THE NIGERIAN VISION In Nigeria, only lip service has been paid to the ideals of vision 2020 as at yet, no serious plan on ground aimed at making it a reality. A country that cannot boast of 24 hours of light, water supply, security of life and property of their citizens wants to become one of the economic juggernauts over a short time frame. This is just another political agenda craftily designed to give the people some sense of hope, something to hold unto. The UNDP President Representative in Nigeria, Mr. Turhan Saleh said, “The country is currently facing great danger by focusing on economic growth as an end in itself. According to him, “Nigeria’s macroeconomic performance has improved remarkably since the early 2000s but the proportion of Nigerians categorized as poor today is twice the proportion of those who are poor in 1980”. “Within Nigeria, there are wide variation in poverty, inequality and human development. Just focusing on economic growth will diminish Nigeria prospect of achieving vision 2020 and the millennium development goals”. Official statistic has it that 53.6 million of the estimated 150 million Nigerians go to bed hungry daily. The UNDP human development ranking ranked Nigeria at 154th in the world as at 2010. This is ironical, if people cannot feed themselves, live in good houses, afford medical care and send their children to school, where is the economic growth? Or does the few mega rich men the system has produced translate into economic growth. THE NATURE OF OUR NATIONAL DREAM The concept of bogus and lofty dreams in Nigeria seems to stretch into early history of the country. Our founding fathers had dreamed of one Nigeria. This belief is still being held by many Nigerians today, even in the face of the stack reality of the division that is rocking our nation to its very foundation today. In August of 1979, the then head of state, General Olusegun Obasanjo had a great vision of Nigerians which he promptly passed on to the people during his thanks giving tour of Ogun State. He could see Nigeria becoming one of the greatest nations in the world. “Nigeria will be one of the ten leading nations in the world by the end of the century year 2000. From 1979 to 2010, there are 31 years in between. Nigeria, instead of improving, has declined to no 154 position in the world economically. For all practical purposes, Nigeria has potentials but what good is in a potential undeveloped? We are now in the 21st century and our leaders have not given up entirely on great aspirations. We failed to make it in to the top ten great nations in the proceeding century. The goal has shifted to an equally admirable position in the world. This mew vision is now aimed at transforming Nigeria into the big 20 economies in the world by the year 2020. This new vision is code named vision 20 2020 what a mathematical puzzle! Well, this is an age where nations all over the world have confederated themselves into various economic and political groups. It’s only wise that we aspire to belong to one of the most prestigious of those groups. We now have groups like the G8, G20, D12, OCEAN, A11 ECOWAS and the host of them. Let me share with you what a certain Nigerian think about vision 20 2020. According to him, this vision is realistic, but it depend on the way you interpret the mathematical puzzle-vision 20 2020. Take each 20 to represent 20 years; you should have 20x20x20 which equals 8000. The import of this is that Nigeria at this present attitude towards development can become one of the G20 nations in 8000 years from now. This is not my interpretation anyway. We have got to be serious for ones. Going by the present state of affairs in the country, this vision is nothing other than a political gambit craftily devised to con unsuspecting citizens, while the leading elites go on basking in the sunshine of our national wealth. Dreams and visions can only translate into reality when the people involved are sincere and ready to make the necessary sacrifice–endurance and service to ones nation devoid of selfish interest and corruption tendencies. Look at the ancient Babylonians, they said let us build us a house that will reach into heavens. They meant it as is evident in the after mat of the whole venture meanwhile, Nigerian say, let us become 20 biggest economies in the world only in the pages of newspapers. No honest Nigerian can condemn this viewpoint of mine as a mere harangue. We are now in year 2010, and are ranked at 154th economies in the world and somebody is nurturing the idea of becoming one of the G20 nations in a time frame which is ridiculously low-just 10 years from now. Are we not waiting till, perhaps, year 2018 or so when all of a sudden we shall realize that it`s too late and then, we would without calculation shift the time to year 2030, so that we would be saddled once again with vision 20 2030? Economic projections are made based on calculation. The calculation itself is premised upon prevailing socio-economic reality on ground. Ours is arbitrary. If not, why have our projections not worked? At least, the prediction of Nigeria becoming one of the top 10 economies by the end of the 20th century if for external reasons beyond the nation’s control we couldn’t’ reach the top 10, we should have been among the top 20 by year 2000. This would represent 50% level of correctness in projection. Once upon a time, there was a famine in a land. There was a particular woman whose case was hopeless; no food, knew no one who had food that she could borrow. Constant hunger was the order of the day in her house. This particular day, her children were crying for food. After several hours of brooding, she fell upon an idea: She made fire and began to boil stones she would tell her children to be patient for her food would soon be ready. With this, her children were comforted and even became animated again. With this, she was able to create a source of hope for children. A place bo effect of a kind. (An Ebira folk tale) This should give you a picture of what is happening in the country. I am aware of the many devils that are often blamed for our situation. Such sinister factors like the civil war, a post -independence governance punctuated by military rule and finally the worst of them all “the death head conspiracy”-corruption. But who is behind all these evils? The American, Ghanaians, Germans or who?
Posted on: Tue, 01 Oct 2013 18:30:24 +0000
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