When it comes to Nigerians that visit beautiful and thriving places outside of Nigeria, there are two types, those who see beautiful things outside Nigeria and wished they could live in those places forever and those who see those beautiful places and see how it is possible to replicate such beautiful realities in Nigeria forever. They both mean well, though one for small minded self.
Those who have had and are having the opportunity to birth change in Nigeria see the beauty of the world, steal a lot of the money that ought to be used to make Nigeria a beautiful, prosperous land and use same to buy properties in these beautiful, working countries. That way, Nigeria continues to degenerate into a dilapidated structural entity while Nigeria’s wealth is being used to build already prospering nations. You can say the same for the African continent.
This is the reality of our underdevelopment and poverty. To change this country, we need proven agents of change and transformation. By transformation I do not mean those written on official government papers, those spurned on newspaper pages and spouted shamelessly on National TV. I mean the type of transformation that you can see even when it has not been birth to life. There can be no transformation without a picture. Any transformation agenda without easily recognisable pictures are just another agenda in the meeting documents of men who found themselves in the position of leadership by accident hence depend on many accidents to get the slightest thing right. For men who have found themselves in a situation like this, they must shout to show people they are busy. They must engage in meaningless motion to show they are really working. This is understandable because empty barrels still make the loudest noise.
You don't have to shout to be heard aptly describes a situation where your effort gives way to your results. You do not speak in terms of effort but in terms of results. I have attached a link to a video of transformation to this article. I will not say anything about the video save for the fact that 90 per cent of the transformation plans shown therein have become the realities of an Arabian desert today.
Leaders who jump on every microphone and camera and make noise about their transformation agenda are the ones who really have nothing to offer. You need not popularise a plan in newspapers and television to make it a reality. You need not send brand managers to work to make your transformation plans look good when the realities of such transformation when fulfilled would speak for themselves. The world has changed and is continuously in a dynamic state of change. The standards and expectations of leadership the world over have been raised while we stay stuck with men whose ability to reason out a future for the good of the land always finds them with a personal obsession for bigotry and the good of a few who are from their place of birth or those who somehow contributed lump sums to their campaign. It is the reason why a few people would double cross N2.6 trillion of a nation's expenditure for the same thing that cost N640 billion at its previous peak. These men remain power pushers at the nation’s highest seat of power. Here is a lawless, visionless and directionless clan of brigands, small minded men whose only claim to greatness would be in terms of how much of our common wealth they are able to amass while in office and how many more poor people they add to the already over 112 million poor souls we have.
Malam Nuhu Ribadu in 2006 said that some $500 billion had been looted from Nigeria. If that is remote, some N2.6 trillion ($17.3 billion) have been touted as the subsidy payments Nigeria made last year. Everyone knows this is a grand scam. Considering that Dubai’s Burj Khalifa cost about $1.5 billion, we would have 11.5 Burj Khalifa’s from that loot. That amount would build the whole of Downtown Dubai by just adding some $2.7 billion to it as it cost $20 billion to build. (Google them).
Dubai transformed within a decade (see video) and this shows we can still transform our country. We have the human, financial and natural resources; we just need men of will who see pictures of tomorrow in real time. Transformation Agenda talk is trite and cheap.
This is @omojuwa
Japheth J Omojuwa
Video http://youtu.be/D-_jp1-_I3I
