Self-limiting beliefs challenge the possibility of achieving the Nigerian Dream, as outlined in my last article. I proposed that within four years, the government should build 20 million housing units to create immediate employment, generate income, and pass generational wealth to the masses. Simultaneously, we should construct a railway complex, starting with three East-West railways, to spur growth in heavy manufacturing—generating substantial income and employment across every economic sector. However, the same limiting mindset claims that President Bola Tinubu had no choice, due to foreign debts, but to cut real wages through devaluation and withdraw energy subsidies, a key input in our national production.
It is economic slavery when creditors hold a nation to ransom, preventing it from attaining basic elements of life such as housing, employment, and health. This becomes more alarming when this economic enslavement is perpetuated by those who physically and politically enslaved us. Nigeria, the largest source of slaves that built the Western economy, has never been repaid for these historic costs. Therefore, Nigeria has the moral capital, based on the exploitation of our people, to demand a five-year moratorium to restructure and double our economy for our own African Dream.
Tinubu should have declared a War on Poverty—since in times of war, debts are suspended—instead of succumbing to IMF/World Bank pressure to devalue the currency and cut subsidies, which only deepens our economic enslavement. He should have torn up the slave rulebook and engaged in economic and political restructuring. This would involve cutting imports, reducing the cost of governance, rescheduling debts, and engaging in a massive deficit-budgeting effort, similar to Roosevelt's 1933 New Deal, to build wealth and stimulate both consumer and production markets, thereby realizing the Nigerian Dream.
The true cost of the American Dream was African slavery, which built the American economy and cemented Western global economic hegemony. For the American Dream to be realized, the African Nightmare had to occur. The real cost of the African Dream is awakening from this nightmare. We freed ourselves from physical slavery on plantations in the Americas, culminating in the Haitian Revolution. After the end of transatlantic slavery, economic slavery shifted to Africa in the form of colonization, where we were divided into political plantations designed to produce crops and raw materials while serving as dumping grounds for colonists’ manufactured goods. Eventually, we awoke from colonization through decolonization, but economic slavery morphed into neocolonialism.
The question now is how to free ourselves from the remaining vestiges of economic slavery, which prevents us from achieving the African Dream of prosperity and freedom for the majority. Across Black nations in Africa and the Americas, just as plantation slaves had to pay for their freedom, debts are used to prevent our leaders from fulfilling social contracts to achieve global standards of housing, employment, and health—fundamental components of every free people’s pursuit of happiness and economic parity. This struggle differs from the fight to abolish slavery and decolonization. It is known as decoloniality.
While decolonization granted us pseudo-independence, colonialism's lingering effects persist in the form of coloniality of knowledge, power, being, and economics. These chains of economic slavery have led Tinubu and previous leaders since the 1970s to tighten the poverty trap on Nigerians. It was Yoruba, Igbo, and others who fought to end slavery, beginning with the Haitian Revolution of 1791. The likes of Herbert Macaulay, Nnamdi Azikiwe, and Obafemi Awolowo fought to end colonization. This generation must use our human and natural resources to end neocolonialism. However, unlike previous struggles against White colonial powers, this battle is against Black neocolonial leadership.
The coloniality of knowledge has miseducated our leaders, leading them to follow the dictates of Western banks—founded with the proceeds of our slavery and colonization—while labeling any deviation as socialism or communism. The coloniality of power ensures that only leaders who adhere to the 'free market' policies of foreign banks are allowed into the political spectrum. If they seek assistance from China or Russia, they are labeled as enemies. The coloniality of being disorients us from making rational political and economic decisions, while the coloniality of economics restricts us to producing raw materials and importing manufactured goods.
The coloniality of knowledge and power has made us believe that socialism and communism are permanently anti-Western political systems, rather than temporary phases necessary to restructure our colonial economic foundations. Neither the IMF, the World Bank, nor private investors undertake long-term, socially beneficial production. Nations like Russia and China, which did not rely on slavery, restructured their economies using command economies to channel collective resources into social housing, railways, and heavy industry.
Russia took too long to reopen its economy, unlike China, which after restructuring under Chairman Mao, reopened under Deng Xiaoping, leading to astronomical economic growth. Economic restructuring’s success depends on how quickly and efficiently it is conducted, followed by reopening the economy for normal business. This can only be achieved with a lean government and the Army.
The Army, specifically the Engineering Corps and the Defence Industries Corporation, is the only organization capable of managing this nationwide program efficiently. Regardless of ideology, every nation has involved its army in building its industrial military complex. While mercantilism built the slave economy, post-slavery Western nations turned to war and military subsidies (Military Keynesianism) to drive their most important economic sectors—cars, planes, and computing.
The first step is to drastically reduce our import bill, which comprises fuel and oil (33%), cars (21%), and food (10%). We need an emergency Army-led action to repair our refineries within 90 days, reducing the largest chunk of our imports. Simultaneously, we should cut vehicle imports and decree that all government tiers buy only Nigerian-produced cars. These import substitution techniques will not only free up foreign exchange but also provide massive employment, as local car assembly plants would need to scale production exponentially. Imports must be restricted during the phased economic restructuring to prevent inflation from money leaking into imports. Accelerated housing and railway development programs must be built with nearly 100% locally sourced materials, at the lowest cost, to generate the surplus value needed for debt settlement and growth.
Economic restructuring must be accompanied by political restructuring. While national infrastructure projects can only be built centrally, political restructuring should move away from the unitary government system—created to siphon resources for neocolonial purposes—towards decentralized governance. As the government builds the national grid of railways, devolution to states is essential to fuel the construction of feeder railways to every corner of the country. This will enable local development in industries like rail, electrical, and chemicals, while generating multiplier effects across other sectors like haulage. The surplus value gained from lowest-cost, rapid development will offset our debts and stimulate the economy.
** Justice J. Faloye, author of The Blackworld: Evolution to Revolution, President, ASHE Foundation Think Tank, is Afenifere National Publicity Secretary.
