₦airaland Forum

Nigerians keep talking about leaders, but we forget about ourselves, the reason why our problems keep repeating over and over again is less about the leaders than a reflection of the people.

We Nigerians, you...yes you and I are the biggest problem with this country. The average Nigerian in his own small corner, is corrupt, self centered, has no sense of community, short term in his thinking and unpatriotic. How can a country move forward when everyone is only thinking of himself? Who thinks for the country? You are waiting for someone else to fix the country for you but whatever policies he adopts must not affect you.


You only have to read Nairaland to realise the magnitude of the problems we face. In fact coming to Nairaland is what has convinced me that we are not going anywhere fast as a country, no matter how sincere the leader.

God will help us....

Taeewo:
God will help us....

this is exactly why we don't make progress, we wait for someone else to do the work, including God.

God put us in a country, agricultural land plenty, large population to sell goods and raise taxes, solid minerals plenty, crude Oil plenty, brains plarnty but we are still waiting for God to help us?

peacengine:
I blame the Governors especially Amaechi and his friends who ensured that GEJ's plan to save excess crude oil funds did not materialize. I also blame Buhari for his economic policies. In only 9 months the Naira is almost useless

Abeg who registered this boy here

The solution is to get rid of fixed or pegged rate exchanged system,an.economy like ours does not need that,most large economies evem china has abamdoned that system,cbn should stop seeling to the banks just like they stopped selling to bdc,stability is what we need not necessarily strong currency.

Guy thanks for an enlightening article.

LordAdam:
From a basic standpoint, the overbloated and inefficient civil service is a problem. However, it is not the root cause, especially when you extrapolate from a specific country to the whole continent. It is only a symptom of the problem. The root cause of the failures in Africa, in my opinion, is the fact that the people are simpletons. It is the people not those in power.

If we want to succeed, we have to change how we think, how we do things, and thoroughly evaluate what we want and how to get there.

The success of the pan-African movement championed by Zik, Nkrumah, Kaunda et al was that they had a different thought-process from the average African, possibly because they had western schooling. I'm not ass-licking now, but western education expanded their intellect. Why their pet projects failed was because they had vision but lacked the requisite supportive hands to bring that vision to reality. This is because the people they had to use still had the depressive, retrogressive African thought process.

Today the pan-African movement is dead and disgraceful because the original thought process behind it has been corrupted by the retrogressive basic African thought process.

Even if you streamline the work force, what about the crippling violent ethnic tensions and massive corruption tendencies? What about the accountability deficit? How about the irrepressible drive to celebrate mediocrity? What about the absolute lack of good governance and respect for rule of law? Look at the supposed African leaders at the AU? The current AU chairman is the president of Chad who has been in seat for 26 years.

Reducing the civil service will not magically erode these problems. In fact, the reason why we cannot reinvigorate the civil service is because of these problems.

-Lord

True bro, you have rightly put it, my assertion was a reference to one of the problems he pointed out.

At the end of the day one sees reasons why some whites would refer to Africa as a country. Going by the reading I did the previous weeks about african history -post independence, you see that there is just no problem or ill particular to one african country, it was just very easy for the writer to take a topic and treat it for the rest of the countries. Virtually all of them had similar leaders with similar thought patterns making similar policies at about the same time.

There was almost no opportunity to learn, all of them making same mistakes at the same time, imagine structural adjustment of the 80's more than 36 african states undergoing the same restructuring and all of them save for Ghana couldn't come out unscathed. The Ghanaians succeeded (relatively speaking) becuse they stuck to the advise of their creditors, the rest like Babangida and co borrowed money and "chopped" it by institutionalizing corruption in their individual states.

As seen in the currency sliding to #17 to a dollar by the time IBB was leaving office.

Federalism plus education sgould be the magic bullet but sadly like i have said somewhere else, mediocrity hates competition, so some people will never want federalism.

Topeakintola:
Agreed but dont politicize your own thread. I dont know the administrator that forged and presented an unverified certificate. Can you mention him or her pls?

A woman with a degree from Harvard/MIT, arguably the best universities in the world was in charge of the country's public finances for around 7-8 years. What was the outcome?

Leadership is about vision, commitment and personal integrity. The leaders that transformed China never went to conventional educational institutions. Good leadership is driven by ideology and focus

Well I wasn't referring to the current leader, thats why I put a caveat just incase my example shares similarity with any leader including the current administration.

To the main substance of your post, education is a tool to think, there is a reason governments and companies send their best to particular schools, that reason isn't just because they want those wards to catch fun or get an ostentatious feeling, rather in such institutions leaders are built.

Now if you say an okonjo iweala or arunma oteh was celebrated elsewhere, came to Nigeria and failed and travelled out again to be recognized, then it should tell you there is something fundamentally wrong with our system.

The case of a man, who every girl he breaks up with goes on to get married, should do some self searching.

masseratti:
The solution is to get rid of fixed or pegged rate exchanged system,an.economy like ours does not need that,most large economies evem china has abamdoned that system,cbn should stop seeling to the banks just like they stopped selling to bdc,stability is what we need not necessarily strong currency.

This is the problem: We are an import dependent country with very little exports outside Oil. When you devalue your currency and you don't export but import everything you create inflation in your country. You have to reduce the demand for forex by producing things at home or increasing your exports before you devalue. A short term solution to our currency problem is to fix the refineries, or deregulate PMS so that fuel importers no longer obtain their forex from CBN but the price of fuel will rise and people will be restless. But hat is the major drain on our forex,

happney65:
Is this about negativity or saying the truth?Shey na today Naira dey fall?abi na today oil down Fall?Answer my question naa.But it wasn't as worse as this..345 to one Dollar?Habba..When GEJ was president,No be Fashola and Ameachi talk say make them share the Money?No be them abi u don forget?Answer naa..The rate did not go pass 200naira..But now with just a little difference in the rate oil was sold to now it has fallen to 345 and you don't see anything wrong in it and You think the stupid economic policies of Mr Bubu is okay..Abi no be so?

Obama meet a systematic failure coupled with stupid policies from Bush and cleaned it up..A Global Financial crises which some countries are still reeling from and cleaned the mess up..So Mr Bubu the ball is on he's table..he is making Nigeria worse than he meet it..How the Budget Palava,shey them don fix am?Bunch of Hypocrites..

Sometimes I wonder why I argue with you. Did you even read the post at all? Fashola and amaechi were clamoring they share the money from the money they recovered from subsidy. The subsidy jonathan reduced then.
And you no even make sense self. Then if oil go down. There's always a foreign reserve to tap into. Now where's the foreign reserve. The one wey Mama Ngozi and brother jona don almost empty?

If we should start on how Obama redeem America, we'll just derail this thread. Do you know the kind of reform wall Street had to go through. AIG one of the biggest insurers in the world had to go. Cbn injected $85 billion into AIG which gives the federal government 79.9% equity in the company. Do you know what that means? Weeks earlier the government rejected Lehman Brothers Holdings loan from the cbn. Allowing the company to go under. The stock market went through a total reform. It took him more than a year. Not months to accomplish this.

Thank God you are a great follower of the American politics. So you must know all this I'm telling you. And has oil price been this low? Please read the post again. And give me a sensible reply. Not this nonsense you typed.

Topeakintola:
Excellent points

I dont agree with your view on recurrent vs capital expenditure but good points

Restructuring the civil service may lead to unemployment in the short term but in the long run, it will be better for the country. Once the govt embarks on more capital projects, there will be need for sub-contractors and different layers of suppliers. If the govt institutes a local content strategy, then it will benefit the local economy.

Your point about federalism is valid but no one has explained how it will work i.e. sharing formular etc, will there be a need to change the current structure of the country? i.e. States vs Regions?

And as long as we still have corrupt politicians, they will steal and under-deliver even in the system you are advocating for.

Your last point is quite interesting Lord.



Can you give us example of these people? Me never see one ooo

I understand your point that capital expenditure stimulates the economy. The fact is that in a normal society it is the ultimate solution. But as I have said, in Nigeria the impact is very low because of the nature of governance and how the country operates. The $15b on power spent by OBJ should get Nigeria at least 10,000 MW. It got Nigeria around 2000 MW if you minus the fact that we had 1000 MW at 1999 when OBJ entered government and that by 2005 when we left we were hovering around 3000 MW. The Chinese Three Gorges Dam cost $26b and produced 22,000 MW.

Capital projects are the milking cows of the politicians in power. So you cannot say they leave much impact compared to recurrent expenditure. We should not just look at textbook economics, look at the reality in Nigeria. Adapt what the textbook says with the reality on ground to make your assertion. Recurrent expenditure pays Nigerians directly 100%. Our fathers, mothers, uncles, aunts, cousins...

Over 50% of capital expenditure goes to the top 1% (politicians, their cronies, and dishonest civil servants). In the end, the completed capital projects are nothing to write home about, there is zero provision for maintenance, and no questions are asked.

To solve the quagmire, we need accountability. The US has a parastatal called the Government Accountability Office that reports to Congress. If you receive $10m in a budget, you would show how it was used, then your spending will be checked to know if you spent the money right or if there are ways to get something better for less.

Nigeria has nothing like that. The government just spends like it has a blank check or something. We cannot afford to wait for 4 or 8 years or 16 years for a president or party to go out of power before wastages are uncovered. Even worse, only wastages by those who have opposing political ties. We should uncover wastages as they happen like we all do in our SMEs, family, and personal finances.

About federalism, the confab report has virtually all that we need to go forward. The whole country met and adopt a solution to move forward, that is the direction we should take. All of the intricacies will be sorted out once we accept that it is the next route to take. Series of commissions and forums of experts will be consulted and formed to make it as smooth a process as possible.

About corrupt politicians, I do not agree with you. Politicians are very fluid creatures. They move with the tide. If a Nigerian politician goes to the US, he will not siphon money through invisible projects, if he does that he wouldn't last a quarter of a year. Rather, he will adopt the US system of taking huge money from companies under the legalized lobbying system and then pursue the interests of his/her backers in the government. Vice versa for a US politician.

If the system does not encourage it, it would be very difficult for the politicians to wave their wands. Case in point is the budget. We have always had budget of yams in this country, but when APC came in with the notion of change and still reverted to the old methods, they faced outcry from the public and political enemies to make them retrace their steps. Change the system, change the way things happen. It is the law of natural selection, whoever does not conform will not stand the test of time.

About the people that can enact the changes, I can assure you as an intellectual that they are many, each being an individual torch. We have the 7th largest population in the world, one of the top 10 highest recipient of remittances (Nigerians abroad sent home $24b last year, our budget was $23b), and Nigerian intellectuals occupy esteemed positions in public and private institutions around the world from the US to the UK to Russia. The right people are out there. The insects of the night always come from the shadows when a light bulb comes on. It is dark now, very dark, that is why you can't see them.

The system makes a mess of the technocrats that enter, like it did to the founding fathers of pan-Africanism. A Diezani who oversaw one of the most prosperous periods for Shell Nigeria is very different from the Diezani as Minister of Petroleum. Same thing for NOI (World Bank versus Ministry of Finance), Soludo, Sanusi, Ezekwesili (VP World Bank Africa versus being a minister under OBJ)...

-Lord

LordAdam:
I understand your point that capital expenditure stimulates the economy. The fact is that in a normal society it is the ultimate solution. But as I have said, in Nigeria the impact is very low because of the nature of governance and how the country operates. The $15b on power spent by OBJ should get Nigeria at least 10,000 MW. It got Nigeria around 2000 MW if you minus the fact that we had 1000 MW at 1999 when OBJ entered government and that by 2005 when we left we were hovering around 3000 MW. The Chinese Three Gorges Dam cost $26b and produced 22,000 MW.

Capital projects are the milking cows of the politicians in power. So you cannot say they leave much impact compared to recurrent expenditure. We should not just look at textbook economics, look at the reality in Nigeria. Adapt what the textbook says with the reality on ground to make your assertion. Recurrent expenditure pays Nigerians directly 100%. Our fathers, mothers, uncles, aunts, cousins...

Over 50% of capital expenditure goes to the top 1% (politicians, their cronies, and dishonest civil servants). In the end, the completed capital projects are nothing to write home about, there is zero provision for maintenance, and no questions are asked.

To solve the quagmire, we need accountability. The US has a parastatal called the Government Accountability Office that reports to Congress. If you receive $10m in a budget, you would show how it was used, then your spending will be checked to know if you spent the money right or if there are ways to get something better for less.

Nigeria has nothing like that. The government just spends like it has a blank check or something. We cannot afford to wait for 4 or 8 years or 16 years for a president or party to go out of power for wastages are uncovered. Even worse, only wastages by those who have opposing political ties. We should uncover wastages as they happen like we all do in our SMEs, family, and personal finances.

About federalism, the confab report has virtually all that we need to go forward. The whole country met and adopt a solution to move forward, that is the direction we should take. All of the intricacies will be sorted out once we accept that it is the next route to take. Series of commissions and forums of experts will be consulted and formed to make it as smooth a process as possible.

About corrupt politicians, I do not agree with you. Politicians are very fluid creatures. They move with the tide. If a Nigerian politician goes to the US, he will siphon money through invisible projects, if he does that he wouldn't last a quarter of a year. Rather, he will adopt the US system of taking huge money from companies under the legalized lobbying system and then pursue the interests of his/her backers in the government. Vice versa for a US politician.

If the system does not encourage it, it would be very difficult for the politicians to wave their wands. Case in point is the budget. We have always had budget of yams in this country, but when APC came in with the notion of change and still reverted to the old methods, they faced outcry from the public and political enemies to make them retrace their steps. Change the system, change the way things happen. It is the law of natural selection, whoever does not conform will not stand the test of time.

About the people that can enact the changes, I can assure you as an intellectual that they are many, each being an individual torch. We have the 7th largest population in the world, one of the top 10 highest recipient of remittances (Nigerians abroad sent home $24b last year, our budget was $23b), and Nigerian intellectuals occupy esteemed positions in public and private institutions around the world from the US to the UK to Russia. The right people are out there. The insects of the night always come from the shadows when a light bulb comes on. It is dark now, very dark, that is why you can't see them.

The system makes a mess of the technocrats that enter, like it did to the founding fathers of pan-Africanism. A Diezani who oversaw one of the most prosperous periods for Shell Nigeria is very different from the Diezani as Minister of Petroleum. Same thing for NOI (World Bank versus Ministry of Finance), Soludo, Sanusi, Ezekwesili (VP World Bank Africa versus being a minister under OBJ)...

-Lord

Hmmmm very salient points

I agree that there has to be an institutional reform. A change in mentality! But can we achieve this in Nigeria?

For instance, even if a dunce is elected as the President of America, they have an institutional framework that will ensure that there is a minumum standard of effective governance.

Successful countries in the West have long term blueprints/national plans that will largely remain the same irrespective of the ideology of the government of the day. Their might be minor tweaks but the overall long term objectives remain the same.

We have great minds all over the world. A lot of Nigerians doing exploits, but you said it yourself , as long as the system is broken, they will revert to the prevailing culture.

How do we change the system?

gurunlocker:
and within 9 months out of 48 months that one daura nigga came to power, naira have become laughing stock,they probe without result to distract people from their incompetence..

I can only imagine how much the naira will be by 2019.

You are a complete simpleton! U did not see d part where Jonathan refused to save during a boom.
You are now blaming d man dt is operating at a loss.
Please return ur school fees

aljharem:
Una never see anything. All na change

notice it started from babangida then abacha then Sanusi then now buhari . The same set of people and elites destroying this country

U did not add Gej? D one who did not save during a boom

peacengine:
I blame the Governors especially Amaechi and his friends who ensured that GEJ's plan to save excess crude oil funds did not materialize. I also blame Buhari for his economic policies. In only 9 months the Naira is almost useless

Stop been a nuisant.

lookandlaff:
This is the problem: We are an import dependent country with very little exports outside Oil. When you devalue your currency and you don't export but import everything you create inflation in your country. You have to reduce the demand for forex by producing things at home or increasing your exports before you devalue. A short term solution to our currency problem is to fix the refineries, or deregulate PMS so that fuel importers no longer obtain their forex from CBN but the price of fuel will rise and people will be restless. But hat is the major drain on our forex,

we are not the only import dependant country on earth neither are we the only mono comodity country on earth,but we are the most lying country on earth,we are so poor and yet we believe we are rich,our government official are paid more than we can.sustain,subsidy and fixed intrest rate is a scam,only a few benefit from.it,a guy was.on channels on their sun rise show,the first speaker he was spot on,the government need to stop selling dollars to the bank,stop giving import waivers,secure the borders,tax everyone accordingly and we are good

NavierStokes:
Well I wasn't referring to the current leader, thats why I put a caveat just incase my example shares similarity with any leader including the current administration.

To the main substance of your post, education is a tool to think, there is a reason governments and companies send their best to particular schools, that reason isn't just because they want those wards to catch fun or get an ostentatious feeling, rather in such institutions leaders are built.

Now if you say an okonjo iweala or arunma oteh was celebrated elsewhere, came to Nigeria and failed and travelled out again to be recognized, then it should tell you there is something fundamentally wrong with our system.

The case of a man, who every girl he breaks up with goes on to get married, should do some self searching.

what is fundamentaly wrong is the leader,those women would have performed magic if the leader showed example but he did not,the reason the Gov forum asked for the money to be shared was that the FG was spending the saved money without the consent of the states,that started under Obasanjo and continued under Jonathan,hence the reason for the Govs to asl for the money to be shared instead of FG spending our common wealth at will,Gej does the talk but never had the balls infact he acted in other direction secretly.

Bobbysworld28:
You are a complete simpleton! U did not see d part where Jonathan refused to save during a boom.
You are now blaming d man dt is operating at a loss.
Please return ur school fees

nigga I am entitled to my comment, if you don't have anything reasonable to say, just stfu OK?

why did you single handed gej out of the article if you ain't a foolish nigga? motherfucker

omolola15:
Sometimes I wonder why I argue with you. Did you even read the post at all? Fashola and amaechi were clamoring they share the money from the money they recovered from subsidy. The subsidy jonathan reduced then.
And you no even make sense self. Then if oil go down. There's always a foreign reserve to tap into. Now where's the foreign reserve. The one wey Mama Ngozi and brother jona don almost empty?

If we should start on how Obama redeem America, we'll just derail this thread. Do you know the kind of reform wall Street had to go through. AIG one of the biggest insurers in the world had to go. Cbn injected $85 billion into AIG which gives the federal government 79.9% equity in the company. Do you know what that means? Weeks earlier the government rejected Lehman Brothers Holdings loan from the cbn. Allowing the company to go under. The stock market went through a total reform. It took him more than a year. Not months to accomplish this.

Thank God you are a great follower of the American politics. So you must know all this I'm telling you. And has oil price been this low? Please read the post again. And give me a sensible reply. Not this nonsense you typed.

And its 9months since he came into Power..The Same thing that happened in he's Military tenure is happening now that is why i never support him..The Economy went down before Babangida came and sent him away..What he was doing was doing selective fight against corruption while the Economy went down..Giving Shagari House Arrest while Jailing Ekweume and others..I asked you Fans of Him what he's Economic Success where when he was President,nobody could give me an Answer

You should stop Blaming GEJ and get down to work..Things are getting harder by the day and Mr President is junketing all around the world while still blaming GEJ for he's Woes..Lest i forget,Obasanjo meet the Worst Govt in 1999,Poverty was at its peak in 1999..The Military looted Nigeria dry..OBJ never Blamed the Military which Buhari was even a part of our woes when he sent Shagari out of Power..OBJ Got to Work and till date he is still the best democratic President we ever had since 1999..So Blaming GEJ is totally out of it..

Its Almost a Year and nothing is being done except Propaganda and lies..They said they would appoint Ministers,we thought it would be Angels from Heaven,not knowing na the same set of people wey we don saabi..Na so he appoint a whole commissioner of Budget Affairs as PA to a Minister..Rubbish..

Topeakintola:
Hmmmm very salient points

I agree that there has to be an institutional reform. A change in mentality! But can we achieve this in Nigeria?

For instance, even if a dunce is elected as the President of America, they have an institutional framework that will ensure that there is a minumum standard of effective governance.

Successful countries in the West have long term blueprints/national plans that will largely remain the same irrespective of the ideology of the government of the day. Their might be minor tweaks but the overall long term objectives remain the same.

We have great minds all over the world. A lot of Nigerians doing exploits, but you said it yourself , as long as the system is broken, they will revert to the prevailing culture.

How do we change the system?

I don't suppose I am infallible or that I have the magic solution or my solution is superior to the solution proposed by others. With that said, in my humble opinion, I think we have to start with adopting true federalism.

It will not magically erase our problems but it would put us on the right course to enact the much-needed reforms with very little resistance from the entrenched regional and ethnic interests.

Changing the ideology of the people is a different kettle of fish. It is either we have a stern figure/leader of the likes of Mao and Lee Yuan to build strong institutions and coerce people to conform, or the government engage leaders in different spheres to help chart and enforce a long-term multi-faceted course or plan.

Irrespective of the route we take in this case, the fact is that a figure with authority has to be at the forefront. Else, the people will not let it succeed. People are quick to point out problems but slow to adopt solutions especially when change is required. Values like transparency, accountability, sound communication are foreign to the Nigerian culture. For example the way a Nigerian health worker communicates a patient is different from the way Western health workers do. This is despite the fact that the Nigerian health worker trains using texts from the western health care system.

In any case, any such change will be a slow, painstaking process spanning two or more decades judging by the rate of change in countries like UAE, Malaysia, Singapore, China, Brazil, India, Phillipines... I seriously doubt Nigerians have the patience and can muster the resolve to surmount the challenges that would inevitably arise.

-Lord

this what you gets when old fools without brains are allowed to rule since 1980s. IBB and military era kills the future of this country. i wish them boko haram all of the past leaders should just kick the bucket.

LordAdam:
I don't suppose I am infallible or that I have the magic solution or my solution is superior to the solution proposed by others. With that said, in my humble opinion, I think we have to start with adopting true federalism.

It will not magically erase our problems but it would put us on the right course to enact the much-needed reforms with very little resistance from the entrenched regional and ethnic interests.

Changing the ideology of the people is a different kettle of fish. It is either we have a stern figure/leader of the likes of Mao and Lee Yuan to build strong institutions and coerce people to conform, or the government engage leaders in different spheres to help chart and enforce a long-term multi-faceted course or plan.

Irrespective of the route we take in this case, the fact is that a figure with authority has to be at the forefront. Else, the people will not let it succeed. People are quick to point out problems but slow to adopt solutions especially when change is required. Values like transparency, accountability, sound communication are foreign to the Nigerian culture. For example the way a Nigerian health worker communicates a patient is different from the way Western health workers do. This is despite the fact that the Nigerian health worker trains using texts from the western health care system.

In any case, any such change will be a slow, painstaking process spanning two or more decades judging by the rate of change in countries like UAE, Malaysia, Singapore, China, Brazil, India, Phillipines... I seriously doubt Nigerians have the patience and can muster the resolve to surmount the challenges that would inevitably arise.

-Lord

I agree on the need for true federalism. I think it will eject a healthy competitive spirit.
I was thinking that when oil goes completely burst, then those who are benefiting from the present system might change their minds

NavierStokes:
Godbless you brother, now we are in sync. I had spent the past few weeks reading the book by Martin Meredith: The state of Africa: a history of the continent since independence. There you will find out why virtually ever african country failed, the root cause i did identify was the overbloated and inefficient civil service. These were overbloated because the governments or ruling parties saw it as a means of patronage, where they compensate their followers and subjects with apoointments to score political points. Imagine cases of offices with several employed typists but only one functional typewriter etc.

Lets be honest If the government is a privately owned organization, will we have the type and quality of workforce we see today, or will service delivery and output be as seen today? Hell no.

Reduce the size of the recurrent expenditure, create an enabling environment so the bulk of those people can be on the private sector, focus on building infrastructure and watch the entrepreneurial spirit spring up among the citizens.

This also translates into increased output and ultimately a stronger value of the currency.

I concur.... Obviously da fact.

salt1:
I agree on the need for true federalism. I think it will eject a healthy competitive spirit.
I was thinking that when oil goes completely burst, then those who are benefiting from the present system might change their minds

True on how true federalism will inject a healthy competitive spirit. It will be nice to see the nut pyramids in the North, huge coal train transports in the east, and heavy cocoa export in the west. If ND is given its own regional government, as I expect, then there will be diversification beyond oil I imagine. Delta and Edo are fast pursuing an agroeconomy to supplement oil production, especially Edo. There is increased potential in the rubber and oil palm cash crop market. There are plenty of adjuncts now (like Ogun becoming an industrial power house, Anambra transforming into an economic hub) but let us suffice with the major earners.

About the oil burst, I never counted on oil losing value to change anyone's mind. It lost value in 2008, nothing happened. They would only bid their time during this period of low returns in anticipation of when there is surplus again, then the pillaging continue in astronomical proportions.

-Lord

LordAdam:
From a basic standpoint, the overbloated and inefficient civil service is a problem. However, it is not the root cause, especially when you extrapolate from a specific country to the whole continent. It is only a symptom of the problem. The root cause of the failures in Africa, in my opinion, is the fact that the people are simpletons. It is the people not those in power.

If we want to succeed, we have to change how we think, how we do things, and thoroughly evaluate what we want and how to get there.

The success of the pan-African movement championed by Zik, Nkrumah, Kaunda et al was that they had a different thought-process from the average African, possibly because they had western schooling. I'm not ass-licking now, but western education expanded their intellect. Why their pet projects failed was because they had vision but lacked the requisite supportive hands to bring that vision to reality. This is because the people they had to use still had the depressive, retrogressive African thought process.

Today the pan-African movement is dead and disgraceful because the original thought process behind it has been corrupted by the retrogressive basic African thought process.

Even if you streamline the work force, what about the crippling violent ethnic tensions and massive corruption tendencies? What about the accountability deficit? How about the irrepressible drive to celebrate mediocrity? What about the absolute lack of good governance and respect for rule of law? Look at the supposed African leaders at the AU? The current AU chairman is the president of Chad who has been in seat for 26 years.

Reducing the civil service will not magically erode these problems. In fact, the reason why we cannot reinvigorate the civil service is because of these problems.

-Lord

My nairaland post of the year!

An insightful and educative thread on nairaland at last.

This was what the old nairaland was about, intelligent discuss, until kids invaded the site...

NavierStokes:
Yea we need to be prepared, but then the situation imo is very daisy for Nigeria, compared to countries like Russia, Quatar, UAE, Algeria, Norway who have been been able to shore up some good savings, we have a much larger population. In the area of infrastructure we are lacking. The opportunity cost of holding reserves or savings will be a reduced rate of infrastructure buildup. Its almost like the case of say 2 individuals, one from a rich home and the other from a poor home, both getting a job in the same company and maybe the same pay grade. The rich kid may be able to afford to save cos his family already has given him an house, car etc but the poor kid on the same salary will struggle to obtain all these things or risk saving and doing nothing to meet his needs.
That's where i think the past administration found themselves, and they did spend, from increased minimum wages, public spending, increased corpers allowance, plus leakages in the system.

I really do hope we learn and come out of this stronger and wiser, rather than go back to fold out arms when the oil prices rise.

I appreciate your analogy. Permit me to borrow it.

The poor kid can manage the issue of saving if s/he spends only on basic items and avoid luxurious living. This way there will be enough money available to fund infrastructure and some to save. This is what our "rulers" failed and are still failing to realise. They should cut down on recurrent expenditure (this has remained the clamour of well meaning Nigerians); salaries and other treasury draining benefits they enjoy. Particularly the political class.

Naira is receiving heavy bashing not because of anything but the visionless ruling class. They lack genuine patriotism.

a country that elects an illiterate that could not produce common primary school certificate is whom we're hoping to guide it out of a rather treacherous economic downturn, smh

wow

peacengine:
I blame the Governors especially Amaechi and his friends who ensured that GEJ's plan to save excess crude oil funds did not materialize. I also blame Buhari for his economic policies. In only 9 months the Naira is almost useless

I remember the then Financial Minister screaming herself hoarse while explaining to the Governor's the need to save for raining day, today. But again, it wasn't only a matter of saving but that of confidence, trust and parochial sentiments on the side of the Governors.

pacino26:
This is just one way the country is been controlled by Western influence. At a point India withdrew from the international scene to develop local content. We should do same and strengthen our naira.

We don't have the guts.

2plus2:
I remember the then Financial Minister screaming herself hoarse while explaining to the Governor's the need to save for raining day, today. But again, it wasn't only a matter of saving but that of confidence, trust and parochial sentiments on the side of the Governors.

I couldn't have said it better my bro