By Lawrence Egede
As Nigeria battles economic collapse, the so-called reforms touted by successive governments appear more like bedtime stories than real solutions. In this brutally honest opinion, Egede Lawrence traces the nation’s economic failures to one core deficiency: a lack of discipline.
According to Lawrence, no reform—no matter how noble—can survive in a system rotten with indiscipline, corruption, and self-serving leadership. Comparing the country to a tidy man trapped in a disorderly household, he argues that Nigeria's economy has been crippled by reckless governance, internal sabotage, and a culture that rewards criminal enterprise over honest labor.
From the IMF-imposed Structural Adjustment Program of the 1980s to the abrupt removal of fuel subsidy under President Tinubu, each administration, Lawrence contends, has repeated the same tragic cycle—signing off policies without a clear, people-centered plan or national discipline to sustain them.
> “No matter the reforms, if there’s no discipline, they remain tales told under dim moonlight,” he warns.
Having experienced Nigeria’s economic journey firsthand—from working with Mobil and Agip, to witnessing the collapse of honest business under military rule—Lawrence highlights how fraud, fake products, and government-backed monopolies wiped out genuine entrepreneurship.
He argues that Tinubu’s bold, sudden subsidy removal—without safeguards for the masses—was the climax of decades of economic missteps. Worse, the government’s silence on measurable progress since the policy was implemented only deepens public frustration.
> “Those in power are not in the same pain with the people,” he says. “That’s why reforms look like a joke.”
Lawrence concludes that until discipline, integrity, and shared sacrifice drive Nigeria’s policies, reforms will remain nothing more than a moonlight tale told in the dark, without dawn in sight.
