Fascinating read. My overall macroeconomic takeaway is that Nigeria would’ve been better off letting the Nairu float freely, or perhaps even be tied to some kind of US Dollar peg, given that earnings were nearly all from petroleum, which is priced in dollars. The same with agricultural prices. Let the market price goods.
My recollection of that era is that many newly independent African countries were smitten with the idea of socialism and top down policies. It has held back development there, as it does everywhere it’s tried. I look forward to the next installment
This isnt independence though. This is the 1980s. I think Babangida would have been killed if he just did a straight float, he already had a coup attempt for cutting military salaries.
I wanted to talk about this. Are you referring to the Vatsa coup? Where Babangida killed his best friend, who he was best man to at his wedding, on baseless allegations?
True, though some of their leaders seemed to share the same top down, command style government policies endemic to much of Africa then. I think they were influenced by the same zeitgeist.
Hey Olamide, frankly a lot happened during Babanginda's era, and i have been working for over a month in how to organize the article. I couldnt cram everything in one 16 minute read. Most of this was focused on the SAP because frankly, most people, even Nigerians dont really get rhe impact of the SAP or how he swapped the IMF loan with the World Bank.
Babangida will probably be 2 or 3 parter. But i disagree with your characterization that this was charitable. Literally everything was mixed/terrible except agricultural liberalization. I mentioned the round tripping corruption, the back tracked promises, and the killed university students. But i'll discuss more next time. Like if you meant the death of Giwa, that's for next time.
Babangida has a rotten reputation in Nigeria's history. So, the writeup is relatively charitable since it paints what he did as a mixed bag as opposed to an evil machination of the evil genius to rob Nigeria blind?
When I think of the corruption of Babangida I think of 4 things:
1) round tripping (which i wrote about)
2) the gulf war oil windfall in extra budgetary accounts which I havent spoken about yet since that's late 1990/early 1991
3) settlement culture which became a big issue after the 1990 coup (which i havent gotten to yet)
4) the co-opting of the two candidates, and then getting upset when abiola won, the shifting goal posts
Literally most of the things you associate with Babangida's corruption, I havent gotten there yet. This article was just mainly about the SAP because of the deep confusion that even Nigerians have about why he did the SAP, the performance of the SAP, and how he did tbe SAP. But again I only got up to 1989. If it seems "charitable" which i dont think it is, its very mixed/mediocre except with the farmers, then that's because that's how it performed. The article was more finance and econ focused, and i'll be more politically focused next time. At least that's the plan. Although i might need to write a another econ focused piece with privatization and the Brady bonds.
Fascinating read. My overall macroeconomic takeaway is that Nigeria would’ve been better off letting the Nairu float freely, or perhaps even be tied to some kind of US Dollar peg, given that earnings were nearly all from petroleum, which is priced in dollars. The same with agricultural prices. Let the market price goods.
My recollection of that era is that many newly independent African countries were smitten with the idea of socialism and top down policies. It has held back development there, as it does everywhere it’s tried. I look forward to the next installment
This isnt independence though. This is the 1980s. I think Babangida would have been killed if he just did a straight float, he already had a coup attempt for cutting military salaries.
I wanted to talk about this. Are you referring to the Vatsa coup? Where Babangida killed his best friend, who he was best man to at his wedding, on baseless allegations?
Also did you read my earlier parts on Nigeria? Nigeria never really had a socialist president compared to other african countries.
True, though some of their leaders seemed to share the same top down, command style government policies endemic to much of Africa then. I think they were influenced by the same zeitgeist.
Woahhhh. This is a really charitable reading of Babangida. Where is the corruption? The murders? The looting?
I hope you cover that in your next article.
Hey Olamide, frankly a lot happened during Babanginda's era, and i have been working for over a month in how to organize the article. I couldnt cram everything in one 16 minute read. Most of this was focused on the SAP because frankly, most people, even Nigerians dont really get rhe impact of the SAP or how he swapped the IMF loan with the World Bank.
Babangida will probably be 2 or 3 parter. But i disagree with your characterization that this was charitable. Literally everything was mixed/terrible except agricultural liberalization. I mentioned the round tripping corruption, the back tracked promises, and the killed university students. But i'll discuss more next time. Like if you meant the death of Giwa, that's for next time.
Babangida has a rotten reputation in Nigeria's history. So, the writeup is relatively charitable since it paints what he did as a mixed bag as opposed to an evil machination of the evil genius to rob Nigeria blind?
Again I just wrote up to 1989 so far.
When I think of the corruption of Babangida I think of 4 things:
1) round tripping (which i wrote about)
2) the gulf war oil windfall in extra budgetary accounts which I havent spoken about yet since that's late 1990/early 1991
3) settlement culture which became a big issue after the 1990 coup (which i havent gotten to yet)
4) the co-opting of the two candidates, and then getting upset when abiola won, the shifting goal posts
Literally most of the things you associate with Babangida's corruption, I havent gotten there yet. This article was just mainly about the SAP because of the deep confusion that even Nigerians have about why he did the SAP, the performance of the SAP, and how he did tbe SAP. But again I only got up to 1989. If it seems "charitable" which i dont think it is, its very mixed/mediocre except with the farmers, then that's because that's how it performed. The article was more finance and econ focused, and i'll be more politically focused next time. At least that's the plan. Although i might need to write a another econ focused piece with privatization and the Brady bonds.