The misery Nigerians are enduring—fuel scarcity, naira shortage, energy crisis, and a host of other problems—resembles the dysfunction that occurs when professionals go on strike. In many ways, the government itself appears to be on strike. The line between labor unions laying down their tools and government officials claiming to be “hard at work” has become blurred. The government’s ineptitude makes its “work” no better—and perhaps even worse—than no work at all. The principle of “no work, no pay” that is invoked when workers strike should equally apply to officials who fail in their duties.
Some may argue that the government has not embarked on industrial action like labor unions. Yet one could also contend that the current situation exists precisely because administrators are actively working—albeit incompetently. We would be better off if these officials simply stayed home. Even when the crises eventually subside, the resources lost—especially time—cannot be fully recovered. Business opportunities that vanished during this period are irretrievable, yet citizens are still forced to meet obligations despite the massive losses caused by governmental neglect. If the penalty for striking workers is withholding their salaries, the same measure should be applied to officials when society collapses under their watch.
Nigeria has become increasingly difficult, tense, and traumatizing. Even before the Central Bank of Nigeria’s ill‑designed naira redesign policy thrust millions into hardship, this administration’s poorly conceived policies had already eroded quality of life. Governor Godwin Emefiele of the CBN has a record of serial failures for which he rarely takes responsibility, habitually blaming others. In July last year he blamed the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation for the naira’s fall; four months later he blamed Nigerians studying abroad; in 2016 he blamed U.S. policy. When his 2021 e‑naira project faltered, he again pointed fingers at the banks. The naira redesign policy continues to cause hardship, and the blame is once more shifted to the banks. Numerous articles have argued that Emefiele should have resigned long ago; the hardship caused by his poorly executed redesign underscores his inadequate understanding of Nigeria’s realities and his lack of capacity to foresee outcomes.
The notion that the naira redesign is a conspiracy against a particular presidential candidate is implausible. Our ruling class lacks the intellectual acuity to devise such a complex plot. Their “wickedness” is limited to looting public funds and using law‑enforcement agencies to abuse citizens. The political elite are too rudimentary to contrive a scheme aimed at undermining Bola Tinubu’s candidacy; they would achieve the same result more easily by buying votes or employing the “remote control” once boasted about by former President Muhammadu Buhari in Osun State. The ongoing naira scarcity demonstrates that key managers do not grasp the country’s complexities enough to design appropriate policies. They lack macro‑level cause‑and‑effect reasoning, abstract thinking, and imagination.
The naira redesign’s failure is felt more acutely than other governmental shortcomings because Nigeria’s economy is largely analogue and heavily reliant on physical cash. Since 2015, few actions have mirrored the magnitude of this failure. Emefiele’s bland response to the cash shortage—telling people to remain orderly and wait in long queues—reveals a lack of contingency planning. The concurrent fuel crisis is no different. NNPC CEO Mele Kyari has blamed “greed” across the value chain—from depots to fuel stations to trucks—for the fuel scarcity. While his observation about human nature in a capitalist economy is unsurprising, it is an unimaginative excuse. Agencies like NNPC should design distribution systems that account for human behavior and mitigate disruptions, not merely attribute problems to greed.
Public officials routinely deflect responsibility by invoking abstract factors such as “16 years of the PDP,” “climate change,” the “war in Libya,” the “Ukraine war,” or the “global pandemic.” They offer endless excuses for their failures but never present evidence of overcoming challenges. Accountability will only come if they are held responsible. One way to achieve this is to turn their own argument against labor unions back on them: if they believe that those who do not work should not be paid, then officials whose inaction precipitates crises should have their salaries and allowances withheld. If you agree that people should not be paid for work they failed to do, start by applying that principle to yourself.
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