AFRICA ARISE! Part 1 --Wakawell
WEST AFRICA ARISE (NIGERIA).
Hello Steemians and fellow Africans! @wakawell is here again with another article, though this is my first lengthy post in #Africa here on steemit. I have a lot of interesting fact to present about African countries, but I will start with my country.
I am from Nigeria a country in West Africa. As a child I heard Nigeria was the giant of Africa. So proud I was, being a Nigerian. Then Nigeria’s economy was booming and everything was going well. Even neighboring countries like Ghana and Cameron depended on us for survival. Now those countries are ahead of our country in terms of economic development. In those days, the Nigerian Naira (NGN) had more economic value than the Ghanaian Cedes. After years of abandoning agriculture and focusing on petroleum products, exporting crude oil and importing goods from other countries, even those that can be produced or manufactured in Nigeria were imported. This later led to the birth of the monster called ‘economic recession’.
Nigeria is blessed with land, raw materials and mineral resources. Most resources are either unused, misused, or mismanaged by government or private bodies of the abundance of the resources and not the utilization of the resources for the economic growth of the country .
When will Nigeria be a developed country?
This is a big question that most senior citizens cannot answer. For a country to develop or be a developed country, it must posses the following attributes;
- FREE FROM CORRUPTION
Before a country can arrive the destination of development, such country must be able to win the war against the menace: ‘corruption'. Transparency and honesty goes a long way in checkmating the level of corruption. If every individual discharge their duties honestly, then there will never be an obstacle on the path of development.
Corruption can be illustrated in this scenario;
‘Mr. Kenneth contests as a Presidential candidate, at the end of the election he emerges the winner. After being sworn in as the President he decides to please the people by fulfilling one or two promises he made to the people during his manifesto. Just two years in office, he becomes intoxicated with the sight of money. He then executes less projects than promised. Fortunately for the people, his tenure comes to an end. Then he will come up again to address the people promising them to complete all he had started in the country; The infrastructural development, youth empowerment, creating job opportunities, constant electricity and so much more.
Luckily, he wins the second time. The first two years in his second term, he becomes very serious about fulfilling his pledges to the people. Then he repeats the same Mondo’s Operandi (Method of Operation), as it was in his first term. Where is some of the money that was donated by friends of the country for her development? Where is the revenue gotten from the nation’s mineral resources? These and many more questions come up on the mind of the masses. Leaders after Mr. Kenneth try and try to solve the problem he created by completing his abandoned projects, and leaving behind the ones they started themselves. Development becomes either; continuous, depleted or terminated in most cases.’
The above scenario illustrates the havoc done by the economic monster called CORRUPTION on Nigeria’s economy.
- FREE FROM INSURGENCY:
Terrorists are monsters that have devoured the lives of many industrious citizens of the country. Sometimes, it may not affect only the citizens but also foreign investors who have legally immigrated into the country for business purposes. As long as there is insurgency in the country, the growth of the economy of that country will suffer stagnation, but if everyone becomes so vigilant and not leaving the security job to the security agencies, Nigeria will be a safe place for both her citizens and we’ll wishers. If a nation is safe, she will attract investors from far and near. - ENABLING ENVIRONMENT FOR INVESTMENT
Land is the most important factor of entrepreneurship. Most times this factor is being made difficult for investors to acquire. Especially when foreign investors fall into the hands of some greedy land owners or most times some citizens will seek to extort money from such establishment instead of seeing the employment opportunity that is made available in the process of establishing the firm.
For instance, an investor will acquire a land for his company’s structure. While erecting the structure, some group of individuals will come writing the inscription ‘STOP WORK' on the wall of the structure with the aim of making the investor pay a development levy decided by them. Most investors have their budget only for the business and plan to have miscellaneous when the company is established and thriving. This will scare away these kind of investors.
It is the duty of Nigerian citizens to rise above all greedy acts and make Nigeria a safe and business enabling environment for private investors both foreign and local.
MY MESSAGE TO NIGERIANS
“Africa is blessed with numerous mineral resources. We will meet up with European countries if we;
• utilize our natural resources,
• fight and win the war against corruption,
• help security agencies wipe out insurgency and create enabling environment for private investors (local and foreign), and above all
• patronize our home made products.
NIGERIA ARISE!
AFRICA ARISE!
I LOVE NIGERIA
I LOVE AFRICA
GOD BLESS NIGERIA
GOD BLESS AFRICA