Extraordinary rendition of the naira

Posted By Godwin Onyemaechi

And whilst we are still on the subject of extraordinary rendition, it is meet to report certain developments. During the week, a friend of mine and legal Dowager of forty five years’ standing forwarded to me a photocopy of a passport from the late seventies. The document is as subversive as the antics of the deaf and dumb London driver above.

On the page usually reserved for the BTA (Basic Travelling Allowance), it shows clearly that on13th October, 1980, 546.45 naira fetched $1000. Forty years after, 545 naira fetches only one dollar. In other words, you will need more than half a million naira to get a thousand dollars. An American with two thousand dollars is already a Nigerian millionaire.

Let no stupid local economist come and tell me that what 545 naira can fetch in the local economy one dollar cannot fetch in the American economy. Tell that to BA or Delta airline. It is a jaded argument for the accelerating immiseration of the Nigerian people. What has hit us in the last forty years is the extraordinary rendition of the naira by state and sundry non-state criminals.