Amude jokes to the fore as critics lambaste govt. for deciding what’s “non essential” or “non urgent”

The Central Bank’s (CB) move to impose drastic import restrictions on hundreds of items it deemed to be “nonessential” has opened the prospect of there being severe shortages and drastic price increases among these items.

On Thursday, the CB imposed a 100% cash margin when opening letters of credit for 623 items. They apply to a host o f imported items including mobile phones, televisions, fridges, washing machines, fruits, and chocolates, items of clothing and even rubber tyres.

The move has already attracted fierce criticism and raised many questions. How can a government decide that an item is “non essential” or “non urgent?” Moreover, how is it in this day and age of mobile phones, Tvs, fans, fridges and washing machines that they are deemed non essentials? What does it say about the government’s own stated aim of promoting online education for schoolchildren during the pandemic when it decides that mobile phones that are so essential for students to study online are in fact not essential in its eyes?

Despite the Government’s claims that the 100% margin did not amount to a restriction, economic analysts have already warned that the public can expect severe shortages of many of these items while the prices of items on the market are likely to skyrocket.

Many of the jokes in the immediate aftermath of the announcement have been over the inclusion of imported underwear among the items listed as “non essential.” Government politicians and supporters have been mocked mercilessly over the matter, with calls for them to shed their imported underwear and move to the traditional loincloth or “Talk of the 'fallen masses'.