A report by Steve Hanke, an economist from John
Hopkins University in Baltimore, United States, has listed Nigeria, Venezuela,
Iran, Brazil and others among the first 10 miserable countries in the world with
Nigeria assuming the sixth position.
According to the report, Venezuela was listed as
the most miserable country in the world, saying: “Venezuela holds the
inglorious title of the most miserable country in the world in 2018, as it did
in 2017, 2016, and 2015.”
Reacting to the recent report, the main opposition
party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), yesterday described Steve Hanke’s
report as a vindication of its position all this while, adding that the country
has sunk into a new low since President Muhammadu Buhari assumed power in 2015.
Iran took third in the ranking while Brazil made it
to the fourth position. Turkey took fifth position as the giant of Africa,
Nigeria, emerged sixth.
The Misery Index was calculated using economic
indices, including unemployment, inflation and bank lending rates.
For Nigeria, unemployment rate was the major
contributing factor to its miserable state.
The report added: “The first Misery Index was
constructed by an economist, Art Okun, in the 1960s as a way to provide
President Lyndon Johnson of US with an easily digestible snapshot of the
economy. That original Misery Index was just a simple sum of a nation’s annual
inflation rate and its unemployment rate.
‘’The index has been modified several times, first
by Robert Barro of Harvard University and then by myself. My modified Misery
Index is the sum of the unemployment, inflation and bank lending rates, minus
the percentage change in real GDP per capita.
“Higher readings on the first three elements are
bad and make people more miserable. These are offset by a good (GDP per capita
growth), which is subtracted from the sum of the ‘bads’. A higher Misery Index
score reflects a higher level of misery, and it’s a simple enough metric that a
busy president, without time for extensive economic briefings, can understand
at a glance.
“The
accompanying table contains Misery Index rankings for the 95 nations that
report relevant data on a timely basis. For consistency and comparability, and
with few exceptions, data were retrieved from the Economist Intelligence Unit.”
Reacting to the report in a statement by PDP’s
spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan, the party tasked the ruling All Progressives Congress
(APC) to perish the thought of the planned increment in Value Added Tax
(VAT), saying such would only make life
more difficult for the ‘already traumatised Nigerians’.
“That report is a vindication of the position of
the PDP all these while. The economy has virtually collapsed under President
Buhari, and the man is even mooting the idea of piling more pressure on
Nigerians.
“Nigerians have never suffered like they are
suffering today because those charged with the responsibility of managing the
economy have failed completely. They have no idea of what it takes to manage an
economy like ours.
“As an opposition party, we call on the presidency
to take urgent steps to fine-tune the economy, create jobs for our teeming
youths if only to justify that a government is in place.
“In the interim, we advise them to stop their plan
to increase VAT as that would only fetch millions of Nigerians additional pain
and discomfort,” PDP added.
While noting that democracy is essentially about the
people, Ologbindiyan added that rather than improving on the living conditions
of Nigerians, the APC-led administration of President Buhari appears to be
deriving pleasure from inflicting pains and misery on the people.
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