Port Harcourt Bridge Collapse; Emblematic Of Public Infrastructures In Nigeria Written by Paul I. Adujie Esq. As I wrote to complain and gripe about the traffic mayhem and gridlocks on Nigerian roads last week, and more particularly so, about the traffic standstill in Choba Port Harcourt, a bridge on a major road artery in Port Harcourt actually collapsed soon after! I suspect the collapse is an exemplar of dearth of quality in construction, a lack of quality constructions both private and public structures in Nigeria. Across the world, I have traveled on bridges which are 300 years old, and yet, the collapsed bridge in Port Harcourt is a miserly 10 year old bridge! I am not an engineer, but, I know and have seen bridges and roadways built to be suitable for the locale upon which such bridges are erected; therefore, no excuses are acceptable to reasonable persons! I have traveled widely in the Americas including the Caribbean and through Europe, I have seen airports, roads and bridge built on lands reclaimed from waterlogged terrains. And to this extent, building great roads in waterlogged terrains such as in Rivers, Bayelsa, Cross Rivers, Akwa Ibom States etc, is surely not rocket science! It is a national disgrace and public shame that the bridge which collapsed in Port Harcourt is less than ten years old! Most bridges in New York are over one hundred years old! What quality of workmanship or perverse satisfaction is there to glean from the demise of that Port Harcourt bridge? Roadways, highways, bridges and airports have been built in Amsterdam, Holland, in the Mississippi Delta, USA, in Florence and Sicily, Italy etc, places where building any structures are quite challenging as any! And as a result, rivers, seas and heavy body of waters, adequate measures ought and should be taken from onset of all physical structures. What then is it, that our local and foreign counterparts who are in-charge of Nigerian roads, bridges and other public infrastructures miss or don’t get? Great bridges, roads, highways, airports and other monumental infrastructures have been erected or built on lands reclaimed from rivers and seas worldwide. There is nothing unique, special or peculiar about road constructions in Nigeria! All that is required is that, builders know the topography and terrain, then plan and execute projects suitable and sustainable. There are too many roads, bridges and other sundry public infrastructures in Nigeria lacking structural integrity. These are almost always painfully obvious, both private and public structures. Why are too many overpaid contractors allowed to cut corners? Whatever happened to integrity in these processes? Why can’t our construction engineers engage in Best-Practices? Know local terrains and the particular and peculiar challenges! Bidding for road constructions should not be a one size-fits-all-per-mile proposition. Localities and terrain challenges or extent of difficulties should be taken into consideration, always. Nigerian engineers and their foreign counterparts working on constructions of Nigerian roads and highways most probably know exactly what they are doing. The poor construction outcomes to which we all bear witness in Nigeria nationwide are a result poor planning, poor supervision and lackadaisical attitudes; this, in addition to conflict of interests and cozy relationship between government officials and contractors. There are said to be incestuous relationships between government officials and the constructions companies and their proxies or fronts… they conspire, connive and collude to do repeated disservice to the Nigerian public which they are supposed to serve. In South-South and South-East, the roadways are at their worst during the raining seasons and rain is a fact of life in these parts, it is incessant, an honest construction efforts therefore require a delicate balancing act in materials and timing of work. These roads should be elevated above water levels and there must be adequate and sufficient grading, compacting and compressing of earth, cement, lots of cement and then gravels and asphalt! But sadly, the current mode require earth movers mowing the topsoil and pouring asphalt and when the rains come, these feeble-flimsies are all washed away and this creates more opportunity for more contracts… a revolving door and road-tripping rolled-into-one! There exist, a classic case of most insidious incestuous relationship borne of and wrapped in, planned obsolescence. The contractors do sloppy, and shoddy work, and they are poorly supervised if at all, by their friends in government, and then, as the sloppy-shoddy work fall apart, voila, there are new sets of contracts! Hence Lagos-Benin-Ore has been in perpetual construction since all of my adult years! Does anyone remember the number of years in which major highways in Nigeria have been continuously under contract? Are there ever timeline performance and staggered payments hinged on performance? Are there penalty clauses or even punitive damages against these construction companies depending on their pace of completion of these Nigerian roads projects? Emohua after Ebah dead body seen at eleven AM still there at 5PM along the East-West Roadway, corpse still there, after a full day, and we are not anarchic or at war? Terrible roads impinges on commerce, economic activities and by extension of simple extrapolation, national development, there is therefore a direct correlation between as slow anemic economic growth and the parlous state of our roads! Lagos-Ore-Benin road and Port Harcourt Yenagoa-East-West Road are case studies in endless repairs and delinquent contractors A Nigerian upon learning of the Port Harcourt bridge collapse, encapsulate her feelings in the following choice-words “Collapsing, disgraceful, disgusting, dilapidated, stressful, deplorable, nightmarish and, very bad, are probably the right adjectives to describe the present state of some federal highways in the south-east geo-political zone of Africa’s (most populous)nation, Nigeria.” This bridge collapse represents, yet another failure on part of the government. And for so many millions of Nigerians who have to travel on these treacherous, extremely hazardous roads, the collapse is one more incident too many on our roads! And just when I thought the bridge collapse in Port Harcourt was distressing enough, coupled with my recent experience in Choba Port Harcourt, and the corpse left on the roadway at Emuoha etc. Unfortunately, there are more tales of woes on Nigerian roads! My lawyer friend could not get a flight from Abuja and he chose road travel to Yenagoa. His experience was not more beguiling than mine and that of millions of Nigerians on Nigerian highways. He told me that he left Abuja by chartered car and upon passing Lokoja and nearing Okene, whole road was flooded, what Nigerian Newspapers have collectively referred to or dubbed as The "Kogi Floods" and Bayelsa bound vehicular traffic were stuck, while Abuja bound traffic were re-routed through a bush path. Abuja bound traffic passed, but, the Bayelsa were stuck after lokoja… near Okene until next morning, for 14 hours in traffic, then he and others have to find lodging accommodation until next morning. He eventually left Okene at 7AM on Sunday, arriving Yenagoa at 1:30PM, this is a journey which began on Saturday at 7:00AM from Abuja to Yenagoa should have ended at about 5:00PM in Bayelsa on Saturday! Meanwhile, a hefty contract have been long awarded for dredging to prevent this River Niger floods which have repeatedly caused these percolating waters on federal roads between Lokoja and Okene, this contract is said to be Naira-heavy, a trillion Naira, and yet, Nigerians in their millions continue to suffer extremely. A trip from Abuja to Okene should beabout 1hour and 45 minutes, but instead of 1 hour 45minutes, it took 14 hours and a sleepover! We can only imagine the physical, emotional, and financial implications of all these on the individual, as well as the mechanical stress on the vehicles. Commerce, the movement of goods and services are severely disrupted and so are family lives throughout Nigeria; all thanks to terrible roadways in Nigeria! There ought to be research, statistics and detailed assessments on the overall or global impact of all these on the Nigerian economy, and the impact of all these on national development.

Nigeria, What Is The Purpose And Role Of Government?

Nigeria, What Is The Purpose And Role Of Government? Written by Paul I. Adujie Esq. Is there government in Nigeria? Where are the organs of governments in Nigeria? Local, state and federal? What are the purpose and functions of government, at municipal, or local, state and federal government levels? What is the role of government in the lives of Nigerians? Government is profoundly absent in the lives of a majority of millions of Nigerians. But why? Why is government so profoundly absent in the lives of Nigerians or why are various levels government in Nigeria not modulating Nigerian lives? Why is government not performing its basic or elemental functions? These were the questions on every lips this weekend as a friend and I, traversed Bayelsa and Rivers States On Saturday September 15, 2012, a friend and I, including hundreds of thousands of other Nigerians in their thousands, "enjoyed" and "basked" in the standstill traffic that is Choba, Port Harcourt in Rivers State What is the matter with Nigerian federal, state and local governments? Why has all strata of governments in Nigeria abandoned Nigerians? This sense of utter neglect and shameless abandonment were the unanimous assessment of all who endured the road torture and chaos which is now commonplace in Nigeria. The Port Harcourt Yenagoa road is quite possibly the worst road axis in Nigeria, and this is beyond dispute, this week proved it twice! First, there was the incident in which a tractor-trailer with loads or consignment of timber, overturned spilled its goods on the highway, and there was no efforts by any agency of our governments to clear the mess and so the road was clogged and impassable for about 72 hours. And there was no crane or heavy equipment to move the tractor-trailer and the dumped goods away from the highway in order to unclog it! And so it were, that for over three days, Nigerians in their hundreds of thousands endured the indignity of having to wallow through three-feet high mounds of mud or portor-portor to get there from here on the East-West Road axis. Why does the Federal Roads Safety Corps not have heavy equipment and tow vehicles to remove broken, damaged and or vehicles involved in accident out of public streets and highways? Why is there no presence of traffic wardens, traffic police, soldiers and other sundry uniformed services to clear clogged roads and to direct traffic on our roads, to assure easy ebb and flow of traffic as a national duty? Why is it that municipal, or local, state and federal levels of government do not see it fit, to attach importance to the flow of economic activities and reduce the loss of man-hours, by ensuring that traffic flows? Why would all levels and strata of government in Nigeria exhibit lack of concerns when economic activities grind to a halt as road arteries are clogged and economic activities are frozen to a frigid pulp? Why would any reasonable government, local, state or federal and any combinations therewith, ignore the unbearable mental stress and unnecessary tension borne by a majority of her citizens traffic logjams on a daily basis and as a matter of fact, a nationwide phenomenon? And allow life to grind to a complete halt? Nigeria is not at war, and yet, worse things seems to manage to happen in Nigeria than in war zones where governmental authority is absent and anarchy is the rule! What is the purpose of government in Nigeria if it cannot even It cannot repair roads, it cannot operate water supply or clear garbage from public space? It is becoming glaringly clear that government in Nigeria cannot control traffic, as exemplified by the blockage of a major roadway as a timber-trailer overturned in the first road incident which is explained above Then, in quick succession, there was a second incident of road chaos in Nigeria this week, in which I personally bore witness, as I endured untold sufferings and extreme hardships, it was the road chaos at Choba junction, Choba, the community made famous by the establishment of the University of Port Harcourt. Traffic on Saturday was miserable and the palpable misery was made worse and multiplied by a factor of a million, with the absence of traffic wardens, regular police or any uniformed agent. No agency of any levels of the Nigerian governmental apparatuses were in sight of represented in any manner or form! It was shameful and equally heartbreaking! Nigerians road users were abandoned by all levels of what ought to be the government organs in our nation. Nigerians were left to their own devices! The rule of the jungle prevailed. Might became right and it was the survival of the fittest and most audacious. Every motorist became federal government and survival became the ability to intimidate other road users, either through sheer arrogance or size of vehicle or a combination of both. There were complete absence of government as objective arbiter or referee ... and the motorist did not know and or, they were unwilling to exhibit rules of the road courtesies to each other and standstills were the norm! There were six illegal lanes heading to either direction, East or West and North or South! A majority of the motorists behaved like maniacs and lunatics simultaneously! But why are Nigerian roads is such disrepairs and poorly maintained? Why are there no efforts to control or officiate public behaviors on our highways? Why are all levels of government so absent? Nigeria is not at war as was Sierra Leone, Liberia, Sudan, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and now Syria! The billion Naira question therefore is, why are so many Nigerian highways impassable and in palpable disrepairs? Why are federal highways shamefully under endless constructions? Why are municipal or local authorities and their state counterpart so unconcerned about traffic jams, which are mostly induced by bad roads, potholes and floods? Why are various strata of governments in Nigeria so splendidly uninterested in the immeasurable suffering on our roadways? Nigerian roads may have caused mental illness in hundreds of thousands of Nigerians already! The terrible state of disrepair and dearth of maintenance of Nigerian roads have cause incalculable damage to many vehicles and exacted the ultimate price in death tolls of hundreds of thousands of Nigerians who are killed on our highways due to lack of maintenance and perpetual state of constructions of and on our roads! I went on a road trip from Yenagoa in Bayelsa to Ode in Ekiti State the roads were rough all the way, except for a smooth patch from Warri to Benin City. The rest of the travel through multiple states, were unmitigated torture. Miserable roads, all! Nigerians are so hardworking compared to any national that I have interacted with, bar none! But our government, at all levels behave like robber barons and absentee landlords! Nigerians have in their millions constituted themselves into 180 million substitute-federal governments, providing own electricity through millions of electricity generators. Nigerian citizens are constantly filling the voids created by profound absence by governments at local, state, and federal levels! Nigerians have provided own water-boards through water-bore-holes self-help. Nigerians also have become adept at producing its own policing and safety and security services through hiring of own security personnel and building and living in homes that are actually fortresses and iron-cages in the name of safety and security of persons and properties, thereby offending all senses of beauty and aesthetics! Now, I suspect that Nigerians are at the cusps of building private roads! It is already happening incrementally! There are now throngs of unemployed citizens constituting themselves into mob- for-hire, for motorists in distress on Nigerian highways, and at a fee of course! These throngs of "helpers" will push your vehicle if it falls into potholes which are so common on Nigerian roads, be it in metropolis or highways. They will push, shove, repair and do whatever necessary to rescue at a fee, any motorist in bad roads induced car-mess or car troubles! There are simply no good roads in Nigeria! But why is this so, and why must this remain so? How can Nigerians achieve optimum economic growth and development given these obstacles and impediment to free movements of goods and services from point A to point B within Nigeria without the currently strenuously arduous efforts? Life spans of vehicles are considerably reduced due to the poor state of roads in Nigeria... from the exhaust pipe to the tires, axle, wheels alignment and balancing etc. Travel for business and recreation in Nigeria is made pointlessly and needlessly exacting and tortuous as a consequence of our terrible roads! Too many things in Nigeria are outrageous, outlandish and bizarre. Too many things are extremely abnormal and yet Nigerians smile and pray through them all. Nigerian roads are a case study in the orchestrated, choreographed and organized chaos of how life is lived in Nigeria! Millions of Nigerians pray and claim that they cover dangers and obvious risks with the blood of Jesus, as they embark on trips over terrible roads, instead of demanding insisting on government actions! In the midst of the anarchy at the end of over two frustrating, agitating and most aggravating hours stuck in the space, and seeing no symbol of authority such as a traffic warden, police officer, or members of Federal Roads Safety Corps member, FERMA, the Nigerian Army, Navy, the Air Force or any uniformed symbol of government at any level! There was no spontaneous protest even though the heartache was palpable and yet, Nigerians managed to be calm in place, despite and instead of displaying seething rage! Everyone bore the burdens quietly, apparently covering extreme angers with the blood of Jesus as well? Nigerians are not docile or are they? Invariably or as should be expected, many motorists resorted to "self-help" by creating additional lanes going north and south, these illegal lanes in themselves created additional crises and intensified the chaos which already subsisted. Many Nigerians should be asking and are indeed asking, What Does Government Do! And so, after spending more than two hours on the same spot at the notorious road traffic chaos which also known as Choba in Port Harcourt, the vexing question on every lip therefore became; What Exactly Is The Purpose And Role of Government in Nigeria? The value of the Naira is in the doldrums, unemployment rate has skyrocketed, electricity generation and transmission in dire straits, Nigerian roads are impassably terrible and the list goes on! What can the strata of governments in Nigeria control? Naira value? Road traffic? Garbage removal? Unemployment? What does government in Nigeria do well, effectively and efficiently? What Exactly Is The Purpose And Role of Government in Nigeria?

Nigeria, What Is The Purpose And Role Of Government?

Nigeria, What Is The Purpose And Role Of Government? Written by Paul I. Adujie Esq. . Is there government in Nigeria? Where are the organs of governments in Nigeria? Local, state and federal? What are the purpose and functions of government, at municipal, or local, state and federal government levels? What is the role of government in the lives of Nigerians? Government is profoundly absent in the lives of a majority of millions of Nigerians. But why? Why is government so profoundly absent in the lives of Nigerians or why are various levels government in Nigeria not modulating Nigerian lives? Why is government not performing its basic or elemental functions? These were the questions on every lips this weekend as a friend and I, traversed Bayelsa and Rivers States On Saturday September 15, 2012, a friend and I, including hundreds of thousands of other Nigerians in their thousands, "enjoyed" and "basked" in the standstill traffic that is Choba, Port Harcourt in Rivers State What is the matter with Nigerian federal, state and local governments? Why has all strata of governments in Nigeria abandoned Nigerians? This sense of utter neglect and shameless abandonment were the unanimous assessment of all who endured the road torture and chaos which is now commonplace in Nigeria. The Port Harcourt Yenagoa road is quite possibly the worst road axis in Nigeria, and this is beyond dispute, this week proved it twice! First, there was the incident in which a tractor-trailer with loads or consignment of timber, overturned spilled its goods on the highway, and there was no efforts by any agency of our governments to clear the mess and so the road was clogged and impassable for about 72 hours. And there was no crane or heavy equipment to move the tractor-trailer and the dumped goods away from the highway in order to unclog it! And so it were, that for over three days, Nigerians in their hundreds of thousands endured the indignity of having to wallow through three-feet high mounds of mud or portor-portor to get there from here on the East-West Road axis. Why does the Federal Roads Safety Corps not have heavy equipment and tow vehicles to remove broken, damaged and or vehicles involved in accident out of public streets and highways? Why is there no presence of traffic wardens, traffic police, soldiers and other sundry uniformed services to clear clogged roads and to direct traffic on our roads, to assure easy ebb and flow of traffic as a national duty? Why is it that municipal, or local, state and federal levels of government do not see it fit, to attach importance to the flow of economic activities and reduce the loss of man-hours, by ensuring that traffic flows? Why would all levels and strata of government in Nigeria exhibit lack of concerns when economic activities grind to a halt as road arteries are clogged and economic activities are frozen to a frigid pulp? Why would any reasonable government, local, state or federal and any combinations therewith, ignore the unbearable mental stress and unnecessary tension borne by a majority of her citizens traffic logjams on a daily basis and as a matter of fact, a nationwide phenomenon? And allow life to grind to a complete halt? Nigeria is not at war, and yet, worse things seems to manage to happen in Nigeria than in war zones where governmental authority is absent and anarchy is the rule! What is the purpose of government in Nigeria if it cannot even It cannot repair roads, it cannot operate water supply or clear garbage from public space? It is becoming glaringly clear that government in Nigeria cannot control traffic, as exemplified by the blockage of a major roadway as a timber-trailer overturned in the first road incident which is explained above Then, in quick succession, there was a second incident of road chaos in Nigeria this week, in which I personally bore witness, as I endured untold sufferings and extreme hardships, it was the road chaos at Choba junction, Choba, the community made famous by the establishment of the University of Port Harcourt. Traffic on Saturday was miserable and the palpable misery was made worse and multiplied by a factor of a million, with the absence of traffic wardens, regular police or any uniformed agent. No agency of any levels of the Nigerian governmental apparatuses were in sight of represented in any manner or form! It was shameful and equally heartbreaking! Nigerians road users were abandoned by all levels of what ought to be the government organs in our nation. Nigerians were left to their own devices! The rule of the jungle prevailed. Might became right and it was the survival of the fittest and most audacious. Every motorist became federal government and survival became the ability to intimidate other road users, either through sheer arrogance or size of vehicle or a combination of both. There were complete absence of government as objective arbiter or referee ... and the motorist did not know and or, they were unwilling to exhibit rules of the road courtesies to each other and standstills were the norm! There were six illegal lanes heading to either direction, East or West and North or South! A majority of the motorists behaved like maniacs and lunatics simultaneously! But why are Nigerian roads is such disrepairs and poorly maintained? Why are there no efforts to control or officiate public behaviors on our highways? Why are all levels of government so absent? Nigeria is not at war as was Sierra Leone, Liberia, Sudan, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and now Syria! The billion Naira question therefore is, why are so many Nigerian highways impassable and in palpable disrepairs? Why are federal highways shamefully under endless constructions? Why are municipal or local authorities and their state counterpart so unconcerned about traffic jams, which are mostly induced by bad roads, potholes and floods? Why are various strata of governments in Nigeria so splendidly uninterested in the immeasurable suffering on our roadways? Nigerian roads may have caused mental illness in hundreds of thousands of Nigerians already! The terrible state of disrepair and dearth of maintenance of Nigerian roads have cause incalculable damage to many vehicles and exacted the ultimate price in death tolls of hundreds of thousands of Nigerians who are killed on our highways due to lack of maintenance and perpetual state of constructions of and on our roads! I went on a road trip from Yenagoa in Bayelsa to Ode in Ekiti State the roads were rough all the way, except for a smooth patch from Warri to Benin City. The rest of the travel through multiple states, were unmitigated torture. Miserable roads, all! Nigerians are so hardworking compared to any national that I have interacted with, bar none! But our government, at all levels behave like robber barons and absentee landlords! Nigerians have in their millions constituted themselves into 180 million substitute-federal governments, providing own electricity through millions of electricity generators. Nigerian citizens are constantly filling the voids created by profound absence by governments at local, state, and federal levels! Nigerians have provided own water-boards through water-bore-holes self-help. Nigerians also have become adept at producing its own policing and safety and security services through hiring of own security personnel and building and living in homes that are actually fortresses and iron-cages in the name of safety and security of persons and properties, thereby offending all senses of beauty and aesthetics! Now, I suspect that Nigerians are at the cusps of building private roads! It is already happening incrementally! There are now throngs of unemployed citizens constituting themselves into mob- for-hire, for motorists in distress on Nigerian highways, and at a fee of course! These throngs of "helpers" will push your vehicle if it falls into potholes which are so common on Nigerian roads, be it in metropolis or highways. They will push, shove, repair and do whatever necessary to rescue at a fee, any motorist in bad roads induced car-mess or car troubles! There are simply no good roads in Nigeria! But why is this so, and why must this remain so? How can Nigerians achieve optimum economic growth and development given these obstacles and impediment to free movements of goods and services from point A to point B within Nigeria without the currently strenuously arduous efforts? Life spans of vehicles are considerably reduced due to the poor state of roads in Nigeria... from the exhaust pipe to the tires, axle, wheels alignment and balancing etc. Travel for business and recreation in Nigeria is made pointlessly and needlessly exacting and tortuous as a consequence of our terrible roads! Too many things in Nigeria are outrageous, outlandish and bizarre. Too many things are extremely abnormal and yet Nigerians smile and pray through them all. Nigerian roads are a case study in the orchestrated, choreographed and organized chaos of how life is lived in Nigeria! Millions of Nigerians pray and claim that they cover dangers and obvious risks with the blood of Jesus, as they embark on trips over terrible roads, instead of demanding insisting on government actions! In the midst of the anarchy at the end of over two frustrating, agitating and most aggravating hours stuck in the space, and seeing no symbol of authority such as a traffic warden, police officer, or members of Federal Roads Safety Corps member, FERMA, the Nigerian Army, Navy, the Air Force or any uniformed symbol of government at any level! There was no spontaneous protest even though the heartache was palpable and yet, Nigerians managed to be calm in place, despite and instead of displaying seething rage! Everyone bore the burdens quietly, apparently covering extreme angers with the blood of Jesus as well? Nigerians are not docile or are they? Invariably or as should be expected, many motorists resorted to "self-help" by creating additional lanes going north and south, these illegal lanes in themselves created additional crises and intensified the chaos which already subsisted. Many Nigerians should be asking and are indeed asking, What Does Government Do! And so, after spending more than two hours on the same spot at the notorious road traffic chaos which also known as Choba in Port Harcourt, the vexing question on every lip therefore became; What Exactly Is The Purpose And Role of Government in Nigeria? The value of the Naira is in the doldrums, unemployment rate has skyrocketed, electricity generation and transmission in dire straits, Nigerian roads are impassably terrible and the list goes on! What can the strata of governments in Nigeria control? Naira value? Road traffic? Garbage removal? Unemployment? What does government in Nigeria do well, effectively and efficiently? What Exactly Is The Purpose And Role of Government in Nigeria?

Naira Is Set For Yet Another Round of Devaluation?

Naira Is Set For Yet Another Round of Devaluation? Written by Paul I. Adujie Esq. The introduction of Five Thousand Naira as a single currency note, will exacerbate already existing pressures on Nigeria's long beleaguered national currency. It is sadly the case that Ghana, Haiti and Jamaica national currencies have better strength and international respect compared to the Naira. And this is not because Ghana, Haiti and Jamaica are more productive nor do they possess a more robust export base in comparison with Nigeria. Ghana, Haiti and Jamaica do have comparative disadvantage in terms of market size or population, Gross Domestic Product and export base in comparison to Nigeria. The value of Nigeria's national currency has been close to the value of fecal matter since September 1986 and it has worsened since the onset of the so-called Structural Adjustment Program or SAP. National currencies of Ghana, Haiti and Jamaica, have better parity with the American Dollar in comparison with Naira parity with the US Dollar and other major international currencies. Nigeria sorely need better monetary and fiscal policies. If stimulating the Nigerian economy through growth in the export sector to enhance national growth was the predicate or foundational rationale for devaluation of the Naira, then, this has yet to occur even after over 26 years of devaluations since 1986. Devaluations of the Naira for whatever purpose or rationale have been a abysmal, dismal and a woeful failure, Nigeria's monetary and fiscal policies contributed to our foreign debt overhang which lingered for so long. Devaluations of the Naira led to its downward spiral and has kept the Nigerian economy on its knees, then comatose and now in supine fetal position! China and some other nations possess huge and enormous export base. Nations with large export base may as such manipulate or devalue their national currencies to facilitate export upsurge and to encourage imports from such nations by other nations. And as such currency manipulations or devaluations serve to reduce cost of imports by consumers abroad. This phenomenon has created trade arguments, trade wars etc, as nations with export base may attain balance of payments and trade surplus. While on the other hand, importing nations may endure deficits and trade imbalance similar to current trade relations. Trade relations between America and China, has been fractious and fraught with bickering, in which America complains about China's a series of policy of incentives which have created very robust export base and lowly valued Yuan or Renminbi, which have combined to put America at trade imbalance, advantage China, particularly given America's appetite for cheap imports from China, which have skewed trade relations in favor of China. China is America's creditor as she helps or supports America deficit financing or public debt. Nigeria on the other hand, does not have an export base outside crude petroleum oil in barrels and Nigeria's net export is made miniscule through the importation of refine fuel oil and pretty much everything else, including matches, toothpicks and paper napkins or other big and small things! There is indices which to measure the poor state of Nigerian economy since the onset of the devaluation of the Naira. The stress on the Naira which was brought about by the devaluations regimens include the disappearance coins and the fact that coins, and lower denominations Naira currency buys nothing these days in Nigeria. Five Naira, Ten Naira and Twenty Naira notes are almost useless. I have not found any Nigerian newspaper selling for less than One hundred and fifty Naira! I have been in Nigeria since January 24, 2012 and I have not seen and I am yet to see a Nigerian coin and I have not found anything sold for 1 Kobo, 5 Kobo, 10 Kobo, 25 kobo 50 Kobo and One Naira. Devaluation of the Naira have killed 1 Kobo, 5 Kobo, 10 Kobo, 25 kobo 50 Kobo and One Naira denominations. The introduction of Five Thousand Naira Notes will also kill Five Naira and Ten Naira notes. The introduction of Five Thousand Naira currency note will be another badger and burdening of the Naira, Nigeria's national currency. Such high denomination in single unit currency, will ensure the early grave and financial irrelevance of lower denominations of the Naira. The proposed introduction of Five Thousand Naira note is particularly irksome and as an egregious financial or fiscal policy, in the face of an existing campaign which was mounted by the Central Bank of Nigeria to promote a so-called "Cashless-Society" in Nigeria. The introduction of the proposed Five Thousand Naira notes will make it easier and more convenient to carry wads of Naira around in cash. Five Thousand Naira notes will actually fuel a "Cash-Only" society! It will be easier to hoard billions of Naira, it will be easier to bribe in the billions, it will be easier to smuggle Naira in the billions, it will be easier to launder money and it will be easier and more convenient to for those with the inclination, to engage in transferring physical cash for every sundry illicit transactions imaginable. Furthermore, the introduction of the proposed Five Thousand Naira note will exacerbate multiple variables of pressures on the already over-devalued Nigerian national currency, the Naira. The introduction of this new note, will add accelerants to inflationary pressures onto the Naira. It is the case that devaluations of the Naira have decimated the Nigerian economy for decades. And this is particularly so, as everything imported into Nigeria is measured in foreign currency, mostly the American Dollar and the British Pound and this has translated. Those in charge of Nigeria's monetary and fiscal policies ought to be sleep deprived or sleepless, as a result of the parlous state of the Naira! Naira's miserable exchange rate has negative impact on the lives of every Nigeria and dire consequences on growth of the Nigerian economy. At the very barest minimum, those in charge of Nigerian monetary and fiscal policies should do all they can to effectively manage the Nigerian economy, failing that, they should at least observe or follow the medical axiom, which says, "First, Do No Harm. And it is widely held view, that the proposed introduction Five Thousand Naira note will do harm! Calculable harm! And every Nigerian who loves Nigeria ought act to prevent avoidable harm to our way of life which is measured by the value of the our national currency, the Naira, every nanosecond! Naira: 20 Years Of Devaluations Without Benefits; The Vexing Issues Of Our National Currency http://adujie.wordpress.com/tag/naira-20-years-of-devaluations-without-benefits-the-vexing-issues-of-our-national-currency/