When men are cast down, then thou shalt say, there is lifting up; and he shall save the humble person” Job 22:29.
Nigeria may just have arrived at where most nations, the most recent of which is Singapore, took off on their developmental flight. Thanks to the Covid-19 Pandemic, the global leveler and development catalyst of the age. The vicious global virus has become the impersonal headmaster. Our own Singaporean Lee Kuan Yew. Just as low human capacity and infrastructural poverty mocked Singapore at independence, so is Nigeria being mocked by inadequate infrastructure, with global reputation as poverty capital of the world. With the pandemic many Nigerians are apprehensive of worsening socio-economic conditions. To the CBN Governor, Godwin Emiefele, the pandemic is; ‘opportunity to turn tragedy to opportunity’. It couldn’t have been said better. Truly, the ability to reverse the course of tragic situation and turn it around for good remains a test of character and integrity of good leadership in the context of nations. The star nation in contemporary history, in this respect, is Singapore; whose leader raised and steered her from a hopeless state of economic disability to stardom in the elite club of developed nations within a short span of 3 decades. Nigeria may not be positioned to produce a strong-man Lee Kaun Yew, but Covid-19 is facilitating the enabling circumstances for the achievement of the same results as the Singaporean statesman. Economically disabled at birth due to lack of natural resources and basic infrastructure, the seemingly hopeless peninsula was transformed to a national entrepreneurial complex by the determination of the strongman and disciplinarian statesman.
In contrast with the Singaporean experience is Nigeria; a populous, spacious and naturally endowed maritime state, still struggling to define the essence of her statehood. While Singapore in 30years became a respectable and prized premier industrialized nation and economic development hub, Nigeria at 60, is akin to a game reserve that is littered with the carcasses of prized wild-lives; while socially degenerating as a weak, despised and vulnerable third-world country, as she battles with birth-pangs.
It is the wish of many that Nigeria’s story be as thrilling as Singapore’s. This couldn’t be, on account of their divergent historical and socio-political circumstances. While at independence, Singaporeans were guests of pervasive poverty, Nigerians arrived the situation in the euphoria of a resourceful nation abounding with prized natural and human resource endowments. Sequel to this was the activation of a political process characterized and dominated by intrigues. While the emergent Singaporean leadership embarked on a policy of human capital development and deployment, Nigeria’s has been one of continuous political engineering process aimed at the distribution of social and economic benefits. Thus, while Singapore achieved rapid development through a consistent process of human capital development and wealth creation, ours is a development process characterized by political intrigues and manipulative schemes for economic control.
Nigeria’s under-development is not due to ignorance of the problem or of solutions, but rather a consequence of distracted political leadership. Politics is essentially the process of mobilization of ideas, identification of existential problems and the processing of the leadership to solve identified problems. Ours has increasingly degenerated into the process for the recruitment and elevation of persons in quest of fame or fortune into leadership by motley crowds of unemployed and ill-motivated citizens, lacking in national etiquettes. The consequence is a patronage-driven system that overlooks citizens while looking up to foreigners to facilitate national development. It has evolved into a system that neglects the people while paying inordinate premium on projects. It’s a degenerative and unpatriotic system that defers to foreigners for aids while being indifferent to citizens’ efforts and local resources. This is why the society is getting increasingly fractured as social mobilization suffers, as leaders prioritize politics over development. It is a judicial system that prioritizes resolution of political/electoral disputes and intra-party conflicts over and above socio-economic development matters.
As the Covid-19 debacle has shown, poverty is equally life-threatening as the Corona virus. Regrettably, we neither cultivated the discipline to manage the spread, nor do we have the financial resources to comfort citizens. This is because of the lack of systemic capacity to grow a productive, wealth-generative economy. This is despite robust constitutional guides, institutions and policies. This is the tragic outcome of our erroneous developmental philosophy, misconceived jurisprudence and dysfunctional judicial system that waits to gratify the interests of politicians over and above socio-economic matters, which are the pre-occupation of citizens. Regrettably, the ineffectiveness of the Nigerian State, quite curiously, is due to the failure of the judiciary to evolve a functional and economic development-oriented jurisprudence. From the experience of Asian nations, strong judiciary is sine qua non in the evolution of socio-political systems that create wealth, overcome poverty and assures over-all national development. This resolves the puzzle of the transformation of Singapore and other Asians, within brief historic periods, into business hubs. This is the way to go, if we are to overcome Nigeria’s unimpressive image of a morbid landscape of an unmanaged game reserve and relentless predators.
As uninspiring as ours had been, the leadership of the CBN has shown that the narrative can be changed. The job has been made easier for the CBN. As a leveler the Covid 19 pandemic is demystifying the technological advantage of advanced economies, while exposing the vulnerability of the under-developed. While the pandemic is locking down national economies and reconstructing the concept of globalization, science and technology myths are being broken; national boundaries and interest are getting more defined; citizens closed in and nations become much more citizens-centric and nationalistic.
Only self-sufficient nations stand a chance in the post Covid-19 world. Nigeria could be said to be standing with the rest of the global community at the pre-18th century industrial age of Europe and post-independence Singapore. Nigeria enjoys a head-start, in the circumstances. As aptly posited by the CBN Governor, our circumstances offer us the opportunity to turn things around. Truly, this is Nigeria’s finest moment as she has all it takes to overcome her current challenges and to sit respectably amongst the comity of nations. Agriculture has remained the undisputed base of industrialization; and Nigeria is rich in diverse agricultural produce and therefore has bases for sundry industrial products. We are also endowed with resourceful human capital that is easily deployable towards enhancing existing industrial capacity and oil resources to run the machines. Enriching our local human resources is a complex of experienced elusive-Eldorado-seeking returnee Diasporas. They will also bring along with them acquired industrial discipline, to the resource-rich, but hitherto despised homeland of ours. With post Covid-19 political alliances would be a buyers’ market for industrial machines. Endowed with enterprising citizens, rich landmass and sundry agricultural produce, industrial activities along the agriculture value-chain process would facilitate our much-talked-about developmental process.
In his recent paper the CBN Governor, pointed out about 8 areas of focus, which include; SME Finance and Venture Capital. With the return of despised or neglected Diasporas and economic refugees, closed borders, restrictive visas and strict immigration regulations and sober and introspective public functionaries, conditions are ripe for development-inspiring reforms. Most critical in this respect is the legal and institutional discipline to sustain the developmental process. They are such reforms as would activate the other tiers of government, while simultaneously mobilizing the citizens productively. It should be a customary-oriented and nationalistic development process that guarantees the achievement of the following objectives;
1. Legalization and institutionalization of economic development policies and processes;
2. Activation of existing agencies and institutions;
3. Mobilization and organization of citizens into the economic process;
4. Integration informal sector into the economic planning and development processes.
As historical records show, global plagues are usually followed or trailed by global economic changes and change in socio-political mindsets. While the globe is on lock-down, nations are warming up to lead. Meanwhile the rules of leadership have changed, from the use of lethal armament to economic resourcefulness. Covid-19 has ignited the fire of nationalism and is bellowing the embers of patriotism. The facilities are available and plenty in Nigeria. Let’s therefore arise and begin to build.