What we need most in Nigeria is the emergence of a NATIONAL leader with a real worldview. This type of leader will necessarily have intellectual depth, philosophical reflection, and practical leadership ability to
inspire, motivate and provide guidance to Nigerians. In a radical departure from our present and past experience, he or she will be able to appeal to our enlightened, collective interest, to “the better angels of our nature”. Historically, great leaders have had this ability.
From America’s Abraham Lincoln to Britain’s Winston Churchill and Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew, from China’s Deng Xiaoping to Malaysia’s Mahathir Mohammed, from Botswana’s Seretse Khama to Mauritius’s Ameena Gurib-Fakih. The countries led by these great men’s and women have been
built and developed on the basis of worldviews that could be clearly identified. Given our own tortured past and present and the possibilities before us, a leader with a worldview of radical transformation in the direction of national unity, economic development, and our place in
the world is now needed in our country. My vision of how to reinvent Nigeria as a worldview state rests on the following steps:
I recommend that we establish a simple, short and profound Worldview Charter entitled “One Nation, One Destiny” (I know, this was the motto of National
Party of Nigeria (NPN) in the Second Republic, but the wording is only a coincidence!). This document should be prepared by a committee of relevant intellectuals drawn from the fields of philosophy, history, literature, law, sociology, economics, sciences and business, and
including youth and women. It should be a short, easily understandable document of not more than two pages that addresses the following issues:
1. The Amalgamation if 1914. 2. The promise held out by “the labour a of our heroes past” such as Nnamdi Azikiwe, Obafemi Awolowo,
Ahmadu Bello, Anthony Enahoro etc. 3. A determination to recreate a united nation by building on the strength of our diverse and dynamic people. 4. Express regret about the loss of millions of lives in the Nigerian Civil War and affirm that such a tragedy will never happen again.
5. Affirm the importance justice, equity and the rule of law as the basis of governance in the “New Nigeria”. 6. Affirm entrepreneurial capitalism which encourages the ethic of individual hard work, while seeking a proper balance between the role of the state and the marketplace,
as the foundation of a productive Nigerian economy in the context of a developmental state. 7. The need to establish a true social contract between the state and the citizens of Nigeria, with minimum outcomes to be delivered to citizens, and encourage citizens to pay their taxes
on this basis. 8. Innovation and skilled human capital, not natural resources, as the foundational basis of economic activity in the “New Nigeria”. 9. A determination to restore/achieve Nigeria’s eminent place in the world deriving from its unique position as the most populous
nation of the black race.
This Charter should be ratified by the National Assembly and all State Assemblies , signed by the President and all State Governors, and taught in all primary and secondary schools in Nigeria, with a simple version at primary level and a more
comprehensive one at secondary school level. This will create a new generation of Nigerians with the necessary mindset of patriotism and strategic national ambition. The President and his or her cabinet should act on and communicate this worldview at all times, as should
Legislators and state governors. Building great nations often requires leaders with a strong ability to communicate to and with their fellow citizens and to lead by example. The worldview state is a condition precedent for practical good governance, coming in Vision #3.
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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”.