THIS CHANGE BY Muhammed Ali

Whenever I haul my seeming slender frame into a commercial vehicle in my daily existential struggles, and my attention is drawn to deluge of side talks bordering on the government of the day, I try to look in the face of each speaker, and not only what he/she says. This atimes makes sense to me as we belong to a country where misdirected emotions, self-delusion, mundane sentiment and sincere ignorance form the spring from which murky waters of opinions gush and float.
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This CHANGE is not an end, it is a means to an end. The goal is different from the change but both are mutually reinforcing. Change is a process. People, especially non-economist should understand that politicians always have tendency of making themselves look good in the eyes of the people; and in doing this they flaunt even the simplest economic principles. This deceitful political artistry could be understood better when you read Chinua Achebe's "Man of the People".  But those of them who follow with due deligence, the core macroeconomic principles are hardly popular in the mind of their electoral supporters, not to talk of their sworn foes, whose depths have been casted upon with spells from defeitist ghost. President Buhari seems to be one of such political actors. He is more of a statesman than a politician, hence does not keep his eyes on the next election, rather the interest of the nation-state. I was happy when he looked in the eyes of IMF's ill-conceived economic prescriptions, and the Economist wailings, and spat "kelembe" on them. The Africa has come of age, and must cut off the remins of the imperial umblical cords that still tie them to the West. And Nigeria must lead in such procession. I agree with the current minister of finance, that the new normal is that countries should develop their own policies in line with their peculiarities.
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While I identify with some of the rumblings and grumblings, It is also good to say that it is not a new thing. Government-imposed austerity measures, however justified and mild, is something that evokes hatred of the people and sometimes mass protest even in developed climes, where the masses are well informed as could be witnessed during the Eurozone debt crises. People just want to spend, as elucidated theoretically in macroeconomics texts.
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It is important to mention here that there is always a lag period of adjustment (which could be painful) between a time when crafted economic policies are being implemented, and the period the expected results/objectives manifest fully.  
And in this case, there are people who have been profiteering from the old order of things; they are resisting change. But the country could have been more than a seething but exploding cauldron in smouldering flame if those days of plundering spree had been allowed by the thumb to fester.
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And I hear some people say; "where is the president's economic team or blueprint?" My reply to this is that his ministers and advisers are part of his economic team, and the 2016 budget is an economic blueprint. What is however not clear is a long-term road map to economic progress. But it is difficult to have such plan in an economy in crises, where most key indices that could form the pedestal upon which long-term plans could rest are unpredictable. We need more of short-term and sparingly, medium-term plans for now. For a crises-entangled economy is like a soldier in warfront. He only thinks of how to survive the war; how to evade bullets and landmines from foes; how to appease the wailers of his digestive loop; and rarely plans for days after tomorrow.