Senator Adams Oshiomhole has asked the federal government to intervene to stabilise the Naira, the country’s currency, saying market forces cannot do such.
As at Tuesday, September 26, Nigeria’s currency exchanged for N1,000 for a dollar in the parallel market and a pound going for around N1,200 just months after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) floated the naira.
Oshiomhole, while speaking on the Senate floor during the screening of the CBN governor nominee Yemi Cardoso and four other deputies, called on the government to intervene to save the country’s currency.
“The challenge we deal with now is everybody seems to have submitted completely to the so-called market forces and rely on the invisible eyes of Adams Smith to regulate and determine the value of the naira,” he said Tuesday.
“It is now clear, after Babangida started the devaluation, that the market forces can never stabilise the naira. The state must intervene.”
Oshiomhole questioned how the manufacturing sector would grow when the interest rate is on the high side.
“Interest rate cannot be at 20 or 25 per cent and you are expecting the manufacturing sector with investments that require long-term gestation period to grow,” Oshiomhole added.
“Even if you are a drug dealer. You would find that those dealing with drugs in Latin America would be more competitive.”
Senator Oshiomole then expressed doubts over the West’s praise of some of the Tinubu led government’s policies.
“So, I think there is a need for a complete thinking outside the box. When the West celebrates our free market, no control, and so on, I am always suspicious,” the Edo North lawmaker said.
“We need to interrogate our assumptions. We don’t need to copycat Washington and all these international finance capitals. It is their interest [that they are after]. There is no such thing as a common interest,”