You need not be told that the naira, Nigeria’s currency since January 1, 1973, is very sick and in intensive care unit. The once very virile naira, stronger than the Pound Sterling and the US dollar in its early days, is now perilously floating, adrift to nowhere. And that’s hugely because the naira was floated, in a manner of speaking.

Against every logic, naira was floated by the Nigerian government to the admiration of the Bretton Wood institutions. To float is to move in no particular direction. An object is said to be floating when its movement is at the behest of the wind or water or any other fluid medium. Such movement is akin to the flight of a butterfly, tossed by the wind. The degree (extent, velocity) of floatation is a function of the weight of the object relative to the medium. Feather, cotton wool and other lightweight objects are more likely to float in the air than heavy objects.

And you ask, why then does a ship float on water while a needle would sink in the same water? Smart question. One man called Archimedes, a Greek mathematician and inventor, unlocked this mystery long before Jesus Christ was born (circa 246 BC). The principle simply says that the net upward force on an object when immersed in water is equal to the fluid displaced. Science.

Another way to look at floatation is to put it in context with yet another law of a science mastermind, Isaac Newton. In his lifetime, Newton propounded three timeless laws of motion. The second of such laws known, also, as the Law of Force and Acceleration, states that a force upon an object causes it to accelerate according to the formula: Net Force = Mass x Acceleration. Don’t be scared by the jargon. It simply means that an object can only move as far and fast as the force applied to it relative to the mass (weight) of that object.

So, the acceleration of the object is directly proportional to the force and inversely proportional to the mass. Now, let’s apply this to the global currency market and the fate of the naira. By floating the naira, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is asking the naira to fight for itself against the forces of other currencies, especially the dollar. In simple term, the CBN is satisfied that the naira has gained enough weight to engage in the global currency pugilism.

Just like in boxing where a heavyweight is pit against heavyweight while lightweight is matched with fellow lightweight. In the case of the naira, CBN thinks the naira has gained enough weight, stamina and grit to contend with other foreign exchange heavyweights like the Pound and dollar. But it’s turned out a miss-match. It turns out that the naira is no heavyweight, it’s a mere paper weight which could not stand the velocity of the force coming from the dollar and others, and in dutiful obedience to Newton’s second law of motion, the naira is floating down the steep. And there you have it, a lightweight naira squared up in the roped arena against a heavyweight dollar. A ruthless shellacking. A comprehensive pounding; a battering beyond recognition. You don’t arm a man with machete and send him to war against a man armed with AK-47 machine gun. That’s exactly what the CBN did to the naira. Worst of it all, Nigerian government floated the naira at the same time it removed subsidy on petrol.

And everyday inside the squared arena of forex duel, the naira suffers a broken nose, beaten hollow and silly. Many Nigerians are wondering why their naira has suddenly become paperweight, ungainly and a misfit in the forex battleground. The reason is not down to Bola Tinubu, Muhammadu Buhari or even Olusegun Obasanjo or any other president. Two things have coalesced to make the naira lose steam and momentum in the forex race. One is corruption. A culture of corruption that permeates every stratum of our national life, from the poor to the rich, fuels a weakening of the naira. Corruption ensures that even the little forex available to the nation to process import of machinery for manufacturing and engage in other productive ventures is hoarded by a corrupt banking system, a corrupt nouveau-riche and bourgeoisie to satiate their exotic questing. Corruption ensures that those entrusted with selling forex at the official rate through the officially-approved channels would deliberately divert such forex to the black market and profit from the crazy arbitrage they created with their duplicity.

Number two reason, which is very key, is our collective lifestyle that craves imported products and services rather than promote home-made goods and services. Just a few reasons why the naira will keep getting weaker. A country of about 200 million people with 130 million trapped in multi-dimensional poverty has no business keeping a Presidential fleet of 10 aircraft. What for? Such a country should not indulge its leadership the banal luxury of using imported vehicles when it has indigenous vehicle makers.

Think about this, each senator and House of Rep member is getting an SUV as official vehicle. A Nigerian minister has about three of such SUVs in his fleet as the Chairman, Senate Committee on Services, Sunday Karimi, has just revealed. Go to the states, governors and their appointees including local government heads cruise around town in imported SUVs to the hurt of vehicle assembly plants within the country. Importing vehicles alone deflates the naira and inflates the dollar.

Any economy that abandons its indigenous producers and products for foreign ones is a doomed economy. Any government that shuns its primary sector and watches it shrink on account of lack of patronage, high cost of production and inability to source forex to import production tools and raw materials, is not only irresponsible but also very wicked. Successive Nigerian governments have manifested profound satanic traits that make the citizens wonder whether the government exists for the people, or the people for the government.

A nation that spends scarce forex to finance religious pilgrimages of corruptively selected citizens to so-called holy lands while starving its primary sector of same forex is configured to fail. And its currency is programmed to crash at the forex battlefield. That country is Nigeria. Highly religious but globally notorious for being ‘fantastically’ corrupt. Big cross does not equate to big faith, Nigeria typifies this.

There are many more reasons why the naira, now floated, is obeying Newton’s second law of motion, perilously. The path to Venezuela and Zimbabwe is well-paved for the naira. At about N1,300 to a dollar, the currency is now dead unless there’s a miracle waiting to happen on a yet-to-come resurrection morning. Floating a currency is good when the economy is strong and the fiscal policy is sound. Nigerian economy is weak, fiscal policy is flawed, a more compelling reason to un-float the naira.

Until the government deliberately grows the local productive base, the floated naira stands on nothing and can only drift aimlessly, and dangerously to nowhere. For now, let’s toast to a floating naira.

First published in Sunday Sun