By Kunle Oyatomi
You don’t worsen challenging situations such as we are passing through in Nigeria at the moment with more unhelpful pessimism. You darken the sky when you are pessimistic about your situation, which already is thick with darkness. So, instead, you move to the camp of far-looking compatriots like Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank, AfDB. He does not believe it’s a bleak future for Nigeria under the Bola Tinubu government. ‘’It will be a new day and a new dawn for Nigeria’’, he says.
Adesina should know as the topmost man at such a big international financial institution. He has studied the risk status of the economies of the nations of Africa. He has the statistics at his fingertips. And his verdict with regard to Nigeria his motherland is that there’s the proverbial silver lining in the cloud overhanging the Nigerian space.
This highly respected international personality is convinced that Tinubu’s reforms will yield handsome dividends, eventually. Such is the faith of the AfDB he heads in Nigeria’s current policies that, he said the body has decided to key into the government’s youth development initiative. He declared at a highly celebrated function in Abuja on Friday, October 18, 2024, that the bank has approved $100m for the establishment of the Youth Entrepreneurship Investment Bank in Nigeria.
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Hear Adesina:’l am delighted to announce here today that just three days ago, the African Development Bank board of directors approved $100m for the establishment of the Youth Entrepreneurship Investment Bank for Nigeria.’’ He added that the new facility will support ‘’the youths’ businesses, using technical assistance, business incubation, quasi-equity and debt.’’ According to the AfDB boss, the bank will also deploy guarantee instruments to de-risk the lending to the businesses by financial institutions in Nigeria.
Analysts have agreed that the ‘’initiative highlights AfDB’scommitment to supporting youths who… are critical to the development of the country.’’ They recall that on June 25, 2023, just weeks into the advent of the Tinubu Presidency, Adesina said AfDB was ready to set up a business investment bank in Nigeria.
That the bank is fulfilling its pledge even in the midst of tough policy decisions by the All Progressives Congress, APC government of Tinubu speaks volumes. First, it attests to the confidence the international financial community has in the economic engineering drive being undertaken. Secondly, it strongly suggests hope of high yields in policy seeds, as it were. Thirdly, we learn that what we are witnessing is a government tackling our problems from the fundamentals; distortions disturbing the growth and development of the economic and social structures are being pulled down to give way for the emergence of new ones unimpeded by clogs and spanners in progress.
The point is that if we don’t address these challenges now, we’d be running round in circles in so-called nation-building ad infinitum. We are rooted in stagnation all these decades after Independence because successive administrations, civilian and military, had refused to do the needful, namely tackling our problems from the roots. The excuse has always been that the accompanying pains might be unbearable. But, as President Jerry Rawlings of Ghana once told his compatriots in the course of undertaking the socioeconomic reforms that turned the country round, ‘’The pill is bitter, but it must be taken to restore sanity and good health to the polity.’’
Eventually, Ghana, through these reforms, was moved from its knees to a full standing position. That was more than 40 years ago. But the principles are still potent for application in our time in Nigeria.
In fact, Ghana’s case was worse because the country was like a pariah state. The international community dined with it with a long spoon. Its military authorities were deemed unworthy of trust, with nobody desiring to do business with undemocratic rulers. Rawlings’ had had bloody antecedents, extra-judicially executing his predecessors and top military officers. He was also accused of killing senior judges. Nigeria doesn’t have this negative baggage to scare away international cooperation. Rawlings had, but he still succeeded.
This, to be sure, ought to give us hope that all we need do is have implicit and explicit faith in the current process of economic reforms of our government. If the outside world is believing in the government such that its institutions are coming in with investment and their hard-earned capital, why shouldn’t the citizens of the land themselves have faith in their own government’s policies.
Let’s bear in mind that it takes two to tango. The government has its part to play, namely bringing up ideas about administering the country and implementing them. But no matter how sound the policies are or are acclaimed to be, they remain inactive and dormant until they receive a popular touch through the cooperation of the citizens in working with the government at the implementation state.
What do I mean? The people must key into the government’s vision by shifting from their position on the fence. They must be located in the picture as inseparable participants in the whole transition to a new era. For instance the youth Adesina referred to must jettison their old ways of resorting to be pawns in the hands of unscrupulous politicians who use them for unpatriotic objectives and destabilizing enterprises. They must reject overtures to be used as spoilers during elections. They must see the forthcoming national youth conference being organized by the Tinubu Administration as the grand opportunity to start the journey of freedom from the stranglehold of an oppressive system that has sentenced them to inertia and dependence on selfish politicians and godfathers.
Thankfully, an internationally celebrated financial organization has weighed in with a huge input, following a pledge it made last year. The implication is that the youths are being recognized as the catalysts of the envisaged change from home and abroad. It’s a lifetime opportunity they must not squander. If we look back into the history, we can hardly locate when the youngsters got this open platform for meaningful work for themselves, their careers and for their country.
For me, and I believe for millions of other Nigerians, these are issues that represent a silver lining in the cloud. No wonder, Dr. Adesina says it’s the dawn of a new age for Nigeria.
