18 January, 2016

Wanted :A Visionary Leader

     It is a pity That Nigerians are still living on past glories. A nation that is a mono economy, whose main export is commanding a low price in the international market can I'll afford to live the way we are right now. People are going about as if it is business as usual. Looking round, one can see no sign of the sad turn of the economy in the everyday lives of our functionaries The National Assembly is carrying on as if all is well. At the last count oil per barrel is less than $ 30. Our naira is in a free fall at more than N300 to the dollar. It's southwards journey continues unabated. With this reality nonetheless , the Nass is planning on buy posh foreign made cars with money from the national coffers. With Nigeria's foreign reserve at a meager $29bn the planned purchases is one the nation can ill afford. Comparing this amount with close to $3bn James Cameron's film 'Avatar' grossed worldwide will give a scale of what the nation can make in other sectors when we really put our back to it.
 Opportunities however abound within the nation. Wither the groundnut pyramids, the textile industry, the real sector of the economy? Nigeria has no foundry industry to boast of. Since when was something invented in the country? The environment where excellence can breed is lacking. With a teeming population Nigeria should be coasting economically. However, this sorry pass we have gotten ourselves into was of our own making. Our so called leaders have failed us woefully. They've been superlatively lacking in vision and foresight. What you sow that you'll reap. This is an eternal truism. As a new oil producing nation Gen. Gowan, the then Head of State was said to have said money is not Nigeria's problem but how to spend it. What an unfortunate utterance as as at then a lot of towns and villages were still without roads, electricity, potable water, modern rail system etc, etc. This present parlous condition we find ourselves had been set in motion a long time ago. Where nations like the Emiratis where looking forward to a time when oil will lose it's shine, Nigeria was busy eating it's future. Those countries have diversified their economy to the extent that when you talk of those nations you don't think of oil but tourism, financial services and other allied activities.
  The earlier Nigeria invests in agriculture the better for everyone. I humbly believed that without the curse of oil Nigeria would have ranked high in the comity of nations. Where did the groundnut pyramids go, our cocoa, coffee. Our palmtrees? With our teeming population and our land and climate there is no reason why we should be feeding Africa, nay, the world. 

Wanted :A Visionary Leader

     It is a pity That Nigerians are still living on past glories. A nation that is a mono economy, whose main export is commanding a low price in the international market can I'll afford to live the way we are right now. People are going about as if it is business as usual. Looking round, one can see no sign of the sad turn of the economy in the everyday lives of our functionaries The National Assembly is carrying on as if all is well. At the last count oil per barrel is less than $ 30. Our naira is in a free fall at more than N300 to the dollar. It's southwards journey continues unabated. With this reality nonetheless , the Nass is planning on buy posh foreign made cars with money from the national coffers. With Nigeria's foreign reserve at a meager $29bn the planned purchases is one the nation can ill afford. Comparing this amount with close to $3bn James Cameron's film 'Avatar' grossed worldwide will give a scale of what the nation can make in other sectors when we really put our back to it.
 Opportunities however abound within the nation. Wither the groundnut pyramids, the textile industry, the real sector of the economy? Nigeria has no foundry industry to boast of. Since when was something invented in the country? The environment where excellence can breed is lacking. With a teeming population Nigeria should be coasting economically. However, this sorry pass we have gotten ourselves into was of our own making. Our so called leaders have failed us woefully. They've been superlatively lacking in vision and foresight. What you sow that you'll reap. This is an eternal truism. As a new oil producing nation Gen. Gowan, the then Head of State was said to have said money is not Nigeria's problem but how to spend it. What an unfortunate utterance as as at then a lot of towns and villages were still without roads, electricity, potable water, modern rail system etc, etc. This present parlous condition we find ourselves had been set in motion a long time ago. Where nations like the Emiratis where looking forward to a time when oil will lose it's shine, Nigeria was busy eating it's future. Those countries have diversified their economy to the extent that when you talk of those nations you don't think of oil but tourism, financial services and other allied activities.
  The earlier Nigeria invests in agriculture the better for everyone. I humbly believed that without the curse of oil Nigeria would have ranked high in the comity of nations. Where did the groundnut pyramids go, our cocoa, coffee. Our palmtrees? With our teeming population and our land and climate there is no reason why we should be feeding Africa, nay, the world. 

15 August, 2015

Pilgrimage and the Nation

    At the last count about 66000 Muslims and 30000 Christians will be going on pilgrimage this year. A whooping N70 bn will be spent largely by the three tiers of government. This is a sum of money that should ordinarily be spent on the real sectors of the economy. Juxtapose this with the latest news where WAEC is threatening to withold the results of 13 indebted state and the criminality of the political actors in this farce called state sponsored pilgrimage is laid bare. These are the same states that throw money into the Pilgrim cesspool. Government - sponsored pilgrimage is a scam. It is both a religious and an economic scam. It is a religious scam in that Pilgrimage is a personal journey and should therefore be personally driven. It is more fulfilling when a pilgrimage is embarked upon solely by the individual devoid of government sponsorship.
It is an economic scam in the sense that their is no known criteria for inclusion into the scheme. Everything goes. Inclusion is based primarily on political patronage. An exercise where public money is spent on a scheme whose inclusion criteria is nebulous should be strongly discouraged.
      Nigeria is by no means a spiritual nation (what with a corruption ridden landscape) but only a religious one. Nigeria should divest herself from investing in non yielding ventures but rather invest in sectors like education where the results are positive and can be traced directly to the investment. Recently the Adamawa government voted N200m just to pray to end the Boko Haram scourge. N200m voted for so-called 'prayer warrior s'. These are all laughable misapplication of scarce resources that the people can jolly do without.  It is criminal to say the least. 

09 August, 2015

Of flags and Correctness

     It is amazing the fact that seats (literally) of power do not show the proper coat of arms of Nigeria.The above is the picture of a Governor with the coat of arms on the back seat showing the horses in yellow colour. Sometimes the flag is shown with the coat of arms in the middle (of course with the horses in yellow). This state of affairs has unfortunately become the new normal in most state houses in Nigeria. The lecterns are also not left out.
They are most times emblazoned with this 'foreign' coat of arms.The horses in the normal Nigeria coat of afms should be white in colour. Can we safely say these public functionaries are aliens and foreigners? No wonder they don't represent the people in governance. If a student is asked the colour of the horses in Nigeria coat of arms and he answers yellow would you say he is wrong? How can our political office holders seat on chair's chairs with some alien coat of arms on the back. If these anomalies occur in such high settings little wonder that Nigeria is in such state she is. National Orientation Agency(NOA) over to you.

Of flags and Correctness

     It is amazing the fact that seats (literally) of power do not show the proper coat of arms of Nigeria.The above is the picture of a Governor with the coat of arms on the back seat showing the horses in yellow colour. Sometimes the flag is shown with the coat of arms in the middle (of course with the horses in yellow). This state of affairs has unfortunately become the new normal in most state houses in Nigeria. The lecterns are also not left out.
They are most times emblazoned with this 'foreign' coat of arms.The horses in the normal Nigeria coat of afms should be white in colour. Can we safely say these public functionaries are aliens and foreigners? No wonder they don't represent the people in governance. If a student is asked the colour of the horses in Nigeria coat of arms and he answers yellow would you say he is wrong? How can our political office holders seat on chair's chairs with some alien coat of arms on the back. If these anomalies occur in such high settings little wonder that Nigeria is in such state she is. National Orientation Agency(NOA) over to you.