My Worthless Naira

Mr. Engineer, I need you to drop that beat!

Let’s go there…

Oh (eyyy)

I’ve been travelin’ on this road too long (too long)

Just tryna find my way back home
(back home)

My “Naira” is dead and gone, dead and gone

Oh (eyyy)

I’ve been travelin’ on this road too long (too long)

Just tryna find my way back home
(back home)

My “Naira” is dead and gone, dead and gone

T.I. & Justin Timberlake “Dead and Gone”.

Irite people; let me get focused…

So a famous boxer was once asked, why do you continue to fight well into your 40s? Is it for the money? His response - “you know people always say money ain’t everythang, well you try living without it and let me know how that works out for you” LMAO!!!

For real though; whenever I hear someone utter such rubbish around me that money is not important, all that comes to my head are the infamous words of my girl Fumi “B**** STOPLYIN”. 

And in Nigeria the only thing moving faster than Usain Bolt in the 100 meters dash is them Hausa (Mallams) of Nigeria and their calculators. These dudes are always on stand-by ready to change your “dough” (currency) on the black market. 

It’s total laughter when my non-Nigerian friends ask me the name of the Nigerian currency. My response, “we don’t have one”. You should see the puzzled look on their faces. They usually follow up with another question such as what do people use then? My response; the same thing you use, US Dollar, Euro and Pound Sterling.

Ok ok ok; yes we have our own currency in Nigeria called the Naira and just like the chorus above “My Naira is dead and gone”.

Bros, how much for this? N5,000. Bros, how much for that? N10,000. Before you know it N35,000 for a  pack of chewing gum and a bottle of water? Man, this is some bulls**t for real…

The state of the Naira is so bad that an average dude such as myself on my visits to Nigeria can have a momentary lapse in judgment and really start to feel like a “Baller” with $200.00 in his pocket. So when everybody here in America talking about “Make it Rain”, man I “Make it THUNDER”.

I am really going to date myself now but when I was attending primary school in Nigeria back in the day; having 50 Kobo (50 cents) in your pocket for lunch meant you were “Ballin” on school grounds. You could get your self some puff puff in the morning en route to school, treat yourself and lady friend to a complete lunch and still have change left over for a snack on the bus ride back home.

“Can’t it be all that it was all so simple then” (Wu-Tang Clan) Classic. 

I am no finance guru nor do I play one on television; so I do not have some grand idea of institutional reform, regulation and shift in banking system practices that will cure the ills of the failing Naira. I do know someway – somehow, it would be better for Nigeria’s economy to see those same Hausa (Mallams) thirsting for our once powerful Naira the way they desire foreign denominations in US Dollar, Euro & Pound Sterling with their same calculators instead of freely giving it out like its Tom Tom candy.

It is so disheartening to hear the older generation talk about the glory years of the Naira, when the Naira doubled the value of the US Dollar in the late 70s. This is all now a part of our distant memory but more troubling is how this same cast of characters never take ownership for the current conditions in present day Nigeria.

Fact is those were the wonder years and we now need a new blueprint for success.

Destroy & Rebuild…

Check for Part II of the Money Series Coming Soon.