Why Dele Momodu is wrong on seeing no light at the end of the tunnel

Why Dele Momodu Is Wrong On Seeing No Light At The End of The Tunnel

I just read my egbon Dele Momodu's piece insisting that he does not see the light at the end of the tunnel, and I must disagree with him.

But before I do, please let it be known to all that Dele Momodu is…

— Reno Omokri (@renoomokri) October 15, 2024

I just read my egbon Dele Momodu’s piece insisting that he does not see the light at the end of the tunnel, and I must disagree with him. 

But before I do, please let it be known to all that Dele Momodu is someone I love and respect.

Having said that, let us examine some salient points.

For the first time in perhaps almost forever, Nigeria is now exporting more than she is importing. To give exact figures, in the first quarter of 2024, Nigeria had a trade surplus of ₦6,527 billion. This was a record. But that record only lasted for three months.

By the second quarter of 2024, Nigeria’s trade surplus increased 6.5% to ₦6,945 billion from ₦6,527 billion, breaking the previous record. Thus meant that by Half Year 2024, we had exported enough goods and services to cover half our 2024 budget costs of ₦28.77 trillion.

Nobody, or government has achieved this before Tinubu. Egbon, please fact-check me.

The economic reforms of the Tinubu administration has moved us from consumption to production, making us a prosumer nation (a country that consumes what she produces).

And then there is the issue of our capital market.

The Nigerian Stock Exchange has broken four records in the last sixteen months.

On Wednesday, November 1, 2023, Bloomberg reported that the NGX hit its highest level ever since its creation when it rose 1.9% on a single day to hit 70,581.76 All Shares Index.

Then again, on January 10, 2024, the Nigerian Stock Exchange gained ₦1.6 trillion in a single day and achieved an All Shares Index of 83,191.84, another record.

Yet again, on Wednesday, January 24, 2024, just two weeks later, our stock exchange crossed the 100,000 basis point mark, setting a new all-time high record and overtaking Argentina as the world’s most profitable stock market.

Finally, on Thursday, March 28, 2024, the NGX peaked at 104,562.06, representing a 39.84% increase year-to-date, making it the second-best performing exchange in Africa.

But I am not done.

Nigeria, as of October 2024, has achieved backward integration in oil refineries for the first time in almost forty years.

Only last week, NNPCL notified the Nigerian Upstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) that it has stopped placing orders for fuel imports because the nation is now self-sufficient in the product.

But there is more. On Thursday, September 19, 2024 our foreign reserves rose to $39.07 billion. This is significant because it means Nigeria will not go the way of Venezuela and Zimbabwe.

Egbon, would you not say that an increase of 18.4% in our foreign reserve is a plus for our economy?

And finally, in a pièce de résistance, Nigeria’s economy, according to IMF, grew by a whopping 3.19% in the second quarter of 2024 compared with the same quarter last year.

Egbon, should we not focus on facts rather than sentiments? Data and statistics will not lie to you like your emotions. That is why sailors depend on navigation, rather than gut feelings, to guide them safely back to land on a dark and stormy night out at sea.