The world recorded some events that would go down in the history as highlights of the memorable year 2022.
Some of these events indirectly affected Nigerians negatively as shared below.
Russian/Ukraine war
The world woke up to a war in Europe, when Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, as President Vladimir Putin sent troops into the former USSR nation.
The West imposed sanctions on Moscow and sent billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine, but Russian forces captured most of Ukraine’s Black Sea coastline including Mariupol.
As Nigeria depends on Russia, Ukraine and other Black Sea countries for wheat imports, the war between the two countries has caused a surge in wheat prices which still affects the production of bread and confectionaries.
Fuel price, inflation
The invasion of Ukraine and consequent sanctions on Russia also created an energy crisis of a large scale unseen in half a century, with prices of gas and electricity soaring globally.
As the war persists, the West placed an oil embargo on Russia. The European Union and other members of the G8 – the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and Japan – also agreed to cap the price of Russian crude oil at $60 per barrel.
This has skyrocketed global oil prices resulting in inflation and Nigeria is not spared. Diesel, a major part of powering industrial and commercial activities of the country, has been affected as prices soared.
Before the war, the price of a litre of diesel in Nigeria was N288, and it has increased to over N800 today.
Sunak emergence as British PM and migration policy
Rishi Sunak emerged as the British Prime Minister on October 25 and rolled out some new policies to help his government and the entire country.
In one of the policies, Sunak said new laws would be introduced to curb migration. One of them was the policy that would prevent foreign students – Nigerians inclusive – from taking “low quality” degrees.
He said this following the earlier complaints of the UK Home Secretary, Suella Braverman that foreign students are “bringing in family members who can piggyback onto their student visa.”
Sunak also said the country would legislate laws that would tackle illegal immigration into the UK.
Nigerians have reacted to this knowing that they are affected and it would be a checkmate on their exodus to the UK.
The country has been experiencing a brain drain, especially as medical practitioners and university lecturers who are always at loggerheads with the federal government over remuneration and welfare packages, lead the exodus. Nigerians are moving abroad.
Climate change and flooding
Climate change is ravaging the world and Nigeria had its fair share when more than 30 states were affected by floods in September.
The West has been the major cause of releasing industrial fumes into the atmosphere, but underdeveloped countries are bearing the brunt.
In mid-September, the floods displaced over 1.4 million people and killed over 600 persons, as Bayelsa, Rivers, Delta, Edo, Lagos, Kano, Kogi, Adamawa, Jigawa, Benue and Borno were the states most affected.
FIFA World Cup in Qatar
This year’s World Cup was in Qatar, the first in the Middle East, as 32 countries battled for the prestigious trophy between November 20 and December 18.
The tournament was enjoyed by millions of people around the world as well as boosting the Qatari economy and all participating countries received money from FIFA.
Despite that a lot of Nigerians celebrated Lionel Messi for winning the World Cup with Argentina at the competition, the most populous African nation made no economic gains.
Nigeria lost financially for not qualifying for the tournament because at least if Super Eagles qualified and were eliminated at the group stage, they would have received $9 million (which is N4 billion) from FIFA.
This is the whooping amount of money Qatar, Ecuador, Wales, Iran, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Denmark, Tunisia, Canada, Belgium, Germany, Costa Rica, Serbia, Cameroon, Ghana, and Uruguay got.
Also, Nigeria dropped in the latest FIFA ranking due to its absence in Qatar. It plummeted from 32nd to 35th in the world and fell from fourth to fifth in Africa.
The next article will dwell on some world events that positively impacted Nigeria.