Few voices carry as much weight in Nigeria’s economic discourse as that of Bismarck Rewane. For decades, the renowned economist and financial analyst has been a trusted guide for policymakers, businesses, and the public. He is known for his sharp insights, consistency, and refusal to bend to political choruses. In this conversation, Rewane opens up beyond the charts and boardrooms, sharing his daily routines, early influences, values, and the philosophy that has shaped his career. Sunday Ehigiator brings the excerpts
Outside boardrooms and number-crunching, what does a typical day in your life look like?
Well, a typical day involves thinking, and number crunching is just one item. It’s thinking about and trying to evaluate what has happened, why it has happened, and what is likely to happen. So you keep on thinking about some of the things you had projected that would happen. When they don’t happen, you have to explain why. So, because there is what we call evidence-based analysis, which shows that certain things happen, and why they happened. So that’s a typical day. I listen mostly to BBC Radio, and they have more objectivity than any other, not the TV station, I mean the radio. They have a programme, ‘Focus Africa,’ which I listen to and they do a lot of reviews. That helps to trigger the mind. Then, because of that, it allows you to situate what the BBC is talking about, and what Nigeria is saying today, because BBC Radio is not a TV station, so they just come and say what they want, and they do a lot of research. So, my normal day starts with BBC Radio, I analyse things, then come into the office and see exactly what is happening. I think that to me is a key element. And then we take it all the way through. So, when I come into the office, I look at Twitter and all of that. We look at it and say, okay, is there any consistency between what is happening, right, and what was predicted to happen, and why it is happening? Because many things happen, and CNN will not carry them because it’s not breaking news, BBC TV will not carry it because it’s a TV, same with Nigerian TVs, but BBC Radio has enough programmes, and they interview a lot of people who are TV-shy but can speak. I’ve listened to a lot of policymakers in Nigeria who are happy to be on BBC Radio rather than on TV.
How did your childhood shape your worldview and influence your career as an economist?
Part of it was being a rebel, right? My father wanted me to study law, and I said, No, I’ll study economics. Because in those days, economics was not offered to O-levels, it was A-levels. So I found it quite interesting, very challenging, of course. As it happened, I started teaching economics after school, and of course, the disruption due to civil commotion and riots in Nigeria allowed me to do things. When I went to the University of Ibadan, it was the home of economics. We were groomed into being economic thinkers. Being an economic thinker and being an economist are two different things because you think about it, and you suggest to people that, ‘look, if you take this path, this is what the outcomes will be.’ And to be honest with you, there’s no single answer to an economic problem. There are many solutions. That is why you will never hear me say that if you do this, this will happen. What you will hear is that the most likely outcome, if you do this, is that it will happen this way. So I think that it’s a way of thinking, like a school of thought.
And Nigeria has got to that point now where policy-making options, outcomes, and feedback are taken very serious. So, the problem we have in Nigeria is that we think that it’s a zero-sum game, that once you say this is going to happen, then it must happen. If it doesn’t happen, you are wrong. No, that’s not true. The truth is that it could happen, it may happen to some extent, or it may not even happen. Or if it happens, it may happen much later. This is what we are seeing today. The year 2023 was an awful year. In 2024, problems continued to manifest. In 2025, we are now beginning to see some semblance of recovery. So can you tie what happened in 2023 to 2024 to what happened in 2025 and what will happen in 2026? Yes, definitely. But if you had done all of those things at the same time in 2023, by now we would have taken off, we would have been on the recovery path.
What childhood values have most influenced your leadership skills and decision-making ability today?
You are trained to think. There were Marxist scholars who felt that the entire capitalist arrangement would undermine society, and therefore, you are exposed to the Marxist school of thought. We were also exposed to the capitalist school of thought, and the indigenous thinking of the locals. And also, because you had to do electives in sociology and in political science, you had to cross these things together to make sense. So that happened. Right, you now started seeing the nexus between economic policies, how markets react, and how businesses position themselves. So it was simple, and that has guided me all the way to where I am today.
As an economic thinker, what role has reading books played in shaping your leadership style?
When we were in school, we were trained to be patriotic, being an independent country, fighting, apart from political independence, but also fighting for economic independence. So, we were trained to read Frantz Fanon’s ‘The Wretched of the Earth’ and ‘Blackface and White Mask.’ We read about negritude. These were things that made us think deeply. We also read things like Nkrumah’s neocolonialism, the last stage of imperialism. All those things we read then have come to happen today. So, they were espoused 60, 70 years ago, but today they are real. So, I would say that we have come full circle, and you can see now with the era of the new neocolonialism, right? People being deported, people being denied visas.
So, it has brought us back to where we were supposed to be. That is, develop your own country. Make yourself independent, not only economically, but mentally and subsequently. So, I think that’s where we are, and quite frankly, that’s where we have to go.
Which three books have had the most profound impact on your career and thinking?
I would say Frantz Fanon’s ‘The Wretched of the Earth’. I would say, to a large extent, Adam Smith’s ‘Wealth of Nations,’ and also, to a large extent, Keynes’ ‘Theory of Employment, Interest Rate and Money’, which has helped because Keynesian philosophy is about the short term. And when asked what happened in the long run, I would say in the long run, we are all dead anyway. So, you take Keynesian philosophy, situate it into what’s happening and see how you can tweak it along. There are also two or three people I admire. They are Joseph Stiglitz and Paul Krugman. And to a large extent, I believe that if you take what Paul Krugman is saying and take what Joseph Stiglitz is saying, you have a crossbreed which will help you land yourself in a way that you can’t. I also closely follow Larry Summers, who used to be the president of Harvard University, but he’s a very caustic commentator on affairs.
Given your busy schedule and, of course, the constant economic analysis you have to do, I wonder how you still cultivate a reading habit?
Okay, let me tell you what it is. First and foremost, 5 a.m. or 5.30 a.m., my radio is on BBC Radio, and that takes me all the way to 7 a.m., right? So if I listen to that, I take some notes, right? And then begin to situate it and read, because the ‘Focus on Africa’ programme is the main thing. Once I have that, I’m covered because they do their research and they debate it. I do not agree with everything they say, but it provides me with knowledge, and once I get that, then everything follows. So it’s very easy to follow. When I get to the office and I am with my team and we are discussing, not all of them think that BBC radio is a useful source, because they are all internet-driven. It’s okay, no problem. But I bring it up, and I suggest, and most of the thoughts that you see that come out from my people are because I have been able to position them towards that direction from BBC radio, which is very, very useful.
But let me state that, as a kid, as far back as 10 to 12 years old, my father had BBC radio on every morning. So everybody in my house listened to the BBC radio.
You’re either into BBC radio, and some of my sisters didn’t like it. But invariably, many of my sisters listened to BBC radio, and they swear by it. So that is very important. So it’s quite an interesting development. During the Civil War, when I was young, my father made some predictions based on what happened during the Second World War and some of those things happened. So, everything is forecast. So this habit has helped to shape how I still read, despite my busy schedule. You see, some of these philosophies are grounded. If they were good in the 50s, they were good in the 60s, and they are good today. Those philosophies are not even open to debate. Frantz Fanon died ages ago, but his books, ‘Nation of the Earth’, ‘Blackface and White Mask’, are still valid today. Fela Anikulapo Kuti made a lot of songs, right? But the songs are valid today. So, society hasn’t changed. Right? It’s between the oppressors and the oppressed.
What are you currently reading, and why did you choose it?
I still have Frantz’s book on my shelf. There’s another one that you must know, ‘The Dark Side of Democracy’. It’s a fantastic piece. But as I already said, whilst democracy leads to major differences in income distribution in a country, it also leads to resentment and crisis. The author used the Philippines and a couple of other countries as examples. The author also referred to the Igbo in Nigeria, but not in much detail. According to the Author, as reflected in the ‘Dark Side of Democracy,’ if you go for democracy and allow things to happen, then you should be ready for the inequality of income and opportunity. And therefore, you should prepare for that. If not, you will have a backlash.
As Nigeria turns 65 on October 1, which is next Wednesday, how would you assess its economic journey, and what are the biggest missed opportunities and greatest gains?
I’m not sure that I know of many gains. All I can tell you is that there are huge missed opportunities, and we seem to have missed the boat many times. So all you have to do is try as much as you can to see how you can, then press the reset button.
But definitely, there’s so much to be done. And rather than anything else, we keep on playing the blame game. It is that person, it is that tribe; it is this thing. That is totally counterproductive. I don’t think it makes sense for us to go into that blame game ideology. This country needs a reset in thinking. So you can have all the economic thinkers and all the journalists, but that doesn’t get into the head, the subconscious head of leaders in different parties and political arrangements, no, it doesn’t.
Talking about resets, what structural reforms would you recommend for the country?
All I’m saying is to understand that the current arrangement is kind of dysfunctional. So you need to come together and say, okay, let us see how we can do some things differently. Because we’ve created states and we’ve done all sorts of things. Now, to put it back together is almost impossible. So there is a problem. We really have to begin to think about it in the context of: how do we rearrange this political arrangement, because, if you keep the same economic arrangement and political arrangement, you are going to get the same outcomes. And how do you do it without costing prices? So it’s a big ask. I don’t know how Nigeria is going to rearrange itself and go back to wherever it is, but there is a problem. There is a big problem.
Do you think we are maximising the opportunities in our youth population?
Unproductive youth, operating below potential and focused on quick wins, will not add value. I keep on hearing about how the youth are there, this is their place, and all of that. But Ghana at one point shut down its education system and scrapped everything for about two or three years, and refocused it and did that. I’m not sure that we can; we need a reset, a rethink. We have to get to a point where the economy and the politics get to a gridlock and then we come back and say, so will the crisis lead to a solution, or will the solution avoid the crisis?
What’s the most essential quality for a leader in Nigeria today?
leader must understand history; the history of your country, the history of your tribe, the history of your nation-state. If you don’t do that, you are just going to be jumping all over the place. So there’s nothing that’s happening today that did not happen before. So I think that, to be honest with you, there are two things: one, history, and two, objectivity. So a leader has to be objective, and if not, you will start things and never end. We’ve seen it; you know how many constitutional conferences and all of these things, nothing came out of it.
How do you handle setbacks and uncertainty as a leader?
Well, first and foremost, I’ve been lucky to be self-sufficient, so you cannot buy me with crumbs. Secondly, once you are objective, people will listen to you, and you are not available for crumbs, right? So that itself is key. And there has to be consistency between what you said yesterday, what you said a year ago, and what you’re saying today. So you must remember that’s why I’m saying sense of history, you must remember what your position was. You can’t just go around making all sorts of wild allegations and all that. No, but it’s to accept the reality that if I have a setback, it’s okay, this is what the reality is, and you have to deal with it. So there will always be setbacks, but you come and get over it.
What hobbies help you switch off from the intensity of economic analysis?
Well, I go to the gym, you know, see how things are, and you listen to alternative views across the world. So I’m not just focused on Nigeria, I’m focusing on what’s happening in Kosovo, I’m focusing on what’s happening in Brazil and Argentina, seeing how it relates to us, right? We did something recently, where we said countries that have been victims of high inflation, Germany in the 20s, Argentina, right, Brazil, and Zimbabwe. So, all those countries have come out of it because they dealt with it so head-on.
Do you have a favourite travel destination within Nigeria or abroad that helps you unwind?
Well, let me say that my favourite destination is Milan in Italy and Chicago in the United States. Those are my favourites, but also London in the UK, those would be my key, because I’m able to understand the history there.
Finally, in terms of relaxation and leisure, is it music, art, or sports for you?
I think music and sports. Soccer and athletics, track and field are my norm; that’s what I love to watch, and that’s it.
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