Businesses should not be killed for political expediency

The bells have been rung and political gladiators in Nigeria have stepped into the ring to slug it out in the race for political wins in the 2019 general elections. Expectedly, the gloves will be thrown off in the characteristic “do or die” style which mostly defines Nigerian politics. However, we want political gladiators and their foot soldiers to not only respect the sanctity of life, but that of economic survival as well.
Targeting business interests of political rivals may seem to be part of the political duel, but it is absolutely illogical. It makes no economic sense to target businesses because some person(s) who own either part or all of a business, are not in tune with the incumbent government at any level.
Be it at the local, state or federal government level, it is bereft of any economic intelligence when businesses are crippled as a means of eliminating the financial resources of political opponents; real or imagined, and in some cases, to deter some people from even developing interests at all.
Nigeria’s economy is in bad shape, and battering businesses to score unreasonable political points will only make things worse. The country exited recession after five quarters, with an initial marginal growth of 0.55 percent, which was later revised to 0.72 percent following revisions by NNPC to oil output and hence led to revisions to Oil GDP.
The subsequent GDP figures by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) have shown additional growth in the third quarter to 1.40 percent (year-on-year) in real terms. The growth is however, still largely driven by the Oil sector. Non-oil sector, though about 90 percent of GDP, is still struggling, with a number of sub-sectors still actually in recession.
It therefore should be of more importance that, governments at all levels work assiduously to consolidate on economic recovery and growth. Businesses should not be made to suffocate and die off, because some individual(s) considered to be political threats have one form of affiliation or the other to them.
There have been instances where business premises had their Certificates of Occupancy revoked by the state government, structures demolished (often conveniently on grounds of contravening town planning), and licenses for certain operations have either been revoked, or renewals denied.
We want governments at local and particular state and federal level, to desist from these acts of economic terrorism. Using powers of the state to oppress dissenting voices will not make visionless, underperforming governments to suddenly appear as though they are saviours of the people overnight. Every government desirous of being favourably looked upon, by the people they represent must devise ways of ameliorating the suffering, and plights of those people. Crippling the businesses of dissenting voices will only add to the suffering of already burdened people as more will lose their jobs when businesses are shut down.
We want government, particularly at the federal and state levels to know that Nigerians need jobs; good, well paying jobs. The economy has already been severely battered and further blows will be detrimental to the survival of our fragile economy. Whoever shares contrary views from that of any government, should be confronted with superior arguments, ideas, and best of all, visible implementations of beneficial policies and projects.