THE DYNAMICS OF INFLATION IN NIGERIA AND REDISTRIBUTION AS COUNTER INFLATION TACTIC IN REDUCING THE INEQUALITY GAP: IS AFRICAN SOCIALISM THE WAY FORWARD?

Abstract

The paper is an exploratory study that seeks to answer the question
is redistribution the way forward in curbing the current inflation
and inequality problem in Nigerian as well as in similar African
countries? The aim is to serve the purpose of using Nigeria as the
litmus test for such tactics and to see how it has been done and can
be applied in recent economic circumstances of inflation and
inequality. The study covers the period between December 2019
with the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, until December 2021. The
study finds that Nigeria has had policies before such as conditional
cash transfer, the teach Nigeria scheme, the youth employment
agency, the homegrown school feeding program, and the free
scheme for science, technology, engineering and math (Stem) etc.,
which have served as redistribution in Nigeria, which may have
helped in curbing inequality (of income and otherwise) at least in
the short run. And thereby, being a backdoor towards African
socialism. The paper concludes due to the evidences prescribed in
terms of the policies of the Nigerian case, that redistribution is a
way out of the inflation problem. It finally recommends that taxing
the super-rich is a way forward, cash injections and public-private
partnerships should be encouraged and state sponsored welfare
should be highly encouraged amongst others as further ways of
bringing back the old African ways of Socialism, which is
distinctively original to the Africans as people, and as a race.