Coronavirus, oil slump: Nigeria worst hit with mono economy ? Ekweremadu

Former Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu has said that the global pandemic, Coronavirus, and the dwindling oil price will hit Nigeria most hard because the country operates a mono-economy, dependent only on oil. Ekweremadu said that if the country was economically restructured, the two global impacts would not have been felt by the entire country since the 36 states would have been operating 36 different economies, based on their comparative advantages. He forecasts that if the pandemic with its attendant slump in oil price continues, Nigeria would find it difficult to pay salaries in the next four months. Ekweremadu also suggested that since most Nigerian’s were traders and the country a consumer nation, government may have to augment the traders purse that would have become lean when Coronavirus would have finished ravaging, due to the lockdown in economic activities.

“On the issue of Coronavirus, most of our people are traders and we are consumer nation. Now that most of the factories in Asia and Europe are closing and we are selling our last items in the shops. When that happens, I am not sure of refilling the stock and our brothers and sisters will start eating from their capital. So anytime the factories resume, I would like to appeal to the government to find a way of having packages for them,” Ekweremadu suggested. He made the statements at the maiden Annual Lecture of the Faculty of Law, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, delivered by the President of the National Industrial Court, Justice B.B Kanyip, in Enugu on Thursday. The former Deputy Senate President blamed the immediate adverse effects of the slump in oil price on Nigeria, on the refusal to structure the nation as a federal state to diversify the her economy, adding that the implication was that rather than enjoying about 36 economies along the federating units, Nigeria was stuck with a mono-economy driven by oil. Ekweremadu said “It is no longer news that a combination of the Coronavirus pandemic and the crude oil price war between Russia and Saudi Arabia, is already taking huge tolls on our economy and the 2020 budget. Whereas our budget was hinged on $57 oil benchmark, the price of oil crashed further to $24 on Wednesday.