Pre-May 29 2015 [Nigerian Democracy Day] Reflections



Without trying to pre-empt the ‘xy’ agenda of Nigeria’s incoming administration led by President-elect General Buhari, I write this note because of my belief in the philosophy of change. Bottom-line, philosophies of change become the unique selling points of every individual, group and society. It is what drives individuals and communities to reach beyond the stars. Everyone who has left indelible marks, on the sands of history believed their actions (or inactions) could cause a change spiral. With a well-defined philosophy of change, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew led Singapore from third world to first.


I believe national leadership is a call to true statesmanship and a responsibility to tend and keep the ‘national garden’, for the common and greater good. This calls for a team of noble people united by a dream of creating a sustainable future. Sometimes ideas that positively change the course of history are not populist and economic progress can be made to happen by sheer vision and strong-arm tactics.


Going forward, I would say to the incoming administration: No coasting! Only sail farther and recover greater ground! The best is still to come. Here are some 9-points-to-note towards fostering inclusive and sustainable development for Nigeria over the next few years.  

§  To build on the successes of the outgoing administration, fund the completion of ongoing projects. Impact evaluation studies of programmes and policies usually provide useful feedback for future decision making.

§  To build a national sense of understanding that political stability, ethnic and religious harmony are important preconditions for economic progress.

§  To prioritize education, research and development. East Asian exemplars such as South Korea and Singapore were able to build their low growth economies to high technology growth economies, amongst other things, by prioritising education, research and development.

§  To rebuild citizen and investor confidence in the system of justice, rule of law and dignity of labour.

§  To deepen public-private partnerships in the exploitation of Nigeria’s strategic resources. Committing the exploitation of our strategic resources to the ‘whims and caprices’ of the private sector is misguided. Nigeria can learn from successful models of state capitalism.

§  To promote food security and further the objectives of the Agriculture Transformation Agenda. Create incentives for small-scale as well as large-scale agricultural investments, domestic and foreign. Can take lessons from how China and Brazil stimulated high productivity in their agricultural sectors.

§  To disincentivize rent-seeking in public office and promote dignity of labour. Public servants should not be ‘feasting off the national purse’, while majority of the people they are supposed to be serving are ‘perishing’

§  To promote a sense of national identity. Can work out modalities and policies that will help diminish the sense of tribalism that currently plagues the fabric of our national culture. Can learn from how LKY of Singapore built a sense of nationalism.

§  To drive infrastructure development projects, as a propeller of industrial growth and an incentive for attracting foreign investment. Special economic zones for instance can create business linkages that develop domestic absorptive capacity.


The discussion continues…

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