Nigeria Daily Log - FORUMS

Something happened today that almost broke my heart about Nigeria.

A man who used to be a very successful business man based in Lagos told me today that he is moving to Tanzania because Nigeria's economic situation has all but destroyed his business. This man is not less than 50 years of age, and has been in Lagos for at least 30 years. He complained that Nigeria's economic policy inconsistencies made investment of any type too risky, and even when he braved it in some cases, lost huge sums of money.

This story is typical of whole sections of the Nigerian business community, and Nigerians are fleeing the country in droves.

Why can't the leadership of Nigeria bite the bullet and restructure the country for easy management and administration? Why must we foist a unitary system of government on 180 million hapless human beings in Nigeria? Who will save Nigerians from this political corruption that breeds extreme poverty, dashed hopes and dreams, which in turn breed insecurity, despondency, and compulsive emigration?

Please if anyone believes that Nigeria's current system should be retained as is, could he or she tell us why it has not worked for nearly 50 years?  Why has war against economic corruption failed since independence?

All opinions are welcome!

Some decisions made by past leaders especially military leaders contributed to current problems... This current mode of administration is very weak...Any policies made by the center even if ineffective will not solve economic issues..A combined mode of administration that does not depend on the center can be adopted so that any policies can be looked at comprehensively before implementation.

The competition and strive between our leaders from different background or political parties are not healthy...

This one will come with his agenda, mostly incomplete at the end... (good or bad; incomplete). Then that one (from another party) will come up with strategies not only to discontinue the agenda left by the predecessor but to scatter all of them. All in the name of enmity for the other guy.

If only the good ones with objective orientation, right mindset and correct development goals would be allowed to lead our nation. Someone as forgiving as Mandiba...
And not the ones that think of the nation's politics as a lucrative business,  as a quick way to get rich...

Old wineskin! 

The competition and strive between our leaders from different background or political parties are not healthy...

This one will come with his agenda, mostly incomplete at the end... (good or bad; incomplete). Then that one (from another party) will come up with strategies not only to discontinue the agenda left by the predecessor but to scatter all of them. All in the name of enmity for the other guy.

If only the good ones with objective orientation, right mindset and correct development goals would be allowed to lead our nation. Someone as forgiving as Mandiba...
And not the ones that think of the nation's politics as a lucrative business,  as a quick way to get rich...

Old wineskin! 

Honestly what you pointed out is part of the problem, but if you look carefully you would notice that this type of problem is greatest at the federal government level. In states, this type of problem is much less.
But the most consequential problem we have is that sections of the country have different goals occasioned by religious, ethnic/cultural, and regional priorities. The states are so weak constitutionally and economically that they cannot function to solve problems relevant to each state.
For example, the person I mentioned in the OP is from SE, but has been in Lagos for over 30 years. Lagos will implement policies that suits Lagos and regional part of Lagos than worry about a trader from SE. But if SE has all the financial muscle and political power to design its economy anyway it suits its people, this man would not have even left SE talk less of leaving Nigeria. Whatever is his problem would be known before hand because the people of SE are mainly into business/trading. But his region is too poor and weak to create infrastructure that supports his life of business, and states that are rich enough (like Lagos for example) is not interested in providing such infrastructure.
People from SW for example are more into service and corporate business, but Lagos is not enough. Lagos and Ogun and Oyo and others could be harmonised to develop servicing skills that can even dominate the whole of Africa, but it is not happening because SW is burdened by people from other parts of the country who are not into corporate business and services. Lagos wastes resources trying to accommodate people that should have been accommodated by their home regions and local governments. The North is into farming, and could use focus in developing that sector when freed to do so.
The point is that if Nigerian regions are empowered to focus on the comparative advantages that each holds, Nigeria's economy will become stable as a rock, and planning would become very easy for any government coming in at the center and regional levels. Political stability is the bedrock of any developed economy. Nigeria's house is currently almost like a pyramid turned upside down. Any hint of headwind (like fluctuating oil prices) deals a death blow to it, forcing Nigerians out of their own country into sometimes hostile foreign locales.
A responsible country would think deep and hard about the impacts of current system we run. It has no future, frankly speaking.
And the by-products of its failures are despondency, stagnation, and death.
That is why Nigerians are dying in their own country, from the hands of fellow country-men and when abroad in hostile countries are killed by their hosts!

How about each state tap into the core strength of her people... Use that to their advantage... Make them special, relevant... I mean the needs of the whole nation are not the same... But a cultural group will have specific needs peculiar to them. So the state governments can just look into that and do good for their people by defining them, their area of specialization, the things they (may be "only" they can produce) so that they'd have a say in the economy of the nation.

At the federal government level, they should put into cognizance the fact that we are multicultural. The problem that is peculiar to only one cultural group shouldn't be the sole focus of the federal government.
We are one... Fine!
But stop treating us as if we have one culture... We don't!