The post second world war United Nations' guarantee of sovereignty for all duly registered member states has given rise to a new class of sovereign states which I call 'The Inept State'. These states remain sovereign only because the UN guarantees their sovereignty, not because they deserve or merit that status as did all pre industrial sovereign states on the global stage back then during the pre industrial era. This is a lax and it serves as a drag down for humanity as a whole. Such states represent a permanent obstruction on the path of human advancement. Many are not real nations, their subgroups argue amongst themselves on population figures, they accuse each other of inflating figures to reap benefits, the nations are international fraud and crime havens, they undulge in human trafficking and etc. They are a spectacle of disharmony, disorganisation and disorientation. They never get anything done right. A good example is Nigeria.


Nigeria's government sells crude oil to raise revenue in dollars but the bulk of their expenditure is in Naira to pay civil and public servants, then contractors of all kinds. The revenue of government is well over 90 percent oil dollars which the government exchanges for Naira to offset Naira bills and pay Naira expenditures. So it is easy to see that if the government got 50 billion dollars last year from oil and 20 billion dollars this year due to factors they have no control over, they still have thesame Naira value of salaries and other expenditures to cover. Therefore the interest of the government will lie in the Naira falling in value against the dollar, so that 20 billion dollars of this year will be able to exchange for thesame naira value of 50 billion dollars of last year. This is easy for the government to achieve since they control the central bank.


To achieve the above, the government tinkers with Naira supply to achieve N350 to the dollar as against N160 to the dollar of last year. The effect is felt immediately by the citizens as the price of imports soars!.

Then the rhetorics begin! Let us reduce our imports, buy locally made goods and that will return the currency to the pre inflationary value! Say the local eggheads!. Atimes, the government prints money, then attempt to fix exchange rates in a bid to save their face, then the IMF advises them 'Free float your currency, be honest, do not muscle things!, you can not suddenly increase the supply of something and expect the value not to fall!, Restructure your economy and country and diversify your government income source!. Then PhDs, Professors and etc will start blaming Europe and America for using the Bretton woods institutions to dictate to their leaders and ruin their economy!. They will start complaining those institutions are forcing debts on them!. When as a matter of fact, the average third world nation is relatively debt free by European or North American standards!.


Nobody in Nigeria of 180 million really understands why the dollar was 157 in 2015 and 500 in 2016. They are too lazy to consider the matter properly. They do not understand that the government printed money, thereby causing inflation because the dollars they are getting, if changed at the old rates, can not get them the Naira they need!. Only solution of course is to stop the government entirely from depending on forex income. Norway of 5 million did that. Tax your people and raise money in your local currency!.


Rather than this, the government sells a dummy story of recession to the masses!. What is a recession? Go and read up about the Great Depression. That was the first shock experienced by the industrialized world. Goods were being produced by companies faster than there were buyers and everything crashed momentarily. Companies laid people off etc. Since then, as a counter measure in industrialized nations, more emphasis has been placed on who will buy what is been produced, hence the welfare state!


What is happening in Nigeria is not a recession but a reduction in government income but the government should not have been totally dependent on income from an insignificant sector of the economy. The oil brings in maybe 10% of forex. No forex scarcity in Nigeria!. You are thinking of Venezuela!. Go to supermarkets across the country. They are filled to the brim with goods imported with forex!.


However, those who produce for export (cocoa, charcoal, coffee, pko etc) are gainers along with government when the currency is inflated.


WHEN THE GOVERNMENT DOES NOT KNOW ITS RIGHT FROM ITS LEFT AND THE MASS OF THE INTELLIGENTSIA ARE IN THESAME BOAT, BLAMING THE IMF, WORLD BANK, BRITAIN AND ETC AND EVEN CHINA, RUSSIA FOR THEIR WOES, THESAME PEOPLE GUARANTEEING THEIR UNMERITED SOVEREIGNTY
UNLIKE THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THEIR ANCESTORS, SUCH A STATE IS AN INEPT STATE, A FAILED STATE.