IF FREEDOM DEFINES CITIZENSHIP THEN NIGERIA IS A COUNTRY WITHOUT A CITIZEN Written by KEMKA S. IBEJI

Bringing ideas from the ivory towers down to the marketplace has always been an idea I support intensely. It does not matter the quality of your grammar or the polished phonetics to render your speeches with, I am always attentive to the facticity of its pragmatism. Let it be realistic and solution based.

It is for the foregoing that I severally referred a question to economists here and other authorities in international trade, commerce and foreign exchange market. Like I have said many times, their theories which submit the determination of exchange rate of currencies to the strides of balance of trade are seriously wanting in logical validity owing to our commonsense experiences. And I have severally asked them this question; what if Nigerian government today makes a proclamation that henceforth, Naira shall be exchanged for #1 @ $I, what will happen?

Many a time, they have remained silent and never answering anything and those who manage to make some response go directly to beg the question. They simply will say "the government cannot do that". Laughable!

Let me allow the verbose theorists to retain the exercise of their provincial vocation. Now let us think a little about banking in Nigeria.

Statistics just revealed that out of the N3.6 Trillion which is the assumed total money in circulation today, only about 12% of it is in the banking system which means that 88%, which is about N3.2 trillion is outside the banking system. Before I talk about why it will even get worse, let us discuss the recent Monetary Policy Committee comedy of increasing the Monetary Policy Rate, MPR, to 22.5% and the Cash Reserve Ratio, CRR, to 45%.

This policy summersault highly depends on the dying fashion of corruption and ineptitude. This information above shows that the real business in the entire Nigeria should depend on the thin 12% in the bank. Meanwhile, we also know that banks in Nigeria are not into business except government supported fraud against the citizens. It simply means that no genuine business in Nigeria should expect any form of support from the banks. Hope you understand what that means?

There is no bank in Nigeria!

Now on why I assure you all that very soon banking will be forgotten in Nigeria, it is a certitude that if there is an alternative to banking in Nigeria today, nobody will ever walk close to any banking hall again in Nigeria. Banking is a trust based act and exercise. But today, Nigerians bank without trust and if you understand what that means you will agree with me that Nigerians have banking as one unavoidable evil. One could even refer to banking in Nigeria as an extension of prisons because they have violated the freedom of the citizens. Any day banking will have an alternative in Nigeria, everyone will realise this point. It will be a declaration of freedom for all.

Citizens suffer to establish businesses, strive to fund them, go through the unfortunately unfriendly policies of the government, get across the predicaments of insecurity of all kinds threatening their lives, their businesses, their seed funds and many more, eventually they raise proceeds and deposit them in the banks. Sadly, the banks turn into leaking pockets with indiscriminate debits ranging from ignoble kobo to unnoticeable Naira. They debit you for text messages, debit you for withdrawals, debit you for deposits, debit you for electronic transfers, debit for shaking your body in your own room and thereafter they go into defrauding the citizens. You wake up in the morning and find some funny debit alert, and sometimes you have no description to such debit. This is even good enough that the thief informs you, they go further into silent debits that you will never get alerts for.

In all this, the government looks the other way. They have turned the common will of the people into dreaded weapons and now chasing after their lives with them. The citizens have lost the entirety of their safety of lives and property. Nigerians now live like animals in the jungle. You simply are sure that you are going out for the day but you are not sure of your return. Even when we return after the day with report of having lost one or a few, we gather to thank God for not losing all.

Now you can imagine why if you leave the gate of Nigeria open today, you will not see a single Nigerian staying behind. Everybody now wants to run away to a foreign land and such is now called japa. Those who have gone this way, not many have good news sent home yet all else want to join the bandwagon. Have you asked why?

No prisoner wants to stay back once the shackles are broken into pieces and when the prison gates are smacked ajar. This is a testament that Nigeria is presently a prison and all her citizens are either prisoners, wardens, exiles, asylums, fugitives or hostages. No citizen here or there is therefore free.