Hi all.
Yipee, yeah!! Fareed Zakaria is back on CNN. I'm loving it.

Back to busines (and politics )
Aside, from ethnic wars on NL and insults on our past and present leaders, I would like us to spend some valuable time giving critical insights and suggestions on this thread on ways that Nigeria can become great. You never know, someone that reads through the thread could one day become a president of governor in Nigeria, and end up using some of these ideas. This should prevent our future leaders from suddenly dreaming up crazy ideas of going to study in Harvard when they are already in power

I'll draw our attention to some subtle ideas that we can use in recreating Nigera and our personal lives /environments. I'll start with a personal story that borders on economics and sociology

A1) During my youth service, I had the oppurtunity to travel to Bakasi penisula with my co-workers for the first time in my life.
As our boat sped through the swamps and oceans outlining the penisula, I was in awe at the beauty the met my eyes. The white shores and the beautiful bamboo buildings that sat atop them. The roadlike waterways in the swamp.

Wow!! Some of the mangrove plants hanging low, and we having to dock as our boats passed through these 'water streets'. The monkeys high up swinging from tree to tree, and the exotic birds I had never seen in my entire life. It was fun.

I was all smiles and excitement as I looked around me, that is until I looked at my co-travelers. I excitedely told them of how these swamp dwellers must be having a great time. Their eyes stared at me almost in hate, and I recoiled. As far as they were concerened, these swamp dwellers were living in poverty, and government negligence and needed help. how can someone be living in a bamboo accomodation they queried.

Well, I saw the beauty while they saw the beast.

At the end of that day, and many years after, I still reflect on that adventure and my perspective versus that of my co-travelers

A2) With time, I soon rationalised that the differing views we shared was as a result of our home backgrounds.
I wasn't brought up in the village, so village adventures always excited me. All my colleagues on that trip, where however 'village boys' (I'm not being condescending here).

My thinking is that they despised their 'village' past which they linked to poverty, whereas I had no frame of reference in which to measure and tie poverty to villages and bamboo houses.

Our conversation with some of the inhabitants of the Bakasi was also interesting. It still keeps me thinking even to this day

A3) The Bakasi inhabitants on each of the islands we visited kept on talking about how they needed government aid to counter the ocean surge from wiping out their islands; how they needed modern block buildings e.t.c

Back then when I heard their requests that government should work at reclaiming their shore lines, I wasn't pleased with this suggestion. I privately reasoned that with so many 'islands' scatterd around the pennisula, this would be a waste of money. Besides, I didn't feel that this was sustainable.

I reasoned that what the inhabitants could do with the aid of the government was to turn their beautiful 'islands' into a tourist destination complete with the bamboo homsteads. The temporary nature of thesee bamboo buildings would ensure that they could more easilly relocate their houses if the need arises.

I also reasoned that the communities together with the government and oil communities could identify some sizeable 'islands' and concentrate their efforts on expanding those islands and providing shore protection. As far as I was concerned, this strategy was more sustainable




...Next, I'll touch on architectural/aesthetic contrasts and tourism

B1) If you're a frequent traveler outside the confine of your shores, you would have noticed something about cars

In Nigeria, you seem to hold more swagger and confidence if you're driving one of these new modern cars; especially the 4 wheel drives. If you've lived in the UK for some time you might soon loose your interest for such big cars, and prefer those glossy mini cars. You might see yourself also falling for those dated cars that look more like chariots. Bring those mini cars and 'chariots' to nigeria, and the value is almost instantly lost. In fact, they might price it for kobos if you're not careful.

B2) But why the sudden shift in perception?
Well, this has a lot to do with contrast and its effects on the human mind. I hope you're getting it.

Such attraction caused by contrast can be found when you put a light skinned girl in the midst of dark skinned girls, or when you put a dark skinned girl amidst light skinned girls. In fact, this is the story behind Alek Wek's success in the global modelling industry. Her facial and skin contrast makes her massively attractive within that context.

In art, a white or black framed canvas without any painting would easilly evoke a lot of emotions when displayed against a massive range of colured paintings.

B3)Imagine this contrast-attractiveness if in the midst of towering modern structures, you find a beautifully laid out hut, with nice gardens etc.

I suggest that as we slowly but thirstily develop our skylines in Nigeria, especially in Lagos and Abuja, we try to incorporate such layout contrasts into ur designs. This would definetly captivate tourists and they would come asking for more.

Imagine the benin moat, being conserved and integrated side by side with 'modern' brick and mortar develoment

C1) I'll deviate from the contrast thing here and share my views on corruption and national balance of trade (sorry I'm a little bit rusty on my economics terminologies)

I'm not a fan of yahooing, because I think it is ethically wrong. However, I am an avid student of business, politics and strategy. I am therefore approaching this topic from a purely economic perspective. I have noticed that many developed countries with all their moral uprightness always show their not-so-clean hands when it comes to issues on money and national interest. For example, I read somewhere that before Ibori's loot is returned back to Nigeria, the british goverment will first take out the the cost to its system.

I have noticed the relish with which the EFCC is going after yahoo boys, and then seeking to repatriate the monies back to the original countries. Well, this saddens me vis-a-vis my earlier stated observation.

I mean, politicians are stealing our money and investing them in other countries. When they are caught, the government of the host countries are quite reluctant to repatriate the funds. If they do return the funds after many years of it yielding interests for their economy, its sometimes with charges. EFCC has also proven itself weak in preventing such grand scale corruption by top politicians and bureacrats.

Yet EFFC appears to be only going after the local yahoo-ers who bring funds into the country. When they are caught, EFCC makes serious attempts to repatriate the funds. I think EFCC should re-evaluate their model. When these funds are seized from the yahoo boys, the cost of the operation should be subtracted, and the money held for a while in Nigeria before being sent back. In fact, since GEJ is talking about KPI's, I think that EFCC's KPI's should be balancing the the value of funds stolen from abroad to those stolen for abroad

please continue this thread, it's been dormant.

stance: please continue this thread, it's been dormant.

I will in due time.

Government initiated Wealth creation or redistribution has limitless potential.

All that is needed is the right enforced regulation. For example, if the government suddenly says and enforces that all buildings in VI must be 7 floors in height, your can imagine the flurry of economic activity that this would generate.

Buildings being knocked down, buildings being raised. Labour is needed, and so is machinery, civil engineers, the folks selling on the streets etc. Unfortunately, a larger percentage of the revenue generated from these activities might however be freighted abroad

This would happen because machinery and intellectual labour to manage the transformation would mainly be imported from abroad.

Because the government has the ability to create wealth, I often find it hard to understand why a governor or president would actually literally steal money from the coffers. For example, a governor could easily open up a new expanse of land (buy most of the land there through his cronies), create infrastructure in the empty space and can be guaranteed that the area would be a hot cake