That Nigeria, the world’s most populous black nation, is blessed with both human and material resources is not in doubt. By its alluring vegetation and climatic condition, the country is enjoying nature’s blessing and favour.
What is, however, disgusting about the country is its loathsome leadership which, like virus, has unfortunately infected the followership. Though the country subscribes to democratic government, it has a warped electoral system that is bankrupt of all forms of democratic norms and tenets. The system produces mediocres and charlatans best suited for medieval times.
Whereas leadership is visionless, rudderless, parasitic and self-serving, the followership is docile, spineless, patronising, and pathologically driven by ethnic and religious sentiments, thus creating a country where the interplay of personal and parochial interests make a huge joke of its common patrimony and shared prosperity.
For these reasons and more, the country, rightly described as the giant of Africa, has become a shadow of its true self, walking with legs of clay and always qualified in demeaning soubriquets. Today, the country carries a badge that advertises it as the world headquarters of poverty.
But, like the baby-monkey which, in spite of its ugliness, the mother still loves it, Nigerians and their friends globally, especially the experts among them, still see great potential in this otherwise great African country which prides itself as the continent’s largest economy.
These experts who watch the country closely believe that the negative fortunes of the country can be reversed with conscious efforts on the part of the ruling class, and indeed all citizens.
While some of them spoke at a 2-day national discourse organised by BusinessDay Media Limited last week, some also spoke at exclusive interview with our reporters.
Although looking at the sad story of the country since independence in 1960, it is tempting to conclude that the touted giant of Africa had gone beyond redemption; the participants converged on the belief that with attitudinal change, Nigeria could still be brought back from the brink.
The optimism expressed at the national discourse tagged, ‘A National Conversation: Mapping Nigeria’s Response to Covid-19’, was made after a careful x-ray of the country’s economic and leadership challenges worsened by the coronavirus pandemic.
Lamenting that Nigeria has remained a country, but not a nation, Baba Gana, pioneer deputy managing director of Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLG), said: “We have a country, but we do not have a nation.”
On the way forward, Gana said: “Nigerians have got this tendency of looting based on ethnicity and religion. We must be purged of this. We must be committed to our country.”
Speaking from his experience in public and private sectors, he said that one of the factors that had drawn the country back was the penchant to believe that anything foreign is better than indigenous. He condemned the attitude of some local companies that insist on employing foreigners even when there are many Nigerians that are more competent for such jobs than those being employed from outside.
“You don’t remove a Nigerian and bring in a foreigner,” he said.
According to him, “Nigeria should stop making appointments based on sentiments. Many projects fail in Nigeria because appointments are made based on sentiment and not capacity to deliver on the projects.”
Some other participants, who blamed poor selection, lack of accountability and inability to take responsibility as the bane of leadership in the country, noted that these ills, among others, have been reflected in the difficulty in containing the Covid-19 pandemic.
They spoke in tandem that for Nigeria to make the needed progress, there must be a total overhaul of the system and conscious efforts to do things differently.
Of particular reference was the observation by Peter Obi, a former governor of Anambra State, that no matter the kind of plans one puts or has in Nigeria, with the kind of leaders the country has, nothing good would come out of it.
He insisted that there must be a leadership overhaul from the federal to states and down to the local government. “Our leadership selection must change,” Obi said emphatically.
On the governance structure in Nigeria, the former vice presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2019 general election said the country needed to look out for a new political arrangement that will decentralise the power of the Federal Government.
On the role of leadership in making things work in a country, Abdulsalam Nasidi, a professor, provost of Health Services, University of Africa, Bayelsa, who was also the pioneer director-general, Nigerian Centre for Diseases Control, said: “The leader must be seen to be in control to make things work.”
To replicate the success stories recorded by some indigenous companies, Ernest Ndukwe, a former Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), said: “We must play our matches with our first eleven.”
It was also pointed out that assignments and appointments to positions of responsibility must no longer be “job for the boys”. Government was also urged to incentivise all investors- foreign and local- to attract more investments.
Speaking with BDSUNDAY in an interview in this vein, Linus Okorie, founder and president of GOTNI, a human capital development consultant, said that what leaders do in times of crisis is to look beyond the crisis and begin to quickly study and research the situation in order to find solutions.
“Constant decision making process should be the order of the day. In Nigeria, right now, one of the things I believe leaders can take very seriously is to start reinventing and reorienting the minds of the people and giving them hope.
Remove fear from their mindset because when the population is afraid of the future, you will have a sick population – a population that is depressed, a population that will get into the mood of uncertainty and suicide,” Okorie said.
According to him, “Leaders should give the people proper information necessary to guide them on what they must do that can help them in their businesses and individual lives.
At the end of the day, they will create policies that will add value to the people in the present as well as preparing them for the economy that is being opened.
“This means that just like what the CBN is doing right now, that should be intensified. Government can deliberately waive certain taxes. Government should provide specific kinds of support systems.”
It is his belief that at this time, Nigeria should be working towards becoming a production-based economy rather than a consumption-driven one.
“Right now, there should be huge investment into areas that can create jobs, especially agriculture and agricultural value chain. The government can invest in SMEs and offer them support systems that can generate sustainable growth.
“I want to see massive investments in these areas. That’s the only way we can position for the new normal and open up the economy for prosperity,” he said.
ZEBULON AGOMUO AND CHUKA UROKO
