FIRM UP THE NAIRA, TAX DOMICILIARY ACCOUNTS AT 50%.

Icheoku says the problem of Nigeria is not necessarily corruption because the c-word is a universally general application word and a phenomenon not peculiar to Nigeria. The problem of Nigeria is lack of love for country and country men and women; and as rightly articulated by President Muhammadu Buhari just recently, the country is everyone for him or herself and God for all. A kind of wild wild West of yore one would argue. Icheoku says that some level of corruption and even criminality are unavoidably tolerable in so many countries and would have similarly been okay in Nigeria. But the problem is that these Nigerian culprits, particularly those who are looting the country dry,  instead of investing their loot back in the country's economy towards creating jobs for the teeming jobless youths of Nigeria, take their loot and stash them overseas. 

They put their loot in foreign bank accounts where such provide cheap money for those host countries' economies; while their country of origin wallows in abject need and want. Icheoku recalls that back in historical times, Britain used to confer knighthood on their countrymen pirates who hijacked and brought home ships laden with goods and merchandise from the high seas. Ditto was America's wild wild West forged with sheer banditry and common valor. But with Nigerians, they think less about what they can do for their country or its men and women; hence all that they steal from the country, they embark on capital flight to nest for themselves and their families and generations yet unborn. Then their next move becomes to oppress their country men and women who fail to yield to their excesses or bow and tremble before them. Imagine a scenario where the over $150billion traceable deposits of Nigerians in foreign banks are reinvested in Nigeria, there could easily have been hundreds of Dangotes employing hundreds of thousands of Nigerians and who will still be calculating unemployment rate in Nigeria at over 57 percentile?

Now the trend of domiciliary accounts has caught fire in the country and with it a drain on scarce foreign currencies, leaving people who actually need these foreign currencies stranded with nothing or very little and definitely less than would satisfy their immediate needs. Foreign currencies stashed up in private domiciliary accounts with merchants needing them to pay for their imports and other foreign business transactions left holding the plate in their quest to meet their obligations to pay for their merchandise. Icheoku says how could a people hoard currencies they don't need to use immediately when the United States mint as well as other foreign countries' mints have not gone out of business of printing their currencies nor are they planning to shut down their operations? Why would a people just keep things for keeping sake and not realize that such primitive thinking is hurting the overall economy of their country; except that they do not of course see Nigeria as their country but merely the cash-cow that provides perpetual milk for them to milk till death, without any remorse or contrition whatsoever. 

The bad news is that regardless of the amount one has in his or her domiciliary account, a country like the United States of America lets you into their country with just up to $10,000 and nothing more. So why then will these hoarders not allow those who really need these foreign currencies to share in their pile by lifting their hold on them? Imagine a situation where over $1billion is currently held in private domiciliary accounts in Nigeria while the exchange rate of the dollar for example is going up through the roof with many merchants unable to fund or finance their overseas businesses. Pilgrimage-makers, students, holiday-makers as well as tourists are finding it difficult to source reasonably priced funds to pay their passage, while this amount of dollars (one billion) are stashed up in bank vaults and held over as domiciliary deposits. 

Icheoku says there is really no need for any individual hoarding foreign currencies in domiciliary accounts when they are needed to pay for imports and other foreign currency based transactions. There is no country in the world where such is tolerated except in Nigeria where people with primitive mentality like to hoard everything, including what they do not immediately need. Nigeria's currency is the Naira and all monetary deposits in Nigeria should therefore be in Naira. Anyone needing to travel or transact any foreign business requiring foreign currency should be able to just walk into a bank and purchase what he or she needs but never be allowed to hoard any excesses whatsoever. Icheoku says that hoarding foreign currencies in domiciliary accounts is not the way to go and should therefore be discouraged forthwith and seriously frowned at with drastic deterrents put in place.  

Icheoku says the solution is for the government to dis-incentivize this hoarding by making it unprofitable to hold dollars or any other foreign currency when one doesn't really need them. The government should henceforth tax such deposits at 50% to discourage people who just like to hold unto stuff just because they can and wants to; and not necessarily because they have a need for their immediate use. That way, anyone needing foreign currency can simply walk into the bank and purchase what he needs while the excess is left for those other Nigerians who need some too. Alternatively, the government should establish a maximum deposit ceiling of $20,000 for each individual, regardless of means and anything else above that should be taxed at 75% or declared illegal. 

Icheoku says it is only in Nigeria that such dual currency accounts deposits are largely tolerated even to the detriment of the overall economy of the country. Icheoku therefore calls on President Muhammadu Buhari to tear down those domiciliary accounts and flush out funds held therein into the open market to help boost foreign exchange supply needs of the country and peradventure, also help firm up the Naira. Such a move will generally be in the overall interest of the economic well-being of the country. It will also greatly help in bringing down the ever skyrocketing value of the dollar to a more tolerable rate against the Naira and thus make the Naira more valuable once again. Icheoku says to Nigerians to say no to foreign currency hoarding, say no to domiciliary accounts.