Recent developments in the economy once more bring to the fore the need to take actions that would wean the economy from excessive reliance on crude oil earnings for survival as well as address the structural imbalances in the country, writes Obinna Chima The Nigerian economy is currently in a bad shape. This is visible in the dire picture of the country’s statistics. No doubt, the disruption caused by the COVID-19 and the significant drop in the price of crude oil worsened the situation in the country. Indeed, recent data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed that Nigeria’s real Gross Domestic Product contracted for the second consecutive quarter by 3.62 per cent in the third quarter of the year, compared to a growth of -6.10 per cent, which showed that the country had entered its second economic recession in five years.