Will Nigeria ever attain her full potentials?
Written By Fols Famyn

I was thinking about this just this morning when I lapsed into a bout of wishful day dreaming.

Nigeria has always lacked good, visionary leadership from all strata of government - from the grassroots local council, up to the CEO of the country. It is vital that they all share the same vision of seeing the country, the Lion of Africa, great - again.

The sad thing is most of these people are well and widely travelled and they have seen and enjoyed the services and infrastructures in these countries. Why can’t they bring same back home?

Here is my wish list:

For Nigeria to be great again, she has to first have uninterrupted electricity - 24/7. Start in the city and suburbs then spread to the country side. This will encourage industries to return to Nigeria, as well as help new ones start up.

Related to power supply is telephone/internet broadband. The connection to Nigeria is dire at best. Very unreliable. Strengthen that too.

Get a visionary and dynamic trades minister/ambassador to encourage business from conglomerates back to Nigeria. They can work with their counterparts in technology development to discover the technological path that Nigeria will like to develop. and follow. And then concentrate on it.

Transportation - All form of transportation should be developed from bottom up. Start with the basic. Good roads. Goods are transported along a wide geographical expanse - North, South, East and West. Food from the North coming to the South get to be expensive because of the hazards on the road. I know roads can fall under Federal or State responsibility depending on where they lie and connect to.

Provide a viable rail network that cuts across all the regions of the country

Don’t leave out water transportation - There are some areas in the Niger Delta that will benefit from this.

Lastly and by no means least under transportation - the airways! Nigeria does not even have a National Carrier - A flagship! Fix that. Do a joint venture with a reputable organisation or manufacturer. Then start making Nigeria a destination of choice that people want to come to for business or pleasure.

Next, health care. I think about the NHS and despite some bad press, it is such a laudable service to the people. While it will take Nigeria generations to get to that level, nothing is impossible with good planning and - here we go again - vision. Bench mark the best practices and bring them to Nigeria. Pay and treat the people working in the medical field well so that they stop feeling the need to leave the country. Nigeria has good talents. Keep them at home.

Safety - All the above need human resources to get them going. They would provide good paying jobs to so many, reducing the need for crimes such as robbery, fraud, kidnapping, etc. Every worker must be paid what they are rightfully due - on time. Apart from the Private Sector which I hope will be booming due to the above, develop the Civil Services immensely - even if all staff has to be either retrained or retired so that you have the right people doing the right job. Bring the Civil Service to the 21st century - Get a unified computing system - connected on Local Government —-State Government —-and Federal Government levels. There will be enough money to go round and many will not feel the need to steal before they can live. The standard of living will be improved and this will lead directly to safety of the citizens.

Now one thing that’s really important is that any government that wants to bring these in must have the buy in of all. Remember War Against Indiscipline (WAI)? Nigeria needs a National Campaign similar to it - that stresses on ball the positives and not the negatives, that talks about a National identity and not factional ones; that talks about the core of being good citizens. The citizens should be proud to be Nigerians. They must see that making Nigeria great again is the work for all, and not a selected few.

And finally, the government officials must see themselves as Servant Leaders, there to do a job of remarkable improvement and not there to make their lineage obscenely wealthy. When they slack off, boot them out.