Nigeria has tried root-and-branch reforms to its economy before. Indeed, when the Bible argues that there is nothing new under the sun, one can be excused for believing that this is commentary on the country’s governance. The structural adjustment programme introduced by the Ibrahim Babangida administration in 1986 remains one of the more far-reaching of these efforts at resetting the economy. It tried to fix trade policies. It tinkered with regulations across sectors.
Less resilient, lower income groups are groaning. Unsurprisingly our talking heads are beginning to wonder why the outcomes from the incumbent federal government’s policy pivot would be any different from previous such attempts.
Put differently, the reforms that have been implemented and the burden that they create have been the consequence of a stalled follow-through. Margaret Thatcher, I believe, it was who said that deregulation is not the absence of regulation.