Prices of practically all goods are rising in a wave, driven by the all-powerful US dollar and public response to the re-design of naira notes by the Central Bank. Those who have a mountain-load of naira notes are running all over the place to buy up the dollar from the parallel market so that the naira notes, mostly of doubtful sources, and which they cannot rush to the bank, do not become worthless in their hands.

Ask any dealer in the black market, he would give you a picture of how every dollar is being bought up. According to an Internet report, a dealer who took delivery of $3 million yesterday morning, within a twinkle of the eye, all of it had been hungrily bought. That is the international legal tender that is reckoned cannot run out of season. As of Monday, according to The Cable online publication, one needed to arm oneself with N815 to buy $1 (one US dollar). Daily Trust said in some places, it was N818 to the dollar. Whoever wants pound sterling, must arm himself with N900 and euro was N790 as of Monday. Officially the dollar sells for N435. BusinessDay says the exchange rate was heading towards N1,000 as scarcity worsens, a dramatic plunge from some put at N219 to the dollar in 2015.

Three people I follow keenly on matters of economy in the present time are Bismarck Rewane, Dr, Sam Amadi and Dr. Muda Yusuf, the erstwhile director-general of Lagos Chambers of Commerce and Industry, who is now succeeded by Dr. Chinyere Almona. They have replaced Chief Ernest Sonekan and Prof. Sam Aluko who on matters of this nature were always two parallel lines. Rewane is stepping into the optimism shoes of Sonekan. Sam Amadi and Muda Yusuf may be critical, but are yet to step fully into the shoes of Sam Aluko. An unrepentant optimist, Chief Sonekan would always say there was no cause for alarm. The Governor of Central Bank, Godwin Emefiele, is assuring the nation there is no cause for alarm.

In our plans and programmes, one critical area attention is least paid is man, who can be an agent of development, and, if he chooses, and that is what he often does, be an agent of destruction. It is neglect of the much-needed understanding of who man is that has accounted for the failure in practically all facets of human activities, and it will be the ruin, not only of Nigeria , but a majority of the countries of the world.
(This subject will be fully discussed next week).