For instance, UAE’s GDP has grown 112 times bigger than it was in 1971 with a per capita income in 2022 of $40,000.
South Korea grew her per capita income from $10,170 in 1992 to $28,075 in 2022, while Singapore grew from $27,060 in 1992 to $61,000 in 2022.
Wait for the bombshell: While six countries with a combined population of 183 million people generate $4.2trn in GDP, Nigeria with a population of 220m has a GDP of about $400bn. (UAE: Population- 10m, GDP- $400bn, Malaysia: Population- 33m, GDP-$366bn, Israel: Population- 9.6m, GDP- $501bn, Thailand: Population- 66m, GDP-$505bn, South Korea: Population- 51.8m, GDP $1.8trn, and Taiwan: Population -23m, GDP $690bn.
Nigeria is not productive and can barely fulfil her destiny as it is presently structured.
Madness N05:
Lack of elite consensus: All smart and developing nations have something in common: Elite Consensus around a common vision. India’s elites decided to produce Software Engineers for the world. In 1950, three years after independence, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) was established. Today, Indian Engineers are leading the world and remitting about $100 Billion yearly according to MOIA.
Taiwanese elites decided to control the heart of technology; in 1987, the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) was established, and while it is considered to be a lesser-known company, in reality, rules the world.
The same can be said for the UAE. Their elites built a consensus around Hospitality and Tourism, through Dubai. The Chinese elites built a consensus around Global Supply Chain (GSC), which catapulted China to N0 2 in the global classroom.
Here is the exam: who among the Presidential aspirants can govern any of these two countries successfully, and how?
Country A: Four countries are merged under one unitary, central government: Saudi Arabia+ Israel + Iran+ Italy and form the Federal Republic of SAIII
Country B: Pakistan + India + Bangladesh+ Ireland become the Federal Republic of PIBI
SAIII=PIBI=Nigeria. QED. You gerrit or fogerrabourrit.
Professor Mahmadu Jega posed a poser: ‘with the mountain of problems facing Nigeria, why do we have dozens of people coming out to vie for the post of President? The answer is GREED! My hunch is that each of the candidates and their supporters have a cleaver inside their pocket with which to cut their own share of Nigeria’s dying whale.
Make Abraham Lincoln the President, Winston Churchill, VP, Lee Kuan Yew the Finance Minister and Barack Obama the Chief of Staff to the President, forging elite consensus in any of those 3 republics (SAIII, PIBI and Nigeria) is not just a Herculean task, but it is an impossibility. And no elite consensus, no transformation, no life after 70!
The Sokoto Jungle Justice of 10th May 2022 provides a litmus test for all the Presidential aspirants. Any aspirant who cannot take a public stand on the constitutionality of jungle justice is not a fit and proper person to lead Nigeria.
Madness N0 6:
Pleasure without Productivity, Gains without Pains, Platinum lifestyle without Perspiration.
The country which received the lousy trophy of the world’s poverty capital in 2019 and has the world’s highest number of out of school children is also the country reputed to host the highest number of private jet owners in the world after America and China and one of the biggest Champagne consuming nations. The Country dies when the two most thriving sectors of the economy are Politics and Yahoo+!
Madness N07:
Nigeria, a kidnapped state in chains.
Nigeria’s situation is worse than what Political Economists call ‘’State Capture.’
On May 24 1966, through Decree 34 promulgated by the then Military Administration of General Aguiyi Ironsi, the ‘’FIRST NIGERIA’’ was kidnapped and chained down. Liberating a captured state is far easier than a kidnapped one with manacles on her legs and shackles on her arms. For instance, despite the Mafia’s notoriety, Mexico remains the world’s 15th strongest economy in the world.
Ironsi got it all wrong when he concluded that “All Nigerians want an end to regionalism, tribal loyalties, and activities which promote tribal consciousness and sectional interest…’’ The then Military Governor of the Northern Region, Gen Hassan Usman Katsina and Gen David Ejoor of the Mid-Western Region expressed strong reservation and opined that it would lead to future complications. Lt Col Ojukwu and Dr Nnamdi Azikwe celebrated the unification Decree.
General Ironsi tapped his kinsman, Mr Nwokedi of the Civil Service to produce a white paper for the establishment of the ‘’Administrative machinery for the unification decree’’. Gen Adekunle Fajuyi of the Western Region maintained neutrality.
The rain began to beat Nigeria in 1966 when the Military thought it could decree against tribal consciousness – something which Europeans fought a 100-years war on. Unarguably, the relative peace which Europe has enjoyed in the last 80 years is due to the ethnic re-alignments in Europe since the end of WW2.
Some Nigerians ignorantly still believe that all Nigeria needs is a strong leader. Josip Tito was a strong leader of Yugoslavia, yet the country pulled apart along ethnic lines after his death. We lie when we say ethnic groupings are anachronistic. They are not.
The only thing missing in Nigeria’s unenviable history is not to have been governed by someone who died and rose up or an ALIEN from Jupiter!
We have tried a Technocrat (Shonekan); Benevolent Dictator ( IBB); Kill & Go General (Abacha- Kanuri); Academician & Ijaw ( Jonathan, PhD); Poor Teacher (Balewa); ‘Praying when looting is going on’ President (Shaghari); Yoruba &Engineer ( OBJ 1&2); Meyitti Allah ideologue & Fulani hero (Buhari 1&2); the Socialist & a Good man (Yar Adua); Youth &Middle Belt (Gowon); Practising Muslim (Abdusalam); Hausa &Revolutionist (Muritala); Igbo (Ironsi, Zik) as Presidents. We have tried an orphan (IBB) and Mr Integrity (PMB) and what do they all have in common? Similar results ranging from P7, P8 & F9. Nigeria has failed to become a nation but instead she remains an economic dwarf in the comity of nations despite the gargantuan natural and human resources she is blessed with.
Who among the current gladiators has a better profile and preparation than OBJ of 1999? The whole world saw in OBJ a second Mandela but OBJ could not “Mandelarize” This tells you that Nigeria’s ailments do not respond to “strong leader” treatment.
Which Team shall we send to retrieve and unchain Nigeria from the kidnappers’ Den, then? We cannot count on Buhari’s successor for a successful rescue mission. There seems to be a thing that makes the ‘Aso Rock General Overseer’ become clueless, ball-less and goal-less, no sooner than he is sworn in.
Whatever it takes, I insist, we must preserve Nigeria as an entity. Without Nigeria, the hope of transforming Africa and the entire black race will remain a will-o-the-wisp.
Soft landing pathways
A regional form of governance, anchored on the 1963 constitution with a modicum modification (insertion of Referendum clause: Dr Azikwe was wrong to have opposed the referendum clause in the 1960s) is the most suitable for a multi-ethnic, multi-religious country like Nigeria, where every Region has power to prioritise her developmental agenda and pay 30% tax to the Centre in Abuja for security, passport and currency Management.
How?
Nigeria is lucky that some members of the military cabal who witnessed the kidnapping exercise and who know where Nigeria is chained are still alive. Yugoslavia lacked this. When President Josip Tito and a dozen of strong Personalities who stabilized Yugoslavia passed away, the country passed away with them. There was no one with the institutional memory and voice to call the boys to order when Mr Devil paid them a courtesy visit.
Nigerians should appeal to the Owners of Nigeria to untie it before they go the way of all flesh.
To this end, I recommend the immediate setting up of Nigeria Re-Work eminent personalities team NREPT whose Executive Secretary shall be Dr Father Matthew Kukah, and chairman, Chief Olusegun Obsanjo and co-chairman, the Sultan of Sokoto. Other recommended members are IBB, TY.Danjuma, Gowon, Abdusalam, Pastor EA Adeboye, plus 12 opinion leaders, two from each geo-political zone (G8+12).
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Strange illnesses require strange medication. The main task of NREPT is to get the National Assembly to meet and invoke the Doctrine of necessity on re-work Nigeria: This will empower the National Assembly to circumvent the laborious legal complications that have been militating against restructuring since 1993. In a word, NREPT should help us rescue Nigeria from the Kidnappers’ den, help us unchain it and drop her at the 1963 Roundabout from where she was kidnapped. Every Region will get her best Surgeons to stabilize her portion of Nigeria and make it work. We need at least 50 years to experiment with the Regional government, in the first instance.
By my rough projection, if Nigeria takes this bypass, within the next decade, Nigeria’s GDP will increase from $400 billion to about $4.4 trillion, which will be like adding the GDPs of South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Israel, UAE, Qatar and Malaysia together.
The manufacturing Western Region becomes South Korea at $1.8 Trillion, the mineral resource-rich Core North becomes a combination of UAE+Malaysia – $800 billion, Middle Belt, the Food Basket is Thailand at $500 billion, and the innovative East is Taiwan at $700 billion and the oil and gas rich Mid- West is Qatar+Israel at $700 billion.
Show me someone who votes down the above option and I will show you a rapaciously greedy, lazy man.
In conclusion, I will exit with the following five thoughts for the elites to ponder on, before I handover the microphone to Nigerians to ‘kontinu’ the conversation.
One, Nature does not allow a situation to be mismanaged for long. President Mubarak and the then Egyptian ruling elites realised this truism too late. They were humiliated out of power and all died unsung. The 70 million ’sleeping’ Nigerians who survive on $1.00 per day are like time bombs waiting to explode.
Two, there is no equilibrium in greed. The Yugoslavia ruling elites, trumpeting the indivisibility of their country just like their Nigeria counterparts, were busy having fun inside the locked room, with A/Cs and sound stereos on, Champagne in one hand, steak in the other; women of easy virtues rubbing their heads, and alas, they forgot to lock the “kitchen door” from where the army of angry, hungry and frustrated Yugoslavians entered the room and detonated the bomb which sent most of the elites to the Great Beyond as they ran out of time to activate their Plan B. The second passport was useless.
Three, there is no equilibrium in poverty, nothing says Nigeria cannot go further downhill, if we ‘kontinu’ with this TikTok democracy without corresponding dividends.
Four, Nature abhors a vacuum. A Nation’s tree that does not bear fruits after 70 years may ‘’fall down and die.”
Five and finally, Nigeria’s Ship has since passed the Tokenism harbour, nothing short of a complete remodelling will save the Ship from capsizing.
Homework: What lessons can the Nigerian elites learn from the Yugoslavia experience and what do they understand by Collective Enlightened Self Interest (CESI)? (100 marks).
SAIII=PIBI= 1st Nigeria. QED. You gerrit or fogerrabourrit!!!
Akano, founder of New Horizons Company-an ICT firm, writes from Lagos
