Open Letter To Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu By Abioye Nurudeen Olawale
Dear Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu,
POLITICS DIGEST- The story of Nigeria before and now has presented different concerns from resentment, passion, divisiveness, and existentialism. The Nigerian youths are passionate about their essential needs in the corporate existence of Nigeria, particularly whether the modern Nigerian state could sufficiently guarantee these psychological needs. I respect you in many regards, sir, for your achievements as the then governor of Lagos State during my secondary school years. However, I will be frank to tell you that the nature of society in the world today suggests that the youth cannot continue to allow prosperity to be limited to people close to power. There is no point to start enumerating the challenges of Nigeria State. I believe you are aware of the problems, which inform your decision to test your popularity and fix the problems. I wish you the best.
The issue I want to discuss with you is broad but mainly rooted in general prosperity for Nigerians home and abroad and humanity in general. Nigerians want politicians like you to see politics with a different eye and engage the core everyday realities of the people.
Sir, let me start by saying that the birth of Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) is a good development. However, I await its implementation and operational deliverables to Nigerians. I want to see that NNPCL gets the right personnel to position its footage quite well in Nigeria to guarantee energy stability, security of supply, sustainability, and compete favorably in oil and gas exploration within the African continent. Moreover, the stage of development of Nigeria is below the western states. Hence, our development approach should differ, but development objectives must always be the same: to have shared prosperity for the citizens. The fact that we have a different historical background from the western world suggests that we ply a different growth path.
Sir, Nigeria needs to lead Africa to greatness. And to do this, Nigerians need the government to lay foundations to amplify such greatness. This type of greatness must focus on sustainable gross domestic products (GDP) growth.
Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu Sir, to have a sustainable GDP growth path Nigerian government must lead the growth from the front through initiatives that are publically driven and anchored by the private sector to steer the followings:
i. Productivity growth
ii. Foreign exchange stability
iii. Maintaining moderate inflation, among others
The west and their collaborators know that the market system is not perfect; hence their development patterns were publicly driven to a point where the market system is now almost perfect. Therefore, in Africa, we need to publicly build (support) our market system infrastructure to the point of slight imperfection before we can allow the private sector development path.
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Sir, an example of this effort is the birth of NNPCL, where the public sector drives oil and gas exploration anchored by the private sector. In the west, look at the origin of shell petroleum Ltd, Exonmobile, and Julius Berger, among others. Sir, if the right things are done, NNPCL will deliver higher productivity to Nigerians and the oil industry.
Again, another area where productivity can be enhanced is agriculture. I would like that if you are elected president of Nigeria, you initiate the process of having Nigerian National Agricultural Company Limited (NNACL). Already the country has an agricultural infrastructure in institutes and commissions spread across the country.
What are the productivities of these institutes and commissions? Why can’t they be made agro companies that specialize in producing different agricultural products for commercial purposes and export through the NNACL? The country will begin to have agro-economic zones that employ many people, skilled and unskilled. This development will have a high multiplier effect across industries, Create employment for millions, earn the country foreign exchange and improve productivity. These efforts will connect Nigerian growth through expansion, research development, and growth for Africa.
Another area of concern is engineering & construction. The country needs to have Nigeria National Civil Engineering and Construction Company (NNCECCL) fully established as a commercial engineering company to deliver value within the industry and across Africa to earn foreign exchange for the company. If elected, your government could spearhead this company’s creation to provide value for Africa in engineering and construction.
The Ajaokuta national steel company must work at all costs to enjoy viable inter-industry linkage with construction and engineering activities. If all these efforts were implemented and deployed correctly, the productivity of different categories would have skyrocketed. Nigerians would have benefited in terms of GDP growth, welfare benefits to investors, and increased footage in the African economy. Sir, take a look at China’s civil engineering & Construction Company that delivers value across Nigeria today and earns foreign exchange back to their countries. The country would have saved immensely foreign exchange in terms of import bills and made considerable foreign exchange, and the country’s inflation, that is supply induced, would have been eliminated. All these are not rocket science; they are things that can be implemented with focus. Sir, if your government can help Nigeria deliver these economic programs, Nigeria’s worldwide prosperity will increase and propel the country to a more important place in the comity of nations.
Let me not forget to tell you that it is time for Nigeria to have a national strategy for technology transfer, or you call it technology stealing. After all, the U.S has consistently accused China of technology stealing. Whether you agree or not is immaterial, but you cannot deny the deliberate effort of the China National government to transfer technology and develop strategies to deplore them. These are areas where your actions can be monitored and calculated and be seen to be impacting Nigeria’s quality of life. There should be a yearly report of the country’s technology transfer effort, including the name, type of technology, and area where they are deployed.
Sir, you should develop models or plans to sufficiently provide power in different forms to power homes & industries now. This is because no matter how good your economic programs are, they are worthless without energy (Electricity). Power will enable competitive production and spur more significant business opportunities.
It’s a pity, sir, that over the years (more than 15 years), Ajaokuta National steel Company cannot work despite billions spent on it. That speaks of how bereft of quality leadership Nigeria has been. The edifice is there in Kogi state; what is your plan for the Ajaokuta steel company? I want you to be an African hero, senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Please and please help change the narrative of this country to production base rhetoric so that Nigerians can attain worldwide prosperity through measurable decisions and calculated efforts and not the usual cosmetic approaches for which politicians are known.
Thank you
Written by Abioye Nurudeen Olawale
Postgraduate student of NDA
