We also note that China is investing considerably in domestic and renewable energy sources. All this means that oil supply is high while demand has flattened  due to flaccid global economic activity. We will suffer  collateral damage in all of this. However, to us, the damage will not feel collateral. It will be central and it will be hard.

Even during the best of times and high oil prices, the economic model upon which Nigeria is based has poorly served us. That model has precluded broadly-shared development.

The only things its continuity promises are perpetual poverty for most Nigerians and the forfeiture of the best of our economic promise.

Nigeria needs economic liberation.

Before we can free our economy, we must free ourselves of the economic myths consigning us to our current predicament.

To achieve this objective we must return to Dr. Bala Usman. Confronted by the harsh realities of dwindling national revenue occasioned by crashing oil prices, saddled with collapsed infrastructure and an abused and wary citizenry, Nigeria demands a new paradigm.

Here, I must give the Nigerian people their just due. They had a stark and important choice to make during the 2015 election. They could have re-elected the government in place. This would have been the easier thing to do.

Yet, in matters of state and governance, the easiest thing is rarely the right one. Re-electing that administration would have lowered the curtain on our future.

The last government had become threadbare of ideas. They intended to handcuff the people to the mast of austerity, then command that we ride out the storm. Their hope was that the storm would quickly pass.

They forget that economic storms are mostly man-made. Thus, it takes man to unmake them.

President Buhari is an earnest leader who seeks to give Nigerians the lives we deserve by giving us a the vibrant economy and uncompromised security. My faith in his commitment to help the people is deep and abiding. He is on the right path and I have faith that he will continue to follow it.

That said, the task before us, is grave and daunting. With oil prices having declined so steeply, the question becomes how must the federal government shape fiscal policy so that we achieve optimal economic production and employment under the given circumstance?

Last year, I published an open letter to then President Jonathan. My critique of his economic policies was informed by the fact that the Nigerian economy had entered a critical stage.

His government was set to foist austerity on the people. This equated to pulverizing their already bruised economic circumstance.

Although, we were in the throes of an election, I thought it is vital that we offer even our opponent the best advice we could give.