Gee, Nigeria may well have happened upon her deus ex machine – the one man who has the solution to all our problems; the superman who is doing all the things our government cannot do.
How about this checklist: his tomato farm will resolve all of Nigeria’s tomato issues no matter how paste-thick they may be. His rice enterprise is the mother of all ventures that will end the billion dollars quasi-rice import racket from Southeast Asia.
His brand of cement has not only overtaken Nigeria, it rules Africa. And this one that may well confirm his super-human status: he is building a refinery and petrochemical complex that will not only avail Nigeria all petroleum products, but will supply all of Africa and beyond. You will understand the magnitude of this feat if you remember that for the past 30 years, Nigeria has been spending at least one quarter of her foreign exchange earnings on importing petroleum products.
Irrational as the idea of exporting crude oil and importing in return, over a dozen finished products is, successive Nigerian governments have done this for over 30 years and they are poised to do it until Dangote’s kingdom comes.
Of course we speak of Aliko Dangote, the pride of Nigeria and Africa’s richest man. And as if to prove that he is truly the alter-government, he intervened in our affairs recently and bingo, government responded like Pavlov’s dog.
Dangote, seeing that this government was on the path of a slow, excruciating death by humdrum and inertia, advised it to sell some stakes in two of her best assets – Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) and the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG).
The thinking behind what is obviously an ultra-capitalist thesis by Aliko is to generate instant forex cash to shore up the naira and afford us a few more shiploads of junk imports say for another six months or more. But he may have cleverly misted over what happens after six months or one year.
And we ask: Did he conveniently forget that in one and a half years, this government has not been able to pick up any sticks let alone laying them straight as far as the economy is concerned? Did he forget that this government still has no clear policy not to mention a guiding plan of action yet? Are we to believe that the great Aliko does not know that all the money in the world would scant help a man who has no roadmap or vision?
Perhaps he is reading the lips of our Finance Minister Mrs. Kemi Adesina, who caught in the heat of an utterly mesmerising moment, blurted that we (Nigeria) will spend our way out of recession! Apparently mimicking what President Barack Obama told Americans in his country’s period of economic upheaval a few years ago. But you don’t even need much education to know that America and Nigeria are two countries, buffeted by two dissimilar circumstances and having two wildly different economies.
One simple difference: America is a producer/exporter economy, while Nigeria is an importer/consumer economy. When therefore our Finance Minister tells us we will spend our way out of recession, we suffer mental tremor seeing the vacuity of her statement.
And when they say Nigeria is broke one just laughs knowing that money is not the issue. A country of about 170 million people with about 30 million tax payers is broke? It is confounding to say that a country that has the capacity to earn N2.2 trillion in one quarter (even in recession) is broke.
I wager that Nigeria is NOT broke! It is suffering from the twin diseases of lethargy and a lack of vision – two most debilitating ailments. Indeed, scores of opportunities abound within and outside our shores but for lack of drive and a dearth of insight. Investment capital abounds all over the world, but only the smart can see and harness them.
One good example is advertised recently in national newspapers: a consortium of multinational investors had concluded bid to bring in N68 billion cash investment into Lagos, Nigeria in one single project. But for over one year, this move has been stalled by this same government caught up in the throes of recession.
As the story goes, over one and a half years ago, a consortium had won a competitive concession bid for the National Theatre fallow land. This is part of Federal Government’s original master plan for converting the areas around the National Theatre, Iganmu into an entertainment city. The proposed project would will include a five-star hotel, water park, shopping complex, cultural arcade, office blocks, power plant, waste disposal facility as well as the rehabilitation of the 40-year-old edifice, which has become the shame of our nation.
The relevant government ministries and agencies concerned signed off on this project more than six months ago. According to an open letter to the President published in some newspapers this week, the Public-Private Participation agreements have been negotiated by the joint team of the National Theatre management, Ministries of Justice, Finance, and Information and Culture (mother ministry). While the Ministry of Justice approved the draft agreements, the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC), the authority on concession of Federal Government assets, has issued a certificate of compliance.
With all due diligence done, the project awaits almost indefinitely, the approval of the Federal Executive Council (FEC). One would think that a country in distress requiring jobs and huge foreign capital would grab every opportunity presenting itself and even dig up more. Apart from paying government about N68 billion in cash, an attendant massive construction would bring further investment of over N100 billion. The prospect of thousands of jobs and business opportunities this singular project will unleash on Lagos in a few months is so bright.
Beyond jobs are the questions of environment, aesthetics and national pride. In August 2013, Chris Wanjala, a Kenyan Professor of Theatre Arts, who was in Lagos during the Festival of Arts and Culture (FESTAC ’77), was in Port Harcourt. Apparently nostalgic about the awesome National Arts Theatre of 1977, he stopped over in Lagos to see that edifice of his awe. As the story went, he wept at the ugly sight that confronted him. He wept for Nigeria, he wept for Africa. He wept at the retardation that has been the lot of the continent in the last four decades as symbolised by the ruins sitting spat in the heart of Africa’s mega city.
It is not just the Theatre, in fact the country is littered with numerous decaying Federal Government edifices requiring concessioning for immediate, foreign cash; and which can be developed to create wealth and jobs. There is the old Federal Secretariat, Ikoyi, (and numerous other massive such secretariats across the country unutilised and wasting), old Defence House Lagos; Race Course, Lagos; National Stadia in Lagos and Abuja to name only a few.
That this government would contemplate selling even a share in an already thriving and well-run firm (NLNG) in the face of so many wasting assets only affirms all the things that trouble us.
Aliko is a great man by any measure, but he is still a MAN. He is not infallible. Let government realise we have an emergency and run; let it think radical reform, let it think local production and let it draw a plan.
