Great revelation for many : ‘In a recent interview on Arise Television, Bayo Onanuga, the Special Adviser on Information and Strategy to President Tinubu, delivered a sobering assessment of Nigeria’s economic standing, categorizing the nation as “very poor” and asserting that its wealth has been grossly overestimated. Onanuga highlighted Nigeria’s low per capita income compared to other African nations as evidence of its impoverished state. “Nigeria is a very very poor country, to be honest. I think our wealth is overestimated,” Onanuga stated frankly during the interview, emphasizing the need for a realistic appraisal of the country’s economic condition.’
Yet, Bayo did not use the right word. He ought to have said that Nigeria is rich on “money” but poor on “capital”. Across all indicators, Nigeria is NOT “very very poor” even though Nigeria suffers a poverty of leadership necessary to transmute money into capital, and in the process unlock abundance for all. Whenever a nation operates on money-level, that nation stays poor.
For decades, no leader in Nigeria has been worried that our stock market is worth a mere $50 billion when South Africa’s is close to $1 trillion. No leader has been annoyed that our budget is about $30 billion when South Africa, with only 30% of our population, is spending more than $137 billion. But of course, because we have big suits and talk big, people think we are a big nation.
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Yet, the revelation from Bayo is not breaking news and was never classified, the issue is this: who can transform Nigeria? My understanding is that those running the government signed up for that job. I wish them good luck.
Great revelation for many: ‘In a recent interview on Arise Television, Bayo Onanuga, the Special Adviser on Information and Strategy to Tinubu, delivered a sobering assessment of Nigeria's economic standing, categorizing the nation as "very poor" and asserting that its wealth has… pic.twitter.com/8Ddlvo4l5F
— Ndubuisi Ekekwe (@ndekekwe) February 14, 2024
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