The biggest economic problem Nigeria has is capital flight. Capital flight is like hypertension/diabetes-silent killers. Capital

The biggest economic problem Nigeria has is capital flight. Capital flight is like hypertension/diabetes-silent killers. Capital flight comes in two forms, legal and illegal. Legal capital flight deals essentially with payment of foreign contractors that eventually ship our money overseas; payment of expatriates that eventually ship our money overseas; importation of any and all things, including toothpicks  that ship and trap our money overseas. Illegal capital flight deals with the outright looting that takes place all over the country, and our money is laundered and shipped overseas by some of our greedy politicians and civil servants. Either way, capital flight puts a serious strain on our economy, especially, when we do not produce anything. About a year ago, I demonstrated the impact of capital flight to a group of college students, and they were all in awe. I gave the students 1,000 naira each, and I asked them to circulate the money among themselves. They started to pass the money to each other in a chain. I allowed this exercise to go on for 15 minutes to demonstrate to them that, even if they were not making more than each of them was getting, there was a constant economic activity. Then, I started to take the money from the student next to me each time the money got to him. Gradually, the economic activity started to slow down, until it completely died. That is the effect of capital flight. It is a shame that we as a country import tooth pick from China. Nigeria's only focus right now should be diversification of our economy so that we can grow this economy from other sources other than oil. Unfortunately, most us have formed a habit of luxuriating. So, we buy imported honey from Shop Rite, instead of buying from the local woman at Okigwe. We buy Louis Vitton shoes and bags, when we can get them cheaper from Aba. We buy Sensodyne toothpaste, instead of closeup. Interestingly, the market woman in Isinweke has never heard of the dollar and wouldn't know what to do with it if you gave it to her. Only the rich are crying for devaluation. We should focus on importation of raw materials and heavy equipments so we industrialize Nigeria, and not only start producing again for local consumption, but exportation to grow our economy. I believe once we start doing this our currency will find its feet.