Vision #2: THE WORLDVIEW STATE (CONTD)
Nigeria also needs to become a worldview state so that our government actually advances the REAL interests of 200 million Nigerians in all it does, rather than those of foreign countries or interests.
With this in mind, given the current levels of unemployment, poverty and population growth, does @NGRPresident ‘s announcement of a Visa on Arrival (VoA) policy for all Africans passes this test, especially when we consider the contradiction of @NigeriaGov border closure policy?
The first set of questions a worldview asks and answers are: why is the world the way it is? Who are we as a people (country/nation) in it? Relevant to Nigeria: why have we become the “poverty capital” of the world, how do we change this situation of failure to one of success?
What is the target timeframe to achieve the turnaround and what is the strategy to achieve it objectively and empirically? A real worldview for us must confront three conventional wisdoms: (a) globalization, (b) foreign aid, (c) “international community” (is there truly one?).
Globalization is not an accident. It’s the outcome of a deliberate design by globalizing nations that have “global strategic intent” (worldviews). Technology drives globalization, and a culture of innovation is what generates technology. Countries with culture this rule the world
To illustrate: the push into renewable energy-fueled vehicles that don’t need the hydrocarbons on which @NigeriaGov mainly relies for revenues (when the oil market sneezes, we catch the flu!) will further diminish our place in the world economy. We should become a factory for the
goods of globalization, not just a marketplace for “foreign investors”. We should be drivers, not mere passengers, of the globalization bus. At least we should be bus conductors! This is what East Asian nations achieved with worldview-based, “development-obsessed” leadership.
As for foreign aid, Nigeria should be giving it, not receiving it. Foreign aid is an instrument of power projection that gives potency to the worldviews of donor countries. China, India and Brazil stopped receiving aid and became donors themselves. It saddens me when @NigeriaGov
issues statements and photos celebrating the “achievement” of receiving large amounts of foreign aid. Such aid may be necessary or helpful in humanitarian crisis situations as a temporary measure, or if targeted at such fundamental challenges like polio eradication, but we must
build up our capacity to help ourselves and mobilize resources domestically for that purpose, and not, as is the case today, rely on foreign donors for 80% of funding to combat HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria. Foreign aid DOES NOT result in long term economic dev and transformation.
Third, the “international community” is an aspirational phrase. The reality of international life is a society of several self-interested, worldview-based states each pushing their own agenda, and “olodos” tagging along believing they are part of an “international community.
Sure, there’s collaboration between countries in international organizations. But those like us with “inside” knowledge based on experience, know the jostling between conflicting national interests that goes on and results in necessary compromises. There are winners and losers.
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Multiparty democracy , to be real and benefit Africa, must mean 7 things that are broadly absent presently:
1. The contest for electoral offices must be for authority to govern, with the legitimacy from the popular vote, not for power for its own sake or for self-enrichment.
2. Electoral contests must be a contest of alternative ideas, visions or philosophies about how society can make progress. Every successful democracy is based on contending IDEAS.
3. The PROCESS of elections must have integrity in order to be legitimate. This means the umpire
must be neutral as between contending parties & must be truly independent, not controlled/influenced by government, ruling or opposition parties.
4. The electorate must be both basically and politically literate. This is necessary to have capacity to assess candidates for votes.
I respectfully disagree with President @officialABAT ‘s response to the visit to him by The Patriots, led by former @commonwealthsec Secretary-General Chief Emeka Anyaoku, during which the group (of which I am a member) pressed for a new Constitution for Nigeria as a matter of
urgency, and recommending specific steps to achieve this. While PBAT received the eminent elder statesman and his colleagues with the appropriate dignity and protocols (“this is a group I cannot ignore”, Tinubu noted), the President asserted that economic reform (and the
crisis that it has created in the country) is his priority right now, but that his government would of course study the recommendations of The Patriots and respond (hopefully with action and not merely words). What Nigeria’s leaders fail to understand is that it will be extremely
The @nnpclimited v @AlikoDangote saga is a sad tale of how successive governments of Nigeria have failed to create a real economy that generates wealth for its citizens. Our economy works only for a very few who get rich while Nigerians continually get poorer. #Rentseeking
The economic failure of Nigeria's leaders because of loyalties to vested interests and unholy ties between "business" and government is deeply unfortunate. @NigeriaGov is, and has been unable, either to stimulate through effect economic policy a set of strategic oligopolies
across sectors under which smaller businesses and supply chains thrive, making up a successful national economy as in South Korea. Neither has the government, on the other hand, been able to create a truly competitive, level playing field for business in Nigeria so that wealth
In the debates on national wage in Nigeria we miss the fundamental point: there is little or no productivity in the economy. If we had a truly productive economy there is no reason we can’t have the kind of minimum wage of 400 or 500K that Labour wants. But we can’t, because the
level of productivity in the economy cannot support it. Remember, minimum wage is not just about government salaries. There are not more than 2, at most 3 million civil servants in Nigeria. It is even more about what is paid in the private sector, to household staff, etc.
All of this is why, all things considered, including avoiding a minimum wage that multiplies already ravaging inflation (assuming such a wage can even be paid), I recommend a minimum wage of between N75,000 and N100,000.
In fact, speaking about productivity, how productive is
The Naira tanking back down to the 1,400s to $1 demonstrates what some of us have been saying. Seeking a falsely “strong” currency when the fundamentals are out of whack is shadow chasing. The focus should be on the STABILITY of the exchange rate, not a populist exchange rate
and premature declarations of “best performing currency”. Reports that there are now multiple exchange rates to BDCs, Customs, and NAFEX are also worrying. It’s not yet uhuru. Let us stabilize the Naira at whatever is its true market value and then pivot to the real issues:
taking Nigeria to 20-25K megawatts of 24 hour electricity in 2-3 years starting with Lagos, Kano, Onitsha and Nnewi (Aba seems promising with Geometric power) so we can create a truly productive economy. Dealing decisively with oil theft and ramping up oil production to bring in
Our relationships with others sometimes deepen or shrink in strange ways. When I was a Deputy Gov at the CBN, there was this bank MD that wanted my approval for certain things concerning his challenged bank. But he would not follow the guidelines we gave him, instead looking for
shortcuts and expecting me to play along. One day my patience snapped. I terminated our conversation and showed him the door of my office. Long story short, the matter was eventually resolved after the bank met certain regulatory conditions. Today that MD (since retired) is
a good friend. After I completed my tenure in November 2014 and left the apex bank, my deceased father in law was buried in early 2015. The MD sent a personal representative to the funeral with a gift. Note the phrase “after I had completed my tenure and left the apex bank”.