Transcript Can Nigeria Save Itself And Pull The Rest Of Africa Along?

• Nigeria, covers an area of 923768 sq km
which is six times the size of Georgia,
• Has a population of 140 million according to
the 2006 census of the National Population
Commission, which could be more than 180
million drawing from present realities and
with a 2.45% growth rate, declining of
course, is located on the Gulf of Guinea in
West Africa.
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It is marriage of inconvenience with the
amalgamation of the Northern and Southern
protectorate in 1914,
With over 250 ethnic groups which almost sometimes
do not see eye-to-eye, and over 500 indigenous
languages birthing conflicts and crises.
There are three major languages Hausa, Igbo and
Yoruba.
Out of her 87.7% total dependency ratio, her youth
population, which is about 40% of the entire
population, has a dependency ratio of about 82.6%.
• Her major export commodity, oil now sells at N30-50/lt, and the dollar
now exchanges for N385 at the parallel market.
• World Factbook of the Central Intelligence Agency recorded that the
Gross Domestic Product purchasing power parity (GDP PPP) was
estimated as USD1trillion in 2013, USD1.603 trillion in 2014, and
USD1.105trillion in 2015.
• Also Trading Economics reported that the “Gross Domestic Product
(GDP) in Nigeria contracted 13.70 percent in the first quarter of 2016
over the previous quarter. GDP Growth Rate in Nigeria averaged 0.30
percent from 2013 until 2016, reaching an all time high of 9.19 percent in
the third quarter of 2015 and a record low of -13.70 percent in the first
quarter of 2016
• As reported by the same medium, Nigerian Bureau of Statistics has it that
over 1.45miilion people between the ages of 15 and 64 who are active,
able and willing to work are without jobs as at March 2016.
• Transition from the then ruling party, the People’s Democratic Party,
whose mantra was “Transformation” to the now ruling party, the All
Progressives Congress (PDP), which rode on the mantra of “Change” to
power, post-2015 general election, has exposed a lot that a single event
might be constraining to completely digest and diagnose.
• Government recovered cash totaling Seventy-eight billion, three hundred
and twenty-five million, three hundred and fifty-four thousand, six hundred
and thirty-one Naira and eighty-two kobo (NGN78,325,354,631.82)
• One hundred and eighty-five million, one hundred and nineteen thousand
five
hundred
and
eighty-four
US
dollars,
sixty-one
cents
(USD185,119,584.61),
• Three million, five hundred and eight thousand, three hundred and fifty-five
Pounds and 46 Pence (GBP3,508,355.46), and Eleven thousand, two
hundred and fifty Euros (EUR11,250) from 29 May 2015 to 15 May 2016.
• Please do the maths, and convert to your local currencies to comprehend the
magnitude of corrupt enrichment in Nigeria,
• My big question here is why and how can the presumed
big brother of Africa, choked by its largely linear economy
and weak political system, become the focal point and
trailblazer for the transformation of Africa?
• The paradox is that we have failed to manage our
abundant resources and channel our policies to bring out
the best in our society.
• The greatest asset of Africa, including Nigeria, has got is
the youths, who seem to be riding incredulously on the
crest of their abilities, agility and creativity, to start to
revamp other sectors without overly depending on oil with
its stiff and choking global competitions and alternatives.
• Most analyst and commentators assume that corruption seems to be the major
retrogressive factor for Nigeria, but most fail to diagnose why all sectors seem to
be in comatose
• No other country including the poorest of Chad and Niger practices this
crippling feeding bottle system. The economy of Lagos state is bigger than the
whole Ghana economy but Ghana is very sound with their economic size. This is
because they practice Regional government with comparative advantage
ensuring competitiveness.”
• George Ayittey argues that, “Bad leadership is the product of alien political
systems and ideologies blindly copied from abroad with no cultural
underpinnings; for example, one-party state systems, Marxist-Leninism,
Confucius Institutes, etc. Any political system that concentrates a great of power
in the hands of a buffoon degenerates into dictatorship and tyranny.”
• The words of Lord Acton Baron “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power
corrupts absolutely” This implies that such tyrannical leadership under
whatever moral guise help to fester imperialist, nepotistic and hegemonic
corruption.
• Africa’s fundamental issues inhibiting her development cannot be dissociated
from the problems of colonialism experienced in the past which literarily denied
Africans their traditionally bequeathed self-sustenance responsibility through
the long established free market system; a system founded on moral trade and
exchange.
• Nevertheless, we have learnt over time that a man cannot be enslaved if he is not
willing to be enslaved. That notion changed the narrative, and we have been able
to discover that it wasn’t the colonialization of the blacks by the whites that lead
to the socio-economic discomfort of Africa, but the willingness of Africans to be
enslaved.
• Through the power of self-awareness, Africans were able to break the shackles
of external colonialism, possible aided by the growing level of political awareness
founded on acquired education, but in reality, have we been able to break the
shackles of domestic colonialism? YES, we have but our elites still hold strong on
falacy pushed down our stomach. And I ask this question? Who man NigeriaBenin-Togo-Ghana border? Africans or Colonial Master?
• The greatest strength of this developing country is her population, and for
me, that is all.
• Nigeria’s population could actually be related to her market strength. The
underpinning drawback to this strength is the bottleneck created by her
leadership though trade regulations.
• Perhaps, one could say the restraining factor to Nigeria taking her rightful
place is the critical problem of leadership, which has remained largely
unsolved for years, but offers a glimmer of hope in the present regime.
• For Nigeria to become the promising big brother, she must encourage the
spread of deregulation promoted in the upstream and downstream
petroleum, and the telecommunications sectors, to other sectors, most
especially in the export of agro-product.
• But if the rest of Africa want to move at a fast pace, I would rather that they
begin to look inward to actualize true and representative leadership,
diversified
economy and globalization by shoring up support for
entrepreneurship and throwing open their borders. Must we wait for Nigeria
to do this?
• At this present stage what Nigeria and Africa needs is the pack of leaders and
followers alike who are ready to imbibe the virtues of:
• Entrepreneurship/Capitalism: Those who are practically creative or encourage
creativity in business, who do not wait on luck, but go out to create
opportunities. The centre must rely solely on the private sector to drive change.
African leaders cannot give what they do not have.
• Globalization: Embrace the principles of borderless societies.
• Accountability: Fight corruption to its root, and make leaders accountable in all
ramifications.
• Leadership: Ready to drive and inspire change across the continent with the
ability to gather the people and think of problem solving through private sector
participation, as such makes use of the just emerging 3P’s of organization
(Problem, people and product).
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