Oluyomi Ola-David Insights

The rich Is stable enough The poor Is shaky enough Where is the middle The leader Is big enough The follower Is small enough Where is the middle The industry Is wide enough The household  Is narrow enough Where is the middle ... Belts hold the waist Rulers bridge the gap Titles tend the herd Saviours hold the stake Where is the project #SDG16

The trajectory of Nigeria's development has been far from smooth. History has led us through many hills and valleys, mountains and lowlands, rocks and hard places. Nigeria had been fed with tears as bread and had been drunk with woeful tears as water. Nigeria had been made a strife to her neighbours. We had become a byword and a proverb in the mouths of those who once benefitted from our glee. The enemies of Nigeria laugh her to scorn among themselves. The trajectory of Nigeria had been a diappointment to the nationalistic and patriotic founding fathers as they turn in their graves. There had been breaches to the Nigerian security apparatus and strangers had devoured luscious fruits of the Nigerian heritage. We had looked to men, arms, parties, places, hills and idols for the redemption of the Nigerian dream, all to no avail. In vain we had relied on helpless foreigners from the four corners of the planet. Where are those who despise the days of our small and meaningless beginnings

Once I was blind  Now I can see And it's time to be expelled By the hypocritical company Once I was weak Now I am strong And it's time to be torched By the gatekeepers Once I was slave Now I am free And it's time to be followed By the waiting press Once I was lame Now I can walk And it's time to be released By the beggarly troop Once I was asleep Now I am awake And it's time to be searched  By the rugged scrolls Once I was fed Now I am cooking And it's time to be served By the waning horsemen Once I was reading Now I can think And it's time to be pulled By the chief cornerstone Once I was latent Now I am active And it's time to be made By the wailing watcher Once I was fishing Now I am fished And it's time to be missed By the usual kin and fellows Once I was dumb Now I can speak And it's time to be selling By the core once a periphery Once I was timid Now I am courageous And it's time to be assessed By the mirror that matters Once I was old N

Where there is  Corruption We will need a new Breed without greed Where there is  No dream We will need new Architects without walls Where there is  Mediocrity We will need new Teachers void of ignorance Where there is  Hatred We will need a new Nation without prejudice  Where there is no  Knowledge We will need new Thinkers without masters Where there is  Injustice  We will need new Judges without bias Where there is Error We will need new Speakers without guile Where there is no Safety We will need new Soldiers without interests Where there is Collapse We will need new Engineers without fault Where there is Hunger We will need new Grainfields without boundary Where there is  No vision We will need new Leaders without myopia Where there is Time We will need new Agents without ceasing ... Photo credit: Oluyomi Ola-David

Transformational turning points are the real 'new years', every other movement along the continuum of time is just for keeping the records.  Economies, individiduals, households, firms, governments, and institutions  can experience my concept of a 'new year' at whatever point in time they decide to effect game-changing ideas, policies, and structural changes, however minuscule. Check through business cases as well as economic history and you will observe how some nations advanced in development while their counterparts stagnated or retrogressed through time. Some firms from yesteryears are now defunct because they simply refused to innovate in development strategy. So, if you, unlike me, decided to commence 2022 with a static business-as-usual mindset, then it is not your own 'new year' yet. You would have to start yours at a later time. It is my deep seated hope that you will not be caught napping, flying with worn wings that need replacement. With no structura

Economy may be sluggish And the youth violently idle The forecasts may seem bleak But you made it so School teachers may be overworked And the pupils bullied to submission The social learning may be adverse But you made it so Farm goods may be wasting away And processing plants underpowered The nourishment may be toxic But you made it so Moral values may be waning And healthy culture stale The streets may be dangerous But you made it so Inflation may be unbearable And prices never free The cost of living may be rising But you made it so Foreign debt may be increasing And misappropriation very likely The interest rates may be high But you made it so Corruption may be second nature And manipulation the stock-in-trade The rule of law may hold no water But you made it so Government may be irresponsible And the leaders insensitive The followers may be wandering But you made it so Firms may be brutally competitive And the people policies gruesome The legislations may be perverse But you made

Often times when development experts propose solutions to the problems of underdevelopment and poverty, the solutions are tilted towards addressing the effects of underdevelopment such as high unemployment, hunger, low literacy rate, prevalence of communicable diseases, and other low quality of life parameters. There are fewer empirical investigations into the causes of underdevelopment and poverty across developing countries. For instance, there is a need to intricately decipher the role that traditions, cultural values, norms, beliefs, and religious inclinations play in development. This is because non-economic factors could be either great contributors to or deterrents of development. Within the Weberian framework of economic development, religious affiliations to  Protestantism  and Protestant ethics were observed to be stimulants of the entrepreneurial spirit. In turn, the entrepreneurial spirit significantly contributed to industrial development. Notably, most r