Gbenga Olawepo outlines Nigeria’s greatness
http://mrrights.com.ng/index.php/2015/11/25/gbenga-olawepo-outlines-nigerias-greatness/

The Chairman of Bresson AS, Honourable Gbenga Olawepom Hashim has outlined several points indicating the greatness of Nigeria. ‘’We have gathered here to talk about a great country Nigeria’’, He declares.

According to him, ‘’Nigeria is great not just because it is the 7th most populous country on the planet. It is an important Nation not only on account of her oil wealth. Nigeria is significant more because of the energy of her people, whose creativity and resilient spirit of enterprise continues to assure her progress even in the face of seemingly hopeless situations’’.

The globally respected business man and politician stated these in a paper presented at the imperial college, London at the Nigerian Societ’s annual symposium on 20th November, 2015 titled Nigeria: facilitating resilient and sustainable infrastructural development.

He explained that, ‘’It is due to the hard-work and industry of the ordinary Nigerians- the nation’s greatest asset, that Nigeria attained a GDP rebased at $510 billion in 2013 exceeding that of South Africa to become the biggest African economy even in the face of her parlous infrastructure’’. Adding that, ‘’the feat is the result of the toiling of small scale entrepreneurs, who continue to create value without adequate electricity, cottage food processors, without affordable financing,farmers without the scantest of state support; artisans, bold and imaginative business men and women,dynamic financial managers, young innovators creative artistes and hardworking professionals.

Discussing further, Olawepo said, Price Water Cooper predicts that the country’s economy will probably grow to be the 9th largest economy in the world by 2050. The basis for this has already been laid over the past ten years with the country recording 6-7% annual growth consistently. In 2015, even with the collapse in oil price – the country’s major export- the economy still managed to grow at 2.8% compared to 1.2% of South Africa; 1.5% in the Euro Zone; -2.6% in Brazil and 2.0 % in the US last quarter. These occurred despite more than fifty per cent collapse in oil revenue and slowdown in government business due to the inauguration of a new government..

He further added that, Growth in the Nigeria Economy is expected to be sustained as the economy has acquired a resilience beyond oil and natural resource exploitation which accounts for only 14% of GDP as long as the political and security situation remains stable.

He also pointed out that, Nigeria has also recorded a robust expansion of her middle class, which Standard Bank reported has grown by six-foldsbetween the year 2000 and 2010.

Outlining the role of diasporan community in the growth of Nigeria, Olawepo stated that, The Nigerian diaspora community is an integral part of the Nigeria growth story. In 2013, foreign remittances to Nigeria was a record $21billion USD. This forms part of the incredible contributions of Nigerians abroad, innovators, small business operators and ordinary folks eking out a living for themselves the hard-way – picking off tough jobs that a lot of people in their host communities ignore.

Citing examples to back his claim, he maintained that, Brilliant people of Nigerian decent stand up daily to be counted as part of the positive pages of the rising Nigerian story. The Imafidon twins Paula and Peter broke the world mathematic record passing the Cambridge Advanced Level Math at age 8, the youngest ever to do so. Chinedu Echeruo, founder of Hopstop.com purchased by Apple at a price of $1billion USD is blazing the trail in the ICT world.

‘’Dr Victor Olalusi who scored 5.0 CGPA at the Faculty of Clinical Sciences at Russian National Medical University in 2013, arguably the first in the world to do so are among a growing list of sterling performers.’’

‘’Back home in 2012, four Nigerian teenage girls namely Duro Aina, Akindele Adeola, Faleke Oluwatoyin and Bello Eniola figured a way to generate electricity from urine to power a generator for six-hours.’’

‘’Recently, 24 year-old Oluwatobi Olasunkanmi won the William Charnley Prize for the best First Class in Law at the University of Cambridge. Right here in this hall we have Mervin Azeta, a female Chemical Engineer who has just completed her Master’s degree here at Imperial with a distinction, having achieved a first class honour in her first degree from the University of Benin, Nigeria, and I know there are similar more stories of great achievers in this gathering today.’’ He said, adding that, this is the Nigerian spirit that turns out outstanding achievers from the harshest imaginable environment.

He concluded that, Your guesses are as good as mine, where Nigeria can be in the next ten years if her hardworking people can enjoy the infrastructure support that their peers in comparable middle income countries take for granted.

http://mrrights.com.ng/index.php/2015/11/25/gbenga-olawepo-outlines-nigerias-greatness/

Oh really? A great country which can't refine its biggest export? Can you honestly say Nigeria is a great country, just sentiments aside, really?