CONTINUED FROM MODAY 01/02/2016
Why do Nigerian unemployed “nouveau riche” rush to Dubai for their children’s marriages hosting hundreds if not thousands of their friends and family members? This was a wasteland some 25 years ago – but raw imagination and courage transformed it to the No 1 choice world’s tourism spot.
Speaking on CBS “60 Minutes” recently, an adviser to Dubai’s Sheik Mohammed had this to say – “He is always asking the impossible, not what you are able to do, but what you cannot do – like the world’s largest ski slope, the tallest building, the biggest airport, the biggest shopping mall, the biggest hotel etc.
Some 20 years ago, the “in-thing” was to own a flat in London. Later, it was to own a house in South Africa. Now, it is to own a flat in Dubai. As close as the British are to the Americans, who has ever seen a British Prime Minister in a hospital bed in the United States or vice versa? Why do the Nigerian elite send their children to Europe and America for education – and yet bully the Central Bank to approve regular FX rate for them so their children can learn to speak through their noses whereas some vital industries cannot get foreign exchange for vital operations? There is a role looking for an actor.
Some 20 years ago, the “in-thing” was to own a flat in London. Later, it was to own a house in South Africa. Now, it is to own a flat in Dubai. As close as the British are to the Americans, who has ever seen a British Prime Minister in a hospital bed in the United States or vice versa? Why do the Nigerian elite send their children to Europe and America for education – and yet bully the Central Bank to approve regular FX rate for them so their children can learn to speak through their noses whereas some vital industries cannot get foreign exchange for vital operations? There is a role looking for an actor.
Can President Buhari decide that every federal public servant from assistant secretaries, directors, Permanent Secretaries to “Executive” ministers who have children in foreign schools or universities should immediately return them to Nigeria – or else? Why give bailouts to state governors and federal ministers who are so transparently honest that their transparencyand transparent glow of their public assets’ declaration could threaten our eyesight and make us blind and so out of compassion for us, they would not publicly declare their assets? Also, can PMB dare stop them from medical treatment abroad? Can he dare?
I believe that if Nigeria chooses you to be one of the 50 people in a country of 170 million people to take charge of their lives, the least you can do is to come publicly clean with your assets. Thank God for the public assets declaration of PMB and Prof. Yemi Osinbajo. One of the advantages of Prof. Yemi’s declaration is that I should be able to send my account number to him and expect an alert soonest.
A few days ago, there was a report that Nigerian Senators had just taken delivery of 2016 models of Toyota Prado at a cost of billions of Naira. Many of them believe that it is beneath their senatorial stature to be caught dead in a vehicle that not even a knot or a bolt of it has come from Nigeria. From this single decision any good psycho-analyst could do an extensive psychological profile of these insecure fellows that require a 2016 Prado to grant them psychological stability. Have they heard that the hood does not make the monk? In any case, who is laughing or giggling to the bank? Are they or the Japanese? I am very sure the University of Tokyo would soon award each of them a Doctorate of Perverted Reasoning (Honoris Causa).
Have these expensive entertainers read the history of Mr. Kichori Toyota who started the Toyota Motor Company and whose industry, they are now “enjoying”? For good measure, they might do well to study the rise of Japan from the ashes of World War II and from Hiroshima and Nagasaki. They might do well to study the lives of those the Japanese call the Zaibatsus – that is “The National Living Treasures” – the “not for bread alone” Konosuke Matsushita.
They need to study the lives of Akio Morita, Masaru Ibuka, Sokhiro Honda, Yataro Iwasaki and the generation of abstemious non-pleasure loving determined people that created modern Japan, the sweat of who they are now “enjoying.”
They may be interested to know that Warren Buffet still lives in a bungalow he built in 1958, that Bill Gates is not the dean of what Prof. Kenneth Galbraith called Conspicuous Consumption. They may be interested to know that the young man Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook’s favourite dress is not a heavily embroidered agbada but a $5 T-shirt. Yet, the 2014 net income of his company was $2.94 billion – much more than what has kept the whole of Nigeria talking for the past six weeks.
George Soros lives in a flat in Manhattan. Sam Watson who created Walmart drove himself in a pick-up van till he died – The Rolls Royce was manufactured in Britain. In fact, it is the very pride of the British Motor Industry – but no British Prime Minister uses a Rolls Royce. If he dares it, he will lose his job. Do these clowns know that on the day that Gordon Brown left 10 Downing Street, it was a friend of his who drove up to take him home. In any case, what is Nigeria’s Return-on Investment on 109 Senators?
Do we need more than 25-30 serious senators who would be as important as old Roman Senators? But for the grace of a successful wife, the two-term former U.S President Bill Clinton after leaving the White House could not pay the rent of the Law Chambers he hired at, of all places – Harlem. It was his more pecunious wife Hilary that came to his rescue. It is instructive that it was the rent of an office space at Harlem and not on Wall Street that a former two-term American President could not afford. Yet, I understand that some underemployed Prado certificated local government chairmen in Nigeria have mansions in Dubai and in South Africa.
When late British Prime Minister, Harold Wilson left office, he and his wife, Mary had to go for weeks making rounds with estate agents looking for a flat to rent.
The great Mandela when he died left an estate of only R46m or less than £2.5 million. A Nigerian federal parliamentarian would be scandalised to leave such a poor estate. Up till now, we have not heard of Mandela’s front man or of his secret accounts in Switzerland or Lichtenstein.
Pandit Nehru the revered former Prime Minister of India left a very poor estate while all of Mahatma Ghandi’s estates were his boxer shorts, singlets and rice bowls and – the love that all Indians had and still have for him. Mrs. Indira Ghandi left an estate of a mere $173,000 – not to her children – but all to her grandchildren. She said all she owed her children was the education she had given it to them.
There is no serious country whose leaders are as reckless as they are in Nigeria. No great country is built the way we are currently “building” Nigeria – building without an architect. We want to make omelette without breaking eggs. We need to study how great nations became great.
How did Germany develop after being devastated by the Second World War? It is not because of the Marshall plan. It is the Never-Say-Die, the Can-Do spirit of Germany – the spirit that made one single nation take on the whole world and it took all the effort, all the energy of entire world to defeat it – and they had to fight them non-stop for six full years. It had to take the Almighty God to come down and use the Russian Winter to finish off Adolf Hitler.
After India’s independence from the British, Nehru, I think it was, who said that if India could not provide her own locally made textiles, then everybody should go naked. That was the beginning of Indian technological and economic independence. Today, India produces (not assembles) its own textiles, motor cars, trucks, buses, even aeroplanes and military jet bombers. It is also now a nuclear power.
Today also, India is one of the two or three countries where Coca-Cola does not produce its stuff locally. The Indian authorities chose to call the bluff of Coca-Cola which had insisted on importing Coca-Cola granules and other additives from the U.S before production could be meaningfully embarked upon. India’s leaders would have none of this.
Today, India produces drinks that are currently challenging Coca-Cola. Indian scientists have turned India into a nuclear power. Tata Industries, owned by one Indian has taken on both the American Motor industry’s General Motors and Ford Motors. All these they achieved within 50 years of their independence.
Indian hospitals and Indian doctors have now developed so much so that Indian hospitals have become the No 1 choice destination for Nigerian V.I.Ps to die. When they want to die, they say – “Take me to India, I can’t afford to die in Nigeria.It is beneath my status.” During the last Christmas, Indian Prime Minister was busy at his duty post travelling to Pakistan. He was not playing Santa Claus to the children of overfed parents at New Delhi at Government House. Today, Indians are even right now economically colonising Nigeria.
We have to get serious. All the First Lady business from the local government to Abuja has to stop. It is a scam – and it has been turned into a huge industry with no Return on Investment. What is the economic benefit accruing to local governments, states or the federation from this circus and under what budget head is the circus being maintained?
Does anybody have a picture of the First Lady of China? China did not become the number one economy in the world by promoting a First Lady Industry. Thank God President Muhammadu Buhari has a beautiful and photogenic consort. If she cannot be our Evita Peron, the patron saint of the masses of Argentina when her husband also Gen. Juan Peron was in office and in power, he should make her sit at home, admiring her Cartier wristwatch (genuine or fake) and kept busy watching Telemundo or The Rich Also Cry.
And the vanity called Aso Villa!
As for Aso Rock Villa, the building is an exercise in vanity. There is not one single nation with our level of economic output that quarters her chief executive in that kind of obscene Cinderella wonderland. The chief executives of countries from which we have sought debt forgiveness on bended knees didn’t live in that kind of obscene opulence.
In the spirit of the economic winter, we are about to enter (with oil heading towards $20 per barrel) and the budget 2016 predicated on $38 per barrel and being dead on arrival, Buhari should be humble enough to move out of that Buckingham Palace at Abuja and return to Defence House. He can still prove that he is the actor we have been waiting for.
Then, he should turn Aso Villa into a tourist centre for the Ministry of Tourism charging visitors N1, 000 per head for guided tours of “The House that African vanity built.” He could easily earn at least N1 million a day into the federal exchequer – and the money doesn’t have to be packed into suit cases.
What is the Gross Domestic Product of Nigeria that our chief executive lives in an African Buckingham palace in the same grandeur as the chief executive of countries from which we borrow money and which have multiples the GDP of Nigeria? We are just living a false life. How can anybody relate our status as No 252 in the world’s Human Development Index with the way our federal officers live?
No British Prime Minister has ever had a Prime Ministerial Jet – not even Sir Winston Churchill who rescued Britain from being kidnapped by Adolf Hitler.
Whenever the Queen of England travels to Australia, she normally travels on British Airways – and British Prime Ministers normally travel with fee-paying passengers on British Airways.
Many years ago, Jimmy Carter got into trouble because of an allegation that his only daughter – Amy Carter was allegedly feeding from the official food budget of the American Presidency, which she had no right to. Of course we all know that President Clinton almost lost his job, because the carpenter that sewed his trousers bought the zip from Aba market. That was why his pants were always failing whenever he saw a pretty Youth Corps member.
The question now is – how do we move forward as a nation – politically and economically? What are our national goals – as a nation – and what and how are we advancing towards those national goals. How do we know that we are succeeding as a nation if we have no goals that we are working on? Can we or what do we have to learn from the experiences and triumphs of other countries that have been through “the valley of the shadow of death” that we are currently going through?
If international oil experts are to be believed, with a further collapse of oil prices, Nigeria may be heading for an economic meltdown – and we may be forced into an IMF bondage. Mrs. Christine Lagarde has just left Nigeria. These people only visit countries like that when a bull smells blood. If Emefiele knows what is best for him, he should be talking to Jim Ovia again about any possible opening at Zenith Bank.
How did countries that have gone through our present challenges overcome? Germany, Japan, Korea, India, Malaysia, U.A.E? Can we look at Japan? After the devastation of the Second World War, Japan determined to come back, both economically and politically. In the 1950s, they determined that before the end of that decade, they were going to be the largest and biggest manufacturers of textiles. They achieved it.
In 1960, they decided that before the end of that decade, they were going to become the world’s leader in electrical and electronic products. They did it. In the 70s, they decided they would become the world’s largest builder of ships. They achieved it.
In the 80s, they went after steel. They decided that before the end of that decade, they would be the world’s leader in steel production. They made it. Success does not come by accident. It requires discipline, grit, determination, courage and total almost fanatical commitment to stated goals and objectives.
Everybody in the country would be pressed toward that goal. Everybody from the country’s chief executive to road sweepers. It is only fire, hot fire that turns gold dust to pure gold. Some public officers cannot be living large while others are toiling. This is the template that has been adopted by Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia etc – the so-called South East Asian Tigers. I even understand that Japan has totally developed a master plan for the country for the next 100 years.
Why do our ministers, state commissioners, federal and state parliamentarians, senior civil servants mix freely with the voting population during elections but as soon as they get into office, they are afraid to be contaminated by living among the people that allegedly voted them into office?
In our situation, we have to start from positions of strength. Late Tai Solarin once wrote a classic article – “May Your Road be Rough!” It is probably good for us in that it will enable us to come to our senses that oil prices have collapsed and are heading towards $20 a barrel – whereas the budget is predicated on $38 per barrel. Cheap money from oil exports has over the years totally distorted our value system, leading to the spectacle of a poor country with rich rulers.
Nigeria no matter our potential is still a mono product economy and is extremely vulnerable to the vicissitudes of the international oil market. A recent Wall Street Journal report said that a $10 per barrel oil was in view. Various events, like the Shale Oil, the electric cars now soon to become commercially viable, environmental concerns, the control of large parts of Iraqi oil by ISIS which they are flinging barrels of oil for cash and alcohol powered vehicles have dealt great blows to countries like Nigeria who have kept all their eggs in one basket.Nigeria will require short-term solutions, medium term solutions as well as and long term ones on the macro level.
On the micro level, we need to tighten our belts and have better balance of accounts/assets. At the macro level, we need to plug leakages, rejig our tax and VAT regimes, reduce waste and all frivolous spending, downsizing very many federal and state operations outsource many jobs. We have to have a well-reasoned and well-articulated shock therapy. Not prohibiting deposits into Dom accounts for 10 or 12 weeks and then realising the boom in Dom accounts in Benin and Ghana hastily reversing the policy.
We need to retain the confidence of local and foreign investors even while fighting corruption with all our might. We must be conscious not to scare off foreign investors, avoid capital flight, loss of confidence in our stock market, low subscription in the international markets to our bonds and take very great care with our Perceptional Capital, lest we be seen as a basket case or a house about to fall.
For the medium term, we need to really work out a comprehensive economic diversification plan to determine economic sectors that must be massively supported and promoted perhaps with low interest fundsfor quick returns. Through this, we will open opportunities for jobs for thousands, if not millions of our unemployed, earn more foreign exchange and begin to free ourselves from the mono resource curse.
The way forward
Agriculture
It is my seriously considered opinion that if we are to get back into the highway of national economic development, we have to focus on areas of national strength – chief of which is Agriculture. Agriculture is the only sector that can bring about rapid development to our rural areas, create massive rural jobs, ensure food security and become the economic diversification success story that Nigeria needs. We bring in tomato paste from China and yet our farmers are crying that their tomatoes are rotting away. We have the strength to be the food basket of Africa.
We have to revive our cocoa pyramids and groundnut, rubber and palm oil. We have to develop our great and vast potential in rice production.
Palm oil
This was where the rain started beating us. The story of our missed opportunities with palm oil has been told over and over again. Yes, we used to be the number world’s exporter of palm oil but now we import the commodity. We used to produce 85 per cent of the world’s supply of palm oil but now we produce only 7 per cent. Ivory Coast now produces more palm oil than Nigeria.
Malaysia that was producing 7 per cent now produces 85 per cent of total world output. Malaysia that picked palm oil seedlings from Nigeria in the 1960s has so profited phenomenally from what they took from Nigeria that practically the whole national economy rests on palm oil. They are now classified as one of the Asian economic tigers.
According to the Economist Intelligence Unit, the palm oil- based economy outperformed regional rivals in the last year. Malaysia is one of the best business environments of Asia. The country has used palm oil to emerge as a major industrial force in the world. Its major cities compete in terms of modern services now with any European city. It has developed a high-speed train – and (wait for this) built a brand new high-tech city from scratch using the financial might that palm oil has produced. It has great social stability and zero unemployment. Indeed, she has begun to employ foreigners including Nigerians like the prodigal son in the bible to help drive its furious economic development. It has highly diversified into manufacturing electronics and steel, engineering equipment etc.
Now, Malaysia makes more from its palm oil than Nigeria makes from oil and gas. How tragic! Can we revive our palm oil industries?
Rice
Rice is the most important human food eaten by half of the world’s population. Ensuring there is enough affordable rice for everyone or rice security is equivalent to food security. In Africa, Asia and Latin America, rice is becoming a more important stable food for everyone.
Nigeria has 84 million hectares of arable land with only half cultivated. Water is abundant in Nigeria with over 250 billion cubit metres but grossly and terribly underutilised.
Nigeria’s current milled rice demands is said to be 6million tonnes for a 170m population. Nigeria’s population by 2050 may reach 600 million according to international estimates and rice consumption may grow to 20-25 million tonnes/year. Nigeria should have the largest rice growth rate in the world.
Officially, Nigeria’s rice imports will be 4 million tonnes this year according to informed reports. Officially, considering that most parboiled rice sent to Benin is smuggled into Nigeria. Nigeria is actually the number one importer of rice in the world. Nigeria may be consuming between 6-7 million tonnes of milled rice or needing 10-11 million tonnes of paddies.
China, which was the world’s biggest importer of rice in 2014 along with Nigeria, would raise its import volume by 5.2 per cent to 4 million tonnes in 2016 due to higher demand in the mainland, according to the FAO rice market monitors.
In 2014, China and Nigeria (officially) each bought 3 million tonnes of rice from abroad, out of which we consumed 6 million tonnes. Is anybody laughing? We consumed 6 million tonnes out of 3 million tonnes. Why do all our custom officials have potbellies?
According to the U.N food agency, the global milled rice trade this year is forecast to drop to 41.3 million tonnes due to good stockpiles or higher production in Asia. Nigeria may be importing over 10% of this global rice trade or over 4million tones (officially but unofficially about 8 million tonnes). Global paddy rice output in 2016 is forecast to edge up to 749.8 million tonnes.
Thailand is expected to be the world’s largest milled rice exporter this year with shipments of 11.2 million tones followed by 9.3 million tonnes from India and 6.5 million tonnes from Vietnam.
As such, the three Asian nations would account for a combined 65 per cent of the world’s rice trade. This is a commodity we should be exporting to the whole world.
Sugarcane
The sugarcane industry – including cultivation, processing and refined products – represents an important segment of the Brazilian economy. In 2012, the sugarcane sector contributed $43.8 billion to Brazil’s GDP – equivalent to almost 2 per cent of the entire Brazilian economy and higher than the GDP of a European country like the Czech Republic ($42.5 billion). When one adds in the various suppliers and stakeholders who depend on Brazil’s sugarcane industry, the entire sugarcane agro-industrial system generates gross revenue totaling more than $86 billion annually. That means that the Brazilian sugarcane industry is larger than the entire oil and gas sector in Nigeria.
Nigeria is blessed but not using most of its potentials. Indeed Brazil and Nigeria lie on the same tropical equatorial climate belt, yet Brazil’s sugarcane industry is larger than oil and gas in Nigeria. Sugarcane could be a multi-billion USD industry in Nigeria just like Brazil. The Climate, the arable land and cheap manpower are all available in Nigeria.
From the Rice Revolution in Brazil, the last President Mr. Lu da Silva produced an astonishing 12 million middle class Brazilians in 8 years – Leading to President Obama to saying that Ex-President Lula was the most awesome Head of State, indeed a “political phenomenon”.
Cassava
Almost 70 percent of world’s Cassava production is concentrated in five countries namely – Nigeria, Indonesia, Zaire, India and Columbia.
Between 1984 and 1994, total Cassava food use rose from 76 million tonnes to 96 million tonnes. Nigeria is the world’s largest producer of Cassava. In 2009, Nigeria produced about 45 million tonnes which is about 19 per cent of the world’s production.
Yet, a Dutch company, DADTCO (Dutch Agricultural Development and Trading Company) from a country whose climate is not even hospitable to Cassava production is possibly the world’s leader in production of Cassava processing machines. DADTCO has development and patented innovative “split” processing technology that has dramatically changed the way Cassava is processed.
Although based in a winter-infested Europe, this and similar companies in the Netherlands make more out of Cassava processing and export thereof than the world’s No 1 primary producer. One of its principal towns – Wageningen is literally built on Cassava proceeds.
Groundnuts
The United States, Nigeria, Argentina and Indonesia are the largest producers annually producing between 2 to 3 million tonnes per year. Quite expectedly China has jumped into the business along with Brazil, Thailand, Vietnam, Mexico, South Africa and Myanmar.
Everybody knows about the peanut and peanut butter business in the United State, whereas Kano State alone, let alone the whole country could dominate the world’s trade in peanuts and peanut butter. Cry my beloved country. A role looking for an actor!
Bitumen
Nigeria, through the bitumen resources of Agbabu, Ilubirin and Ode-Irele in Ondo State has the second largest deposit of bitumen in the world- second only to Venezuela’s. But like the prodigal son, we have totally neglected bitumen as a commodity that cannot just earn foreign exchange for the whole country, but provide massive employment for the locals and totally transform the lives of the whole community.
But it seems that all we are interested in is to rent our land to the “Oyinbos” who would exploit it, declare whatever quantity they want to declare for us as their production figures because the technology for measuring oil production does not belong to us. Meanwhile, the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB_ is languishing in the National Assembly while the “distinguished senators etc” on their way from Dubai, are busy inspecting the latest fully-loaded Toyota Prado Jeeps.
Nollywood
Even the crudely developed products from Nollywood in Nigeria has made a lot of Nigerians famous millionaires and transformed lives – almost without any assistance from the federal government. Can we develop the industry and help perfect their production?
Nollywood, now comes after Hollywood, Bollywood (India). Hollywood, Creative Industries added $504 billion to the GDP of the United States in 2014 and it employs directly and indirectly millions. Obama calls Hollywood one of the engines of American economy.
Besides, it is the major promoter of America and American values all over the world. It is what has led our brainwashed young men to be wearing earrings and tattoos. It is all Hollywood’s fault.
Textiles
We have a large domestic market to support twice as many local textile industries that have closed down. This is where Adams Oshiomole made his name. The textile industry should be revived.
Tourism
All we need to do is to look over our shoulder to Gambia with its Tourism mono economy and how the citizens are living such contented lives even employing foreigners to propel the economy. We have a lot of Copacabanas as our coastline.
We can also learn from Dubai, U.A.E – with its Dubai annual shopping festival – and Dubai 2020 World Expo. For Dubai 2020, Dubai is furiously trying to build – yes – 283 brand new hotels to be able to cater for the 22 million visitors expected. A role waiting for an actor.
ICT
Information Communication Technology (ICT) is another area where we could enhance our economy. Telecoms networks have achieved ubiquitous world coverage wider than power grids, roads and other social infrastructure. Telecoms is the fastest growing contributor to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product with 10 per cent average quarterly growth in 2014, 8.2 per cent of Nigeria’s GDP (i.e. N6.62 trillion) contributed by telecoms in 2013, said Mr. Oyeronke Oyetunde, GM Regulatory Affairs at MTN.
Fishing
Why do we have to spend billions every year importing Titus, and other branded tinned fishes etc in spite of the enormous fishery resources of Nigeria? Nigeria has been importing Titus sardines since my mother was a virgin. Haba! We no get shame?
Cocoa
Nestle can produce chocolate massively in Lagos if the right framework and enabling environment is given and also if the right workers are available. They will save on their shipping cost of Cocoa and on their wage bill – but they have worked out scenarios, that it is cheaper for them to ship the Cocoa to Switzerland, pay higher wages, manufacture it there – ship it back to us – and make profits. Companies like these cannot tolerate policy inconsistencies.
One day, you ban importation of rice, the next day, you lift the ban – so they will rather invest in Asia in rice fields and mills and export their milled rice to Nigeria.
Fruits
In our Middle Belt states, we can produce tropical fruits – Oranges, Pawpaw etc both for local consumption and for export.
Coal
There is little or no need to begin to market Coal as a possible economic resource of Nigeria. Before, Oil and Gas distorted our economic vision, coal used to be one of the major economic strengths of the country. In our present circumstances, with all hands needing to be on deck, we have to go back more aggressively into exploiting this resource. I am aware that since the country has as it were abandoned coal a number of private investors and amateur miners and speculators have gone into the business.
Unfortunately, none has had the kind of neither huge capital investment nor the modern coal extraction technology to realise the great potential in this resource. Nigerian coal is one of the most bituminous in the world, because of its low sulphur and ash content. As of today, there are over 2 billion tonnes reserves especially in Enugu, Benue and Plateau.
Duty free export zones
In the last days of the Obasanjo government, he launched the TINAPA Village in Cross River State. That was an imaginative project conceived then by the outgoing state governor Mr. Donald Duke. It was designed to be a duty-free export centre where both Nigerian and foreign manufacturers could come and utilize both Nigerian raw or semi-finished materials and local cheap labour to produce goods for export. This is one of the strategies of the Chinese economic revival. Quite a lot of the American-named electrical, electronic, telecommunications and telephones are actually being manufactured in China under Chinese licences.
The PMB’s government should immediately revive that project, which was abandoned by Mr. Donald Duke’s successor. He should also establish another similar centre in Lagos State possibly in Badagry. It is common knowledge that all the Apple I-Phones, I-Pads etc are all made in China.
Cattle ranching
Also in the North, instead of the present primitive cattle development programmes that is leading to conflicts in the Middle Belt and in the South West as Fulani herdsmen enter farms with their cattle to ravage farms, we should wake up to the fact that cattle-rearing has gone far, far beyond our present primitive level. The order of the day is large-scale cattle ranching. That is one of the biggest industries in Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Uruguay and even in the U.S out of which corned Beef, is exported all over the world. Why can’t we solicit technical partnerships from these countries to transform our primitive, antediluvian cattle producing business from what it is now to the big industries that they should be – and employ thousands – if not millions of our countrymen?
Budget 2016
Coming to the present federal budget, according to reports, the federal government would like to employ 500,000 as teachers in primary or secondary schools.
What thought has gone into this? Do they think anybody can be teachers and impart knowledge? I am not sure that the Nigerian Union of Teachers would not feel insulted by the idea behind this – that anybody can teach or has the temperament or even desire to teach. That is why in the good old days Nigeria had Teacher Training Schools and Colleges of Education. These were the institutions that produced the Buharis, the OBJs the WoleSoyinkas, the Chinua Achebes, the AfeBabalolas, the Enoch Adeboyes, the Kumuyis, the Oyedepos and the first generation of Nigerian rulers. They were not produced by reluctant teachers. Besides, in all honesty, what is the quality of current Nigerian graduates – that we are entrusting the future of those to take Nigeria to great heights into their care?
Are they aware that many foreign companies in Nigeria these days, employ graduates of local Nigerian universities – and than re-train them in special In-House training centres for at times upwards of two years, teaching them – the uses of English Language etc before allowing them near their operations? That is why many of these companies prefer foreign universities’ degree holders – and that is what has led to Nigerian parents’ desperation to send their children to foreign universities.
I understand that even some locally produced graduates – some who bought their second class (upper) for cash or slept their ways to graduation are unable to string together a grammatically competent English paragraph. Besides, a look at the 2016.
