Libertarianism: Nigerian unwritten economic policy

Two weeks ago, there appeared two interesting articles. The first from a group, Arewa Youth Assembly, asking private sector players to join the 2023 presidential race. This is surprising because the call is coming from a region we say have government affairs as its core business. The youth of the region are dropping the toga of government.

Libertarianism: Nigerian unwritten economic policy Nigeria-Map

Libertarianism: Nigerian unwritten economic policy Nigeria-Map

The second article was by David Pilling of Financial Times of London, quoting him, he wrote about Nigeria, “…. some libertarian tech entrepreneurs want the government to withdraw and leave the private sector in charge.”

In the article, Late Professor Sam Aluko and I, I had unwittingly called myself the only libertarian in Nigeria and I’m most pleased to see the number growing. What David Pilling brought to our attention I had written about twenty years ago. I had to go into my archives to retrieve it. Here it is reproduced under today’s heading, Libertarianism: Nigeria’s Unwritten Economic Policy.

Libertarianism is the belief –albeit a strong one –that people should be free to think and do what they want to without government or state involvement. However, a libertarian is not an anarchist, he just resents undue government control of the life of the people. Since life is lived on many facets, economic, education, health, political, social, etc. it follows that this school of thought will ramificate in all the various aspects of life and living. The present writing considers libertarianism and the Nigerian economic experience.

Nigerian economic growth makes for an interesting study. The economy grows at near 8% per annum (remember this was written in very early 2000) despite stagnation in power generation and collective monies being siphoned by politicians. The cities and towns are busting at the seams with we the people going about our businesses.

The current growth is propelled by our unwritten but real economic policy, libertarianism. This is the highest form of capitalism with the free market moderating and disciplining all players. We will have individuals providing all products, social services and also infrastructure. It reduces influence of government in society. At best government is restricted to very few roles like in defense, administration of law and foreign policy.

This unwritten policy began with the departure of the British. Remember Nigerian Railways of yore, rail development in Nigeria was stopped for road development. While no rail line was added to what the British left, massive road construction has continued. This spawned private haulage companies from articulated trucks to luxury buses. In fact, a Nigerian owns one of the largest haulage fleets in the world.

.https://punchng.com/libertarianism-nigerian-unwritten-economic-policy/

Libertarianism: Nigerian unwritten economic policy

Libertarianism: Nigerian unwritten economic policy

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