A nation is made up of people within the state with the overarching interest to make their country better.
For any nation to progress for better economic conditions, there needs to be mobility of labour, most especially inward mobility of experts in different fields of human endeavour.
Using Nigeria as a case study, the word “japa” has been a major trend not just as a word but action whereby citizens of Nigeria travel out of the country for greener pastures to escape the nation’s economic hardship.
Though that’s not a crime because everyone created by God is a global citizen, it’s just that the government of each nation has placed restrictions on the attainment of citizenship of their nations.
The pleasant way the Nigerian government needs to address the outward mobility of labour is by creating a better working environment for the people.
Major foreign businesses in Nigeria folded up their business in Nigeria in the year 2023, while Nigeria’s President, his Excellency Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu embarked on foreign trips seeking foreign Investors, in this case, what we need to address what makes these international businesses to fold up in Nigeria or the reasons why others are not coming.
Naira devaluation is one of the issues affecting the economic hardship within the nation. For the Nigeria Naira (NGN) to gain more value, Nigerians need to start patronizing locally-made goods, products and services (made in Nigeria).
We need to start incorporating ourselves by practising what is right, it is only the right action that can lead us to the right heights as a nation. In this case, what is the right action? The right action is the upliftment of the right principles. Some principles govern this world, for an Aeroplane to fly, there is a principle that governs it, the principle is Aerodynamics.
Also for any government to lead the state to greater heights free from insecurity and oppression in the land, the principles of productivity (concepts of productivity) need to be upheld by that government; in other words, each labourer needs to enjoy the wages per time.
There needs to be a conducive and secure working environment.
In a democratic government like Nigeria, the dividend of democracy needs to be distributed to the people. There is less productivity in Nigeria as a nation because a majority of Nigerians are not well-equipped to benefit from the government. Only some selected few are being enriched by the government.
The economy of any nation affects the prosperity of its citizens. But religion has been a relief for us as a nation whereby we believe in a supernatural God to intervene in our affairs, truly God intervenes in the affairs of men, but for us to experience greater productivity for better outcomes we must practise what God has instructed us to do, which is, we must work, we must tend our land.
Nations that progress productively are not praying nations but working nations. Does prayer feed hunger? If you are hungry you eat, you don’t start praying for God to satisfy your hunger for you to be fed, what you do immediately is for you to eat food because that same God has created food for you to eat.
Religion serves as a vehicle for salvation, while work serves as a vehicle for prosperity, says Reno Omokri.
I discovered in Nigeria most things we pray for God to execute for us are what need to be provided by our government.
No nation grows beyond the labour (working) capacity of the people and government. For us to experience growth and development we must invest heavily in training and retraining our labour force.
The labour force constitutes the total number of workers within the nation.
Nigeria is blessed with a great number of labour force but there’s a need for proper equipment for the execution of tasks, we need to embrace technology in our production processes. Once we are equipped with proper technological tools we will experience rapid development.
The quality of education needs to be treated with the right interest by the government, health care needs to be invested heavily in for proper treatment.
The highways need to be safe for journeys. Those terrorising the nation need to be dealt with accordingly by equipping the security agencies.
Our government needs to make the land safe for productivity.
There needs to be early talent discovery for specialisation in the labour force. Also, each citizen needs to know that it is through productive labour that we can only be economically enriched.
There is always work you can do to bring you out of that economic instability. As a nation, we need to start exporting rather than importing thereby making us a producing nation rather than being a consuming nation.
Once we start producing, this will boost our economy. Also, there needs to be proper scrutiny of our production processes.
In the area of production of foods, NAFDAC needs to ensure proper control.
.Akingbohungbe
Author, Motivational Speaker, Public Affairs Analyst, Leadership And Government Consultant
Writes From Ogun State, Nigeria.
