Question: “Ndubuisi, how can we make Nigeria great?”
Ndubuisi: Find and elect leaders who can execute this framework under the core pillars I have laid out in my hypothetical inaugural speech to the nation.
Merit-based system – no nation has advanced better than its ability to inspire, motivate and reward via merit. Without a nationally transparent merit-based system, Nigeria cannot progress.
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Pragmatic Innovation – focus on what works, over the purity of scoring political goals. The implication is that we have to seek and execute the best ideas irrespective of where they may be coming. I gave an example of how the same team of Central Bank leaders who kept our exchange rate stable for years, within 2012 to 2015, blew it up later. Yes, we must allow data to work and follow the best ideas.
Honest Leadership – the citizens are smarter and can only take cues from their leaders. People willingly pay taxes when taxes work in their lives, they say. If we preach one thing and do another thing, you lose the citizens.
Integrate Rural and Urban Nigeria – we need to have a functioning postal service, to bridge the huge gap between rural and urban Nigeria.
Put Rural Wealth in Nigeria’s Balance Sheet /Property Rights – those lands (subject to the land use act), houses, etc should be digitized and recorded so that even those in rural Nigeria can enter the formal economy. It is unfortunate that a man with 100 hectares is considered poor because he has no papers to share with banks, to access credits to train his kids and support his family. Simply, Nigeria must advance its property rights governance, not just in land and physical properties but also intellectual properties.
Nigeria Needs Economic Evolution and Revolution
It is as simple as ABC: if the population is growing when economic opportunity is shrinking, on average, people become poorer. That is the challenge we have in Nigeria right now. Nigeria needs both an economic revolution and evolution because our indicators look bad. Those who picked the forms, and are now on the seats, must #lead.
And as the next season of elections begins right there on the far horizon, the National Assembly must pass a bill which must require Presidential and Gubernatorial debates. If we have those debates, we will have a process which will force our leaders to be aware of the challenges of the nation because they have to debate on those topics.
Right now, there is no cohesive roadmap which any human has articulated on how to solve these problems. You should be worried because the issues are compounding daily. What is the Grand National Vision? What do we want to accomplish in 5 years as a nation? Can someone tell me how you wake up in the morning, and you see yourself in Ovim, Abuja, Ife, Kano, etc connecting to any national vision? Mr. President, you have work to do!
But as we wait for Mr. President to tell us how to follow him, Good People, get this from me: Nigeria must change its economic trajectory.
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No more plenty talks on this matter. Once we know what we want as national aspiration or grand vision, we will share the work alongside the sacrifices needed. And everyone will move to execution stage. We have talked enough, now let’s see who is ready to work.