The Real Legado: A Global Byword for Failure

From Chigüire Bipolar premise to real news story in two years: the press in Nigeria starts to fret about looming Venezuelanization.

When the press in Nigeria has to ponder the worst-case-scenario, they know how to conjure it instantly. All you need is a rhetorical question: Is Nigeria the Next Venezuela?

Read it and weep…

It was a comparison that we remained concerned about this year because you had the government with an official rate of two hundred naira to the dollar and an unofficial rate of about three hundred and there was talk of introducing another rate and it all ended up with a number of different rates and that was where Venezuela began in 2003, with capital controls they have had over four rates for their currency. They meant well in Venezuela, the government wanted to help the poor, they were trying to use oil generated revenue to support the impoverished in the society and they ended up in very high inflation, the economy in chaos, shortages, and it has been a disaster in the end. That was our concern that Nigeria was heading down that road some months ago.

Two years ago, it was the premise for a Chigüire Bipolar story. Now it’s real.