Do you believe in dreams? This columnist wants to state succinctly that there is power in dreams! He was once residing in a town called Keffi, now Nasarawa State, that used to be part of old Plateau State, Nigeria. There was this night. He had a dream. In it, he saw the world map spread before him. In a jiffy, it was like applying a magnifying glass as the Asia continent came into focus, and finally fixated on a location with the name: MALAYSIA. Waking up from the dream early in the morning made this columnist look for the world map to know what was the exact location of the country called Malaysia. He discovered the country on the map and at the first attempt of sending a letter to Singapore, a neighbouring country, this columnist was told by the postal official that the location is within a region referred to as the Far East as contrasted to United Arab Emirate (UAE), Saudi Arabia and Qatar being in the Middle East. As the dream was coming to pass, his first trip to Singapore, on board Ethiopia’s Airline, took this columnist from Lagos through Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), through Bangkok (Thailand), and finally disembarked at Changi Airport, Singapore. He arrived in the island city-state-nation of Singapore on the 7th of June 2005. It took about four years later to move to Malaysia to commence his PhD research study in Kuala Lumpur, the ancient capital of Malaysia.
Social and religious life
Malaysia is an Islamic country with a difference of freedom to practice your own religion with strict guidelines that no religious sect, not even extreme or radical Islamic clerics or scholars dare go against. The social life in the country is attractive with tourists pouring in daily to both West and East Malaysia exploring the business, entertainment, academic, media, leisure, food and beverage of the south east Asia country. The Internal Security Act (ISA) of 1960, potent as if it was just promulgated, is strictly enforced by the government while activities of all religious sects are closely monitored. Errant scholars or preachers are liable to summary arrest and detention without trial; the detention period is open ended and expiration can only be determined by the government. The ISA is stridently criticized by most public and political affairs analysts, however, over the years, successful governments refused to bulge in amending or throwing away the act. However, during the era of erstwhile the 6th Prime Minister, Najib Razak, in responding to public appeal, replaced and repealed the ISA with Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012. The Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012, (abbreviated SOSMA), is still seen by many as controversial as the atavistic ISA even though the government intention is “to provide for special measures relating to security offences for the purpose of maintaining public order and security and for connected matters.” SOSMA was approved in Parliament on 17th April 2012, given the Royal Assent on 18th June 2012 and Gazetted on 22nd June 2012. This is the distinguishing difference in Malaysia enjoying religious freedom and peace when compared with neighbouring countries in Asia such as Indonesia and Thailand. This columnist while residing in neighbouring Singapore usually visits Malaysia to savour the diversity in culture and social life as Malaysia is largely made up of the Malays (dominant and mostly Muslims), Chinese and Indians. Interestingly, Malaysians are gracious to Africans especially Nigeria with a sense of history that Nigeria was a brother country that helped them out during her economic crisis dating back to the 70s. This columnist was told by an elderly person that during the Gowon era, as the military Head of State, Nigeria helped Malaysia financially. Those were the days of yore when Nigeria’s problem was not money but what to do with the money! What a lagging, lackadaisical and laidback leadership ethos!! Has anything changed with accidental leaders, at state and national levels, being foisted or hoisted upon the psyche of the country, Nigeria?
Agribusiness: Discovering economic livewire of a country
Malaysia connected with Nigeria early after the latter’s independence with a friendly fraternity that made some Malaysians, years after, to undertake an ethnographic study tour of Nigeria. It was at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), situated in the ancient city of Ibadan, that the oil palm was introduced to the Malaysians. According to the story line, knowing that Malaysia and Nigeria are situated within the same tropical region, off they went with the oil palm seed to their country. The rest is history as people say! It is instructive to pinpoint that palm oil is the most produced, consumed and traded edible oil globally accounting for virtually 40% of the supply of the top four popular edible oils, namely: palm oil, rapeseed oil (canola), soybean oil, and sunflower seed oil. Having seen and savoured the economic benefits, it is significant to state that almost 70% of arable land of Malaysia is devoted to oil palm plantation. By the year 2020, palm oil derivatives – value chain – constituted almost 38% of the agricultural output of Malaysia, contributing 3% to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP)!
There was an eye-opening encounter that this columnist and his wife had while sojourning in that south east Asia nation. He, together with his wife, was taken to the country side of Malaysia to oil palm plantations. It was a memorable experience as this columnist saw from the seedlings to the nursery beds to the plantations the process of growing, nursing, nurturing to maturity the oil palm fruits. The duo was briefed by our tour guide, how an Indonesian professor developed a species of oil palm seed that grows and matures within 24 months! Yes. The duo was taken to the plantations having this species. The species does not grow tall with age but rather grows with a wider trunk producing up to 5 to 6 fruits per head at maturity! It is simply and squarely amazing!! This columnist was keen and zealous to sell this idea to a state government in Nigeria then, but the process could not reach fruition possibly due to bureaucratic bottleneck or lack of passion for agribusiness. That was way back in 2010. It was unfortunate that Nigeria could not replicate simple but salient practices that could benefit the country but believe in short term processes, especially the ones involving procurement and contracting. Leaders at the subnational and national levels in Nigeria need to know that countries that are consistently rated high grow through robust and rigorous preparation, planning, production, processing and packaging. In addition, such nations explore and exploit research and development initiatives inculcating innovation and creativity taking cognizant of strategic uncertainties with the underlying notion that the only thing that is permanent is change.
Lessons Learnt
In the emerging field of Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL), “Lessons Learnt” is a key component that bespeaks of the learning leg. In it, development scholars and professionals review or revisit the whole gamut of the monitoring and evaluation process to decipher: What works? What does not work? Why does it not work? In concluding this piece fixating on social and religious life vis-à-vis the agribusiness in Malaysia with particular attention to oil palm value chain, one wonders why leaders in Nigeria fail to replicate easy concepts and ideas from other climes? If our leaders could not wholly replicate, could not they adapt by gleaning and learning from others who are doing well in certain areas? In management studies, if you keep doing the same thing and expecting different results, it is referred to as insanity! Nigeria has lots of natural and human resources to turn our fortunes around. Is it not true that many research studies that would have turned Nigeria around are mere paper tigers gathering dust on shelves of research institutes and universities nationally? Who will deliver us from ourselves in Nigeria? Here we are in this digital age of the 21st century still haggling and arguing about herdsmen-farmers clash, open grazing, mixing politics with ethno-religious connotations, religious extremism, etc. It is even saddening and sickening that religious extremism, allowed to fester so much having been treated with kid gloves by the government, not just the Buhari’s, has now snowballed into hydra-headed banditry cum terrorism. Can we glean and learn from Malaysia which exploited one stroke of the act of parliament with the executive endorsement thus erasing and eradicating any trace of religious violence within the nooks and crannies of the country despite constitutionally being an Islamic country? Nigeria, constitutionally, is a secular state and yet enmeshed and entwined with lots of ramshackle religious regurgitation. When are we going to get a leader at the centre who will consign religion to the privacy of our hearts and homes like in such countries such as Singapore and Malaysia? It is only through this way we can thrive as a country. Imagine Malaysia coming to Nigeria to be indoctrinated about producing oil palm and then rising overtime to becoming one of the leading nations globally in oil palm production. In fact, Indonesia is leading in oil palm production globally while being trailed by Malaysia. However, the real truth is that Malaysia is still leading! How? Indonesia has cheaper labour and land. Malaysia exploited or took advantage of these “richness” of Indonesia and oil palm investors from Malaysia invaded Indonesia with huge investments. This singular act is responsible for Indonesia leading the world oil palm production. One other comparable advantage is that Indonesia, the 4th most populous country globally, has one of the largest land mass in Asia. In essence, production of oil palm is likely to keep growing competitively between these countries without another close contender within the next decade! As we look towards 2023, can Nigeria leaders glean and learn from nations like Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia?
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Ekundayo, Ph.D. can be reached via 08155262360 (SMS only) and drjmoekundayo@hotmail.com