The fear is palpable and justified! Even the unshakeable has been shaken with the level of destruction, looting and carnage across the country following the mismanagement of the legitimate EndSARs protest.
That we suffered such an unbelievable level of carnage just days after celebrating 60 years as a country clearly shows that our dear country is in a deep crisis! The question on many lips is if our dear country Nigeria can truly be called a nation and what should be done to rescue the rapidly failing giant of Africa! There is no time that the meaning of our National Anthem is needed than now. Compatriots from all parts and shades urgently need to rise to this call to build and serve while we earnestly pray to God Almighty to direct our noble cause and guide our leaders’ right!
The urgency of this call cannot be over-emphasized! While we hope that the destruction, looting and carnage of the last few days will continue to decline and stop, the truth is that the government (federal, state and local) are yet to properly appreciate the enormity of the challenges to articulate the appropriate solutions.
Regrettably, as long we lack a proper understanding of the challenges, the likelihood of more protests and crisis cannot be ruled out. While EndSARS protest might be seen, perceived and treated as a protest of police brutality, it is far beyond police issues. It is more of a manifestation of deeper failures of our society and governance evident in the lamentable levels of poverty, unemployment, insecurity and hate.
Nigeria is in a deep crisis and needs a total overhaul! Shared responsibility is urgently and deeply required. We all have our parts to play particularly the key stakeholders- the government (mainly federal and state), the private sector and the youth movements.
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This contribution highlights the summary of what is expected of the key stakeholders to rescue Nigeria from failure. Before I continue, let me first offer my condolences on the avoidable deaths of fellow Nigerians particularly the youths and our security officers.
We pray that God accepts their souls while we make all efforts to avoid such condemnable and reactive mismanagement of otherwise very peaceful protests for a better Nigeria. How we learn and treat the issues that caused the carnage will go a long way in showing that heroic efforts and sacrifices of our departed brethren were not in vain!
First, the government led by PMB and the governors need to quickly appreciate that Nigeria is fast failing under their leadership and poor performance. With the hope that they are interested in legacy, a key question is what they can do in the remaining two years and six months before a new government in 2023. If PMB is not strategic and proactive, his legacies might be remembered more from the negatives than the positives. This I hope and pray should not be the case.
Believing that he is interested in building a nation bound in freedom, peace, justice, fairness and unity, it is pertinent that he appreciates that with the sociology of Nigeria, the current governance structure we are using is not working, will not and cannot work. This is not caused by PMB, APC or PDP rather by our sociology and plurality.
For Nigeria to progressively work, the need to quickly restructure particularly devolving powers from the centre (federal) to the states and local governments cannot be overemphasized. It is an option that can only be ignored to our collective peril. The current growing demand for state police is a subset of this overwhelming demand to restructure Nigeria.
About 25 million Nigerians are unemployed. If they are classified as a country, they will be more populated than 35 countries in Africa’s 54 countries. We also know that Nigeria is classified as the poverty capital of the world with about 91 million Nigeria described as extremely poor. Deductions from the above clearly show that we have a potent danger in our hand with about 100 million Nigerians willing to protest and with the saying that a hungry man is an angry man, violent protests cannot be ruled out.
Restructuring the country will liberate the country and open more opportunities for higher productivity, engagement and job creation. As these millions of poor and unemployed Nigeria all reside in the 36 states of Nigeria, our 36 governors have no option than to buckle up and provide the needed innovative leadership! The jobs need to be created from the states and by the Governors rather than the present seeming transfer of the task to the federal government.
Second, the carnage has clearly shown that the private sector needs to do more. While some are significantly contributing to the economy through taxes, job creation and corporate social responsibility, the situation we are in calls for more collective efforts and actions. Just as we had a private sector-led effort (CACOVID) against COVID 19, so we desperately need for job creation and poverty reduction.
There is a need for a large pull of funds from and managed by the private sector focused on quick job-creating sectors of the economy. Three very good sectors that can be supported for immense and immediate social impact are education, agriculture and health. With many of our poor neighbourhoods lacking good and affordable schools, a significant part of the pooled private sector funds should be channelled to building and managing schools specifically built for the poor of our society.
As skills in Information Technology provide the opportunity to get jobs in any part of the world irrespective of your location, it is an area the schools for the poor can focus on. Agriculture also provides immense opportunity to reduce poverty. With some economic trees such as avocado, soursop, coconut and palm trees proven to generate about N25,000 per tree after three years of planting, it is an area that the private sector can use to both reduce poverty, create jobs and generate more wealth.
The private sector fund can agree to finance the planting of about 5 million economic trees every year. While it will cost about N2.5 billion to plant the five million trees at a cost of N500 per tree, it will generate a revenue of about N125 billion every year for at least 50 years.
The third most critical stakeholder are youths. From what happened, we have two major groups. While the first is the educated that organized and participated in the EndSARS protest, the other group are the generally uneducated that organized and participated in the violence, destruction and carnage that we are witnessing.
This second group is generally described as Hoodlums! A very important question and challenge for the educated youths is how to secure the buy-in and support of the “hoodlums”. This can be achieved through a strategic rethink of why they are called hoodlums and what can be done to reduce their population through education and opportunities. This is very important for the Youth movement to succeed.
Dr Ngwu, is an Economist/Associate Professor of Strategy, Risk Management & Corporate Governance, Lagos Business School and a Member, Expert Network, World Economic Forum. E-mail- [email protected],
