Emeka Moses
A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Femi Falana, has urged the Federal Government to join the BRICS economic bloc and adopt alternative economic policies, declaring that the country has no business with poverty.
Falana made the call while delivering the keynote address at the 6th edition of the Frontier Discourse Annual Public Lecture Series and Awards, organised by Pacesetter Frontier Magazine in Abuja.
The human rights lawyer also urged the government to address Nigeria’s continued dependence on imported petroleum products despite being a crude oil-producing country, arguing that the country should strengthen domestic refining and pursue economic policies that would improve the welfare of citizens.
Falana questioned the country’s continued reliance on imported petroleum products, arguing that Nigeria should prioritise domestic refining to meet local consumption needs and reduce its dependence on foreign supplies.
He urged the government to consider practical economic alternatives, including strengthening local refining capacity.
Falana also called on Nigeria to join the BRICS economic bloc, describing it as an organisation established to challenge the dominance of the United States dollar and create opportunities for member countries to trade using their local currencies.
He urged the government to consider alternative economic programmes, arguing that no country had achieved development by implementing policies promoted by the Bretton Woods institutions.
He then called on Nigeria to take advantage of the opportunities offered by BRICS.
He said, “Even within the bourgeois paradigm, within the bourgeois framework, consider some of them, including refining crude oil for domestic consumption in Nigeria.
“No country in the world, none, has ever been developed by implementing the policies of these Bretton Woods institutions that were set up to underdevelop the economies of third world countries.
“Join, join, join, not be a member country. Join the BRICS. I’m sure you know about the BRICS,” he said.
Explaining the purpose of the bloc, he said: “It’s an organisation set up to challenge the dominance of the dollar, to challenge the West, to mould the full-fledged members so that we can take advantage and trade among ourselves in your own currencies.”
Falana also said he had challenged what he described as the abandonment of the Nigeria-China currency swap arrangement.
He further drew attention to revenue losses associated with the suspension of cargo tracking, citing a Nigerian government report produced in 2021.
According to him, the report showed that Nigeria lost $32bn during the 13 years in which cargo tracking was suspended, while the country lost an additional $10bn between 2021 and 2025.
He said there were other areas of revenue leakages and untapped opportunities that the government needed to address.
Falana acknowledged that he was not advocating the socialist reconstruction of Nigeria but argued that the government could still adopt policies that would benefit citizens within the existing capitalist framework.
He also criticised the economic policies adopted by the Federal Government, insisting that the country could not achieve prosperity under neoliberal policies.
“I’m not campaigning here for the socialist reconstruction of Nigeria. That will be done elsewhere. But within your own capitalist ethos, you can run this economy in a way that will be beneficial to the entirety of the Nigerian people.
“There can be no prosperity when you implement neoliberal policies,” he said.
Falana urged the government to reconsider policies promoted by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, arguing that Nigeria should explore alternative economic programmes that prioritise local production and the welfare of its citizens.
