I'm Preoccupied with Thought of a Better Nigeria!

Hello everyone,

I'm Preoccupied with The Thought of a Better Nigeria!

I wants to see a Nigerian society where all the sectors of the economy are functioning effectively to liberate the people from the shackles of underdevelopment and poverty sending most Nigerians to their early graves.

Unfortunately, we live in a country where people don’t celebrate knowledge, ideas, scholarship.

This is the bane of the country because the world is driven by knowledge.

We are in a knowledge economy and development. Nigeria does not appreciate knowledge, that is why we are not investing in education. That’s why we are not doing well.

Is God still interested in Nigerian???

Today exchange rate:

£1 = ₦783

$1 = ₦550

€1 = ₦670

42 years ago, precisely on 01/03/1980 the exchange rate was: $1=0.78K. Are you surprised?

We were far more productive in 1980 than we are today.

In 1980 the key reasons for economic growth were as follows:

1) We were a net exporter of refined petroleum products. Today we import all our refined petroleum products.

2) We rode in locally assembled cars, buses and trucks. Peugeot cars in Kaduna and Volkswagen cars in Lagos; Leyland produced trucks/buses in Ibadan and ANAMCO in Enugu also produced buses and trucks.; Steyr in Bauchi produced our Agricultural tractors. And it was not just assembly, we were producing many of the components:

- Vono products in Lagos produced the vehicle seats.

- Exide in Ibadan produced the batteries, not just for Nigeria but for the entire West Africa.

- IsoGlass and TSG in Ibadan produced the windshields.

- Ferrodo in Ibadan produced the brake pads and discs

- Dunlop produced Tyres in Lagos and Mitchelin Tyres were produced in Port Harcourt.

- And I mean tyres produced from rubber plantations located in Ogun and Rivers State.

3) We were listening to Radio and watching television sets assembled in Ibadan by Sanyo.

4) We were using refrigerators, freezers and air conditioners produced by Thermocool and Debo.

5) We were putting on clothes produced from the UNTL Textile Mills in Kaduna and Chellarams in Lagos. They were not from imported cotton but from cotton grown in Nigeria.

6) Our water was running through pipes produced by Kwalipipe in Kano and Duraplast in Lagos .

7) Our toilets were fitted with WC produced in Kano and Abeokuta.

8) We were cooking with LPG gas stored inside gas cylinders produced at the NGC factory in Ibadan.

9) Our electricity was flowing through cables produced by the Nigerian Wire and Cable, Ibadan; NOCACO in Kaduna and Kablemetal in Lagos and Port Harcourt.

10) We had Bata and Lennards Stores producing the shoes we were putting on the shoes were not from imported leather but from locally tanned leather in Kaduna.

11) We were mainly flying our Airways, the Nigeria Airways, to most places in the world. The Nigeria Airways was about the biggest in Africa at the time.

12) Most of the foods we ate were grown or produced in Nigeria.

We were producing all of the above and many more in 1980. Today, we import almost everything. Isn't that alarming?

There lies the source of the terrible exchange rate we are experiencing today and everyone reading this has a critical role to play in reversing this very UGLY trend.

We have been talking about these problems and more for ages.

It is not enough for us to complain about the exchange rate or point out what others are not doing or are failing to do.

The key questions are:

1. What are we producing now?

2. What role are our so-called leaders/politicians of today playing?

We are forever shying away from responsibility whereas it is a stack reality and if we don't deal with it, it won't go away. In fact it will get worse.

Are we ready to deal with it?