The outcries of the people show that there is a preference for the past administration of Good luck Jonathan to this present administration even though there was a high record of corruption and other related malpractices in the past administration. It is no gainsaying that the high rate of corruption in the past administration has a high inclination of putting the country in economic and political instabilities which could make the country divide permanently and economically incapacitated. Economic and political instabilities occur in a country where is non- compliance to the rule of law, in a country where the economy has been monopolised, in a country where there are internal insurrections and external aggressions, in a country where there are ethnic conflicts and a host of other societal problems. There are many researches on what could have been the courses of Nigerian downtime, but for the purpose of clarity of points, the following are the courses of Nigerian downtime:
1. Corruption. Greed, the desire for power and the wish to advance oneself in society are primary reasons for corruption. Corruption typically flourishes in societies in which there is a high value placed on money, power and station in life. Its effects might include instability, distrust and unjustness. Corruption as many scholars have said led to fall of the ancient Roman empire and it has made many countries in the world to remain disorganized or lawless. If corruption is to be fought in a developing and monopolistic economy like Nigeria, the entire citizens must be ready to suffer for it because there is a always a price to pay. The corrupt class will be unwilling to display their ostentatious behavior since they have been subjected to a close surveillance by the government. The economy will no longer operate on the principles of free market economy because this so-called corrupters have no other reason than to hide. In a nutshell, corruption has an effect of putting the country in a recession.
2. Lawlessness. When there are laws, there are sins. The purposes of law is to govern behaviour, to serve as an instrument of social order and to prevent man from doing harm to his fellow human. However, the rate at which a country will operate from the doctrines of the rule of law relies on the effectiveness of the law enforcement agents who are supposed to uphold the rule of law. In a similar vein, high rate of non- compliance to the rule of law and the willingness of the law of enforcement agents to be compromised have the propensity of making the entire citizens including the government instrumentalities to misappropriate public funds and abuse their powers for personal gains. When resources are mismanaged, stolen and used for personal aggravation, the country will be on a recession or downtime.
3. Lack of managerial acumen. This usually occurs in a society where incompetent people govern. When this happens, the resources entrusted to these incompetent people will not be used for the common good of the entire populace and it will in turn results in a downtime.
4. Kleptocracy. In a society where the political atmosphere allows money to be used as an instrument of changing the minds of the people before they vote for a political candidate, the political conscious citizens in such a society will take orgies in corruption, misappropriate funds when they assume power and do a lot of irrationalities that have the mischievous inclination of affecting the economy of a country negatively.
4. Monopoly. In a monopolistic economy, the overall consumption of such a country will be high because there is low rate of locally produced goods which meet the needs of the people. Such a country may also subject itself to external borrowings since expenditure has outshone income.
5. High rate of unemployment. The higher the high rate of unemployment, the higher the economic recession because the unemployed people won't be able to make contributory impacts to the growth of their country. Employment if available for all citizens can make a country to country its economy internally because the youth of useful ages won't depart the country and they will be able to exploit and explore their talents in the realization of their desired interests
7. Socialism. In a socialist economy, the government controls the economy without allowing private individuals to own and establish businesses. This will not make the citizens to establish businesses which has the propensity of making the citizens being slaves to the government.
8. Alteration of power. The intervention of the military in Nigerian politics has caused more harms than good for the country. The military based on the totalitarian and autocratic political philosophy had used their political powers to impose stringent laws on the people, aggravated wealth for themselves and their whims and caprice, infringed on the rights of the citizens et cetera. Historical evidence of the military government from 1966 till 1998 show that corruption because skyrocketed during their intervention in Nigerian politics, the military also adopted wrong economic approaches which include the over reliance of importation of agricultural produce from abroad et cetera.
THE IMPLICATION OF NIGERIAN DOWNTIME
1. Poverty. The higher the economic downtime the higher the rate of poverty in a society. This shows that there is a direct variation between economic downtime and poverty. The situation of the country indicates that there are conspicuous differences between the rich and the poor.
2. Unemployment. Unemployment has proliferated because the available resources are not sufficient to provide jobs for young graduates of useful ages.
3. Nepotism and favoritism. Nepotism and favoritism occur in a society where there is lack of respect for human rights and discrimination among the high- income earners, medium- income earners and low- income earners. When there is downtime in a society, there will be scarcity of jobs which has the propensity of making employment to be secured by power and connection.
4. Greed
5. Corruption
. THE WAY FORWARD: IS THE FUTURE BRIGHT?
The future is bright if only the government is ready to do the following:
1. Diversification of the economy. The government can awaken the economy through diversification of the economy which will engender economic growth and foster development.
2. Stop the importation of foreign products. The ban of foreign products will make the country to control her wealth internally without resulting to importation of foreign products. This can make a country to have pride in her locally- produced goods which will provide employment for the people and increase the livelihood of the people
3. Industrialization and agricultural development. Countries like the USA, UK and Japan for example, are the largest economies in the world because of their heavy investment industrialisation coupled with technology- based agriculture. If the government incorporate this in its policies, the country will become economically sustainable.
4. Capitalism. Capitalism is an economic policy that allows private individuals to control the economy of a country. Capitalism has a lot of advantages and several shortcomings but the advantages are that it allows citizens to exploit their talents, to use their intelligence to invent new things in the country, and it gives room for self-reliance.
5. Enactment of stringent laws that will abolish corruption and other corruptible behaviors
6. Heavy investment in education. " Education is the powerful tool to change the world"--- Nelson Mandela. Education is useful for the eradication of ignorance and illiteracy in a society which will help the citizens to know their rights and what to do to protect them, it helps to make the citizens to academically, politically and socially enlightened et cetera.
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