Enhancing Confidence in Nigeria for Nation Building: Towards Economic Success and Improved Quality of Life for Nigerians

By: Oladimeji Shotunde,
Lagos State University, Nigeria. ��

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PREAMBLE

Quite topical is the theme of this essay at a time when Nigeria seems to have multiple issues with her reputation, occasioned by waning confidence, amongst the comity of nations. Presently, Nigeria is not respected globally and as such, our status and percept is pitiful and mind-boggling. To corroborate this stance, the profound insight captured by E. O. Eke, in an article published on Nigeriaworld.com, as far back as August 4, 2013 was apt, wherein he posits that "Nigeria is indeed a criminal's paradise" and gradually becoming a pariah state. He substantiated this claim by giving overwhelming instances of our failing democracy, full-fledged corruption, insurgency, amongst others. Adducing stronger pieces of evidence, he further positioned that the ingredients that can “Somalianise” or “Pakistanise” Nigeria abound.

Overtime, we have witnessed mass exodus of Nigerians from Nigeria to any place other than Nigeria. The Pew Research Centre, in a report released on Wednesday, August 15, 2018, revealed that a staggering 74% of Nigerians would relocate to another country if given the chance. The reason is not far-fetched, and it would be elaborated in the crux of this write-up.

Have we thought of what could be amiss when someone who is doing well by many standards, gainfully employed with one of the top multinational companies, and having bagged requisite qualifications you can ever imagine, would still desperately attempt at leaving Nigeria? The question is: “how did we get here?”

As this poser agitate our minds, I will quickly share a befuddling experience I had at a training held in Lagos recently. It was a masterclass on IELTS. Even after the training was broken into sessions to accommodate the over 500 participants per session, the large army of Nigerians at the mercy of the scorching sun outside the venue was quite bewildering. An uncle of mine relayed his own unpleasant experience having travelled to the United Kingdom (UK). He complained bitterly of how dehumanising it was to be a Nigerian based on the treatment to which he was subjected. What was his offence? He is a Nigerian!

The above are vivid testaments to the fact that Nigeria is seriously hemorrhaging; bleeding from the pain and anguish of bad leadership, terrorism, corruption and everything bad you can think of. Clearly, this is a sad portrayal of a fundamental problem which Nigerian leadership appears to gloss over and explain away, but it does not engage the belief that virtually everyone wants to leave Nigeria.

I consider it quite important to have given the above background, because failure to do so will not allow for a proper justification of the subject matter which bothers on "Confidence" and "Nation Building", “Economic Success” and “Improved Quality of Life”. With utmost sense of humility and respect, I think it is safe to posit that to enhance confidence in Nigeria, calculated steps would have to be taken first to restore confidence.

THE CRUX

It is important to identify the major issues that pose as threats to confidence in Nigeria, and how these constitute grave dangers to the economic success and the quality of life for the people.

We cannot holistically look at enhancing confidence, without examining what led to the loss in the first instance. Of what value is the human life in Nigeria? Our health sector? In shambles. Basic and quality education? Impoverished. Power and energy? Epileptic. Roads and infrastructure? Deficient. Good governance? Non-existent. Security architecture? Dysfunctional. Cybercrime? Waxing stronger. Kidnapping? rampant. The list goes on.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) released a report in 2018 on Nigeria's Human Development Index (HDI). The HDI is a summary measure for assessing long-term progress in three basic dimensions of human development: a long and healthy life, access to knowledge and a decent standard of living. The HDI criteria are designed to be inclusive of countries' social, political and economic diversity while being indicative of a country's quality of life. Based on our HDI value for 2017, we were ranked 157 out of 189 countries and territories. Sad!

In trying to locate the rationale for this abysmal ranking, the issue of bad leadership compellingly stands tall. And where the leadership is starkly uninspiring, by what alchemy can we have good followership? Quality leadership will only come from you and I, and until this is done, we cannot fix Nigeria's barrage of challenges. At the very heart of this problem lies institutional corruption that have permeated all spheres of our lives. Corruption is a clog in the wheel of Nigeria's growth, advancement and progress.

Evaluating Nigerians who are willing to leave the country at the slightest opportunity and whether those that have gone are willing to return are crucial barometers with which to measure confidence in Nigeria. Premised on compelling anecdotal and empirical evidence that abound, your guess is as good as mine. The situation is so bad to the extent that those who travelled and returned home are characteristically labelled as being “mad”.

Slowly, as Nigeria recedes, burdened by the plethora of challenges in her domain, we must come to terms with the reality that achieving economic success and improved quality of life for Nigerians are both not mutually exclusive, but must be jointly achieved.

THE PRESCRIPTION

Indeed, it is needless crying over spilt milk. However, it is a needful that we trace the very beginnings of our problems while also performing a comprehensive analogy to justify all assertions made in this write-up. Having done this, the next step is to consider actionable solutions that can help restore, grow and enhance confidence for nation building, which indubitably, will translate to economic success and improvement in the quality of life observed by Nigerians.

Let us be clear, enhancing confidence in Nigeria will be an arduous task. However, in the face of many difficulties, we must find a way forward. It is noteworthy that rebuilding our reputation is of paramount importance. Albeit, having a great reputation is a function of addressing the problems identified in the crux of this write-up holistically.

To start with, we must fix our political system. We can achieve this through far-reaching and comprehensive electoral reforms, not the piece-meal types we have been seen over the years. Nigeria has a long history of electoral reforms, dating back to the different political transition processes since independence, but these reforms have not really produced the desired outcomes. Once we can achieve this, it would translate to the absence of electoral fraud, then responsible and responsive leadership can thereafter be enthroned. Our leaders are aware that once they provide good governance, fix the economy, and address other pressing issues, the masses would be so opinionated, conscious and independent, such that when the electoral season comes by, they will ask questions and make them accountable.

In addition, we must fix the Nigerian economy. It is pertinent to state that we do not need rocket science to fix our economy; the key is in our hands. All we need to do is to frontally fix energy issue. By fixing Nigeria's power problem, our economy will pick up naturally. To address the challenge of power, all we need to do is to reduce the bureaucracy involved. The scalability of whatever plan or policy action employed, should be emphasised. By scalability, I mean breaking these plans into workable pieces then putting it together to get a result. If we continue with this current jinxed model of IKEDC, IBEDC, we are not going anywhere. The same approach used for the telecommunication sector should be applied to the power sector. Competitive ideology should be entrenched. Consequently, power would whether advertently or inadvertently address a lot of problem, particularly as Nigeria's problems are inter-connected problems. By doing this, business and the economy will thrive, translating to economic success and improved quality of life is thereby guaranteed.

Furthermore, there is the need to revamp the educational sector. Quality education is needed for any country to thrive. The nexus between education and quality of life was well captured by Jason and Lance (2011). They positioned that educational effects cut across seven (7) broad life domains: achieving in life; material well-being/standard of living; emotional well-being/resiliency; physical health; community; intimate relationships; and personal safety/future security. Judging by the foregoing, education will play a pivotal role especially in improving the quality of life observed by Nigerians.

In the final analysis, I strongly posit that confidence is built on trust and cannot be forced on the citizenry, neither can it be imposed on the world. The government has to work to earn the trust of the people. Success would help rebuild and enhance confidence amongst the citizenry and by extension, the world at large.

For in the land of the black man, and in a time of reputational crisis, bad governance and its associated effect, the future of a great country; Nigeria, and her potentials for achieving economic success and improved quality of life for Nigerians, rests on the shoulders of restoring confidence, nurturing confidence and enhancing confidence.


Thank you for reading.

Email: Shotundeoladimeji07@gmail.com

Nice piece