, Nigerians are reeling under high cost of living.

The observation by Obi Alfred Achebe of Onitsha, that “The wellbeing of the people has declined more steeply in the last months,” leads to doubts about the “Renewed Hope” slogan of President Bola Tinubu’s government that is perceived as extravagant, whilst asking Nigerians to be patient and wait for its unfolding economic policies to mature.

It doesn’t look as if it will abate soon, Adebayo Adelabu, Minister of Power, who seems ready to hike electricity tariffs again, recently argued that the N225 per kilowatt hour of electricity that Discos charge Band A premium customers is lower than the N750 and N950 respective costs of running privately-owned petrol or diesel generators.

While noting that 129 million, or 56 per cent of Nigerians are trapped below poverty line, the World Bank revealed that real per capita Gross Domestic Product, which disregards the service industry component, is yet to recover from the pre-2016 economic depression under the government of Muhammadu Buhari.

This has led many to begin to doubt the government’s World Bank and International Monetary Fund-inspired neo-liberal economic policies that seem to have further impoverished poor Nigerians, practically eliminated the middle class, and is making the rich also cry.

Yet the World Bank, which is not letting up, recently pontificated that “previous domestic policy missteps (based mainly on its own advice) are compounding the shocks of rising inflation (that is) eroding the purchasing power of the people… and this policy is pushing many (citizens) into poverty.”

It zeroes in by asking Nigeria to stay the gruelling course, which Ibukun Omole thinks “is nothing more than a manifesto for exploitation… a blatant attempt to continue the cycle of exploitation… a tool of imperialism, promoting the same policies that have kept Nigeria under the thumb of… neocolonial agenda for decades.”

When Indermilt Gill, Senior Vice President of the World Bank, told the 30th Summit of Nigeria’s Economic Summit Group, in Abuja, Federal Capital Territory, that Nigerians may have to endure the harrowing economic conditions for another 10 to 15 years, attendees murmured but didn’t walk out on him because of Nigerian’s tradition of politeness to guests.

Governor Bala Muhammed of Bauchi State, who agrees with the World Bank that “purchasing power has dwindled,” also thinks that “these (World Bank-inspired) policies, usually handed down by arm-twisting compulsions, are not working.”

What seems to be trending now is the suggestion that because these neo-liberal policies do not seem to be helping the economy and the citizens of Nigeria, at least in the short term, it would be better to think up homegrown solutions to Nigeria’s economic problems.

Late Speaker of America’s House of Representatives, Tip O’Neill, is quoted to have quipped that, at the end of the day, “All politics is local.” He may have come to that conclusion after observing that it takes the locals in a community to know what is best for them.

This aphorism must apply to economics, a field of study that is derived from sociology, which is the study of the way of life of a people. Proof of this is in “The Wealth of Nations,” written by Adam Smith, who is regarded as the first scholar of economics.

In his Introduction to the Penguin Classics edition of “The Wealth of Nations,” Andrew Skinner observes: “Adam Smith was undoubtedly the remarkable product of a remarkable age and one whose writing clearly reflects the intellectual, social and economic conditions of the period.”

To drive the point home that Smith’s book was written for his people and his time, Skinner reiterated that “the general ‘philosophy,’ which it contained was so thoroughly in accord with the aspirations and circumstances of his age.”

In a Freudian slip of the Darwinist realities of the Industrial Revolution that birthed individualism, capitalism, and global trade, Smith averred that “How selfish soever man may be supposed, there are evidently some principle in his nature which interest him in the fortune of others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though he derives nothing from it, except the pleasures of seeing it.”

And, he let it slip that capitalism is for the advantage of Europe when he confessed that “Europe, by not leaving things at perfect liberty (the so-called Invisible Hand), occasions… inequities,” by “restraining the competition in some trades to a smaller number… increasing it in others beyond what it naturally would be… and… free circulation of labour (or expertise) and stocks (goods) both from employment to employment and from place to place!”

Policymakers, who think Bretton Woods institutions will advise policies to replicate the success of the Euro-American economy in Nigeria must be daydreaming. After advising elimination of subsidy, as global best practices that reflect market forces, they failed to suggest that Nigeria’s N70,000 monthly minimum wage, neither reflects the realities of the global marketplace, nor Section 16(2,d) of Nigeria’s Constitution, which suggests a “reasonable national minimum living wage… for all citizens.”

After Alex Sienart, World Bank’s lead economist in Nigeria, pointed out that the wage increase will directly affect the lives of only 4.1 per cent of Nigerians, he suggested that Nigeria needed more productive jobs to reduce poverty. But he neither explained “productive jobs,” nor suggested how to create them.

In admitting past wrong economic policies that the World Bank recommended for Nigeria, its former President, Jim Yong Kim, confessed, “I think the World Bank has to take responsibility for having emphasized hard infrastructure –roads, rails, energy– for a long time…

“There is still the bias that says we will invest in hard infrastructure, and then we grow rich, (and) we will have enough money to invest in health and education. (But) we are now saying that’s the wrong approach, that you’ve got to start investing in your people.”

Kim is a Korean-American physician, health expert, and anthropologist, whose Harvard University and Brown University Ivy League background shapes his decidedly “Pax American” worldview of America’s dominance of the world economy.

Despite his do-gooder posturing, his diagnoses and prescriptions still did not quite address the root cause of Nigeria’s economic woes, nor provide any solutions. They were mere diversions that stopped short of the way forward.

He should have advocated for the massive accumulation of capital and investments in the local production of manufacturing machinery, industrial spare parts, and raw materials—items that are currently imported, weakening Nigeria’s trade balance.

He should have pushed for the completion of Ajaokuta Steel Mill and helped to line up investors with managerial, technical, and financial competence to salvage Nigeria’s electricity sector, whose poor run has been described by Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, President of Africa Development Bank, as “killing Nigerian industries.”

He could have assembled consultants to accelerate the conversion of Nigeria’s commuter vehicles to Compressed Natural Gas and get banks of the metropolitan economies, that hold Nigeria’s foreign reserves in their vaults, to invest their low-interest funds into Nigeria’s agriculture— so that Nigeria will no longer import foodstuffs.

Nigerians need homegrown solutions to their economic woes.

Next week, the East African Community, especially the original three members Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, will be marking their revival Silver Jubilee, which is also an opportunity to reflect on 25 years after the passing of regional integration icon Mwalimu Julius Nyerere.

The integrationist and pro-federation Mwalimu would certainly be happy with the revival of the EAC. But how contented humanist Nyerere who committed his then poor country’s resources and lives to the emancipation of fellow Africans would be with the goings on in the region, can only be debated.

Hundreds of Tanzanian men and women at Nyerere’s command gave their lives so Ugandans would be saved from a dictatorship that attached low value to human life and “disappeared” political dissenters, with a few whose bodies were found having been disfigured sometimes with acid. In Kenya, extra-judicial executions of high-profile political dissenters were also being carried albeit with more sophistication than Uganda’s.

Should some people in Tanzania start derailing that lovely country backwards to catch up with the murderous Uganda and Kenya of the 1970s and criminalise the holding of different political views, then we would beg the EAC to find its manhood and insist that members start hiring expatriate ministers to man certain portfolios thus: For Justice and Law, expatriate ministers from the Scandinavian states would be preferable. But of course, beneficiaries of injustice and illegality would argue that ours are independent sovereign states; so to hell with protection of human lives.

For promotion of Trade and Tourism, expatriates from the United Arab Emirates would fit the bill. But of course, beneficiaries of poaching, smuggling and tax evasion would argue that ours are independent sovereign states; so to hell with expansion of trade and tourism.

For Industry, Indian expatriate ministers would do well to drive import substitution while creating millions of jobs in the region. But of course, beneficiaries of raw materials exportation and importation of consumer goods would oppose and argue that ours are independent sovereign states; so, to hell with the unemployed, human health and environmental protection.

For Finance and Economic Planning, Singaporean expatriate ministers would be appropriate, but of course beneficiaries of grand corruption and incompetence would argue passionately that ours are independent states; so let the taxes be stolen so the awful service delivery gets even worse while debilitating debts mount.

For Transport Infrastructure, expatriate ministers from the Netherlands would be suitable because integrated systems of air, rail, road and water were needed by yesterday, so that transport ceases being an obstacle and becomes an enabler of development instead.

But of course, beneficiaries dominant, inefficient transport modes will argue that we are independent, sovereign states; so let primitive transport systems and fragmented airspaces remain and keep the cost of living and doing business up.

For Energy, Japanese expatriate ministers would do the job to speedily guide our economies through the energy transition, and transfer technology like Chinese have done in Uganda to create local capacity to make electric vehicles.

But to drastically reduce reliance on fossil fuels some countries should consider hiring Ethiopian expatriate ministers who will know best how to say enough is enough, switch from internal combustion engines to electric.

US expatriate ministers can also be considered to help the adaptation of our aviation sectors to sustainable biofuel in addition to driving the processing of rare earth minerals into e-mobility batteries.

But profiteers from the poisoned fossil fuels would say we are independent and sovereign; so let fuel import bills remain high and the peoples’ health be damaged.

The all-important Education sector should without doubt be entrusted to expatriate ministers from Finland for wholesome development of our children.

But of course, the beneficiaries of the extortionist private schools and the cripplingly looted public institutions would argue that these are sovereign independent states; so let the children continue getting mentally stunted and unemployable.

And in Health, of course, the expatriate ministers should be from Sweden, to ensure that everyone accesses adequate health services. Expectedly, beneficiaries of public funds to secure treatment abroad and those who benefit from stolen medical supplies would argue that ours are independent sovereign states; so that the wanton deaths of children and mothers continue.

Give the Housing to expatriate Chinese ministers so we close the era of human beings living in pigsties. However, those who benefit from a disorganised, stunted housing sector would argue that we are independent sovereign states so the majority can continue living sub-humanly.

Joachim Buwembo is a Kampala based journalist. buwembo@gmail.com