"THE PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS OF A DEPRECIATING NIGERIAN NAIRA"

The international exchange rate of the Nigerian currency (the Naira) against the American dollar which is the world's only major international currency reserve since 1970 will have a very serious economic implications either domestically or internationally in a country like Nigeria that is almost a 100% consuming economy and nearly a 100% importing nation for all her much needed goods and services. Any major depreciation in the value of the Nigerian Naira against the U.S. dollar will immediately have a direct and a deadly impacts on the entire Nigerian economy and on the daily life of Nigerians in Nigeria. A strong Naira against the U.S. dollar is a sign of a healthy and a strong economy in Nigeria and the opposite parameters imply a weak and a failing Nigerian national economy. What then are the real practical economic implications of a weak and a failing Nigerian Naira in all reality?

Nigeria as a country cannot operate internationally without the American dollar or without using the American dollar as her major or main international currency. The Nigeria's oil is sold in the American dollar in the international oil markets around the world. The Nigeria's foreign reserves are maintained in the American dollar. Nigeria imports all her goods in the American dollar. Nigeria pays for all her foreign services in the American dollar. Nigeria borrows money from the World Bank, Paris Club, African Development Bank and the rising China in the American dollar. Nigeria's foreign debt is dollar rated and the payment is also done in the American dollar. Millions of Nigerians who travel regularly to the different nations of the world on visiting, tourism and business trips use the American dollar as their primary currency for the basic traveling allowances they need and to also pay for their own foreign living expenses. The tens of thousands of the Nigerian students that are studying in the foreign nations pay their tuition fees and living expenses mainly in the American dollar. The prices of all the imported goods and services that are sold to the 160 million Nigerians are priced in the American dollar.

A weak and a rapidly depreciating Nigerian Naira means that our nation's foreign debt will rise or grow rapidly by pushing us into more debts that will be too difficult or almost impossible to repay back to our foreign creditors. A failing Nigerian Naira means that the prices of all the goods and services imported into Nigerian that Nigerians need daily with rise. A collapsing Nigerian Naira means that poverty will grow rapidly in Nigeria, inflation rate will skyrocket, the purchasing power of the Nigerians will drop as well their standards of living. A weak Nigerian Naira means that more Nigerian workers will fall into the realm of poverty wages. A dropping Nigerian Naira will encourage more brain drain of the Nigerian professionals abroad and more Nigerians will also become economic refugees in our neighboring countries. A worthless Nigerian Naira means that the social crises will escalates in Nigeria alongside with rising the crime rate. A failing Nigerian Naira will push Nigeria further as a failing nation in all truth, honesty and reality.