EDITORIAL: After The Trips

PRESIDENT Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu has been on a roadshow selling the immense propentites of the Nigerian Market.

He has positioned himself as the country’s Chief Marketing Officer, this is a commendable departure from lethargic interpretation of the role of the President. Positive signals have come from his roadshow in India and New York.

India saw ledges of fourteen billion dollars worth of potential direct foreign investment. In New York, the president rang the bell of the New York Stock Exchange and was in dealmaking mode in his interaction with assorted business groups and associations. All very well and good.

However reservations not criticism about what has been largely a positive excursion, there is a school of thought that the revamping should be from home. Often sighted is the position of the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo during elections that preceded the ushering of the Aecond Republic in 1979.

The avatar noted during a press conference that if elected as President of the federation, he will neither go out nor receive visitors in the first two years of is tenure while he is busy reconstructing the foundation of a house.

Nigeria still suffers from glaring foundational defects decades after Chief Awolowo’s observation to attract and retain the right type of investments,  Nigeria must sort out its institutional deficits otherwise, it would be attracting the wrong sort of people who are not investors but fly-by-night operators and vulture capitalists.

Without strong independent institutions, the country will never attract the quantum of investment desperately needed; a good example is the ongoing painful debacle is the operations of the Central Bank of Nigeria whose inability to stick to its core mandate of price stability has triggered a currency crisis.

The crisis would have been avoided if the Central Bank had jealously guided its operational independent and if very crucially the National Assembly had done diligent oversight work.

The institutional deficit which cuts right across the board must be corrected. Nigeria is competing for investment with scores of other countries, furthermore, special attention must be given to the enhancement of internal capital, local capital is vital and must be strengthened.

There must be renewed emphasis on the Ease of Doing Business, ending multiple taxation, and promoting innovation and fair competition. 

India for example has shown that cutting red tape leads to a more dynamic economy.  Brazil by continuously capitalizing BENDES BEHEMOTH sustainable finance bank as not only depended indigenous capital but unleash Brazilian works class private companies. Furthermore, it is important to build our basic industries such as Iron and Steel, Machine Tools, etc. A nation without basic industries can not be taking as a serious modern states.

The President excursion abroad has been positive cut we must now take pause and concentrate on the huddles at home. We must painfully realised that Nigeria is far from meeting the standards of a modern nation state. These standard have to be met for the country to be competitive in the modern globalised  world. For example must now emphasizlse exports to survive.

However, we can not export competitively if we do have internationally competitive ports and supporting institutions. The searchlight must now beamed at the deficits and stumbling blocks at home which is acting as a break in sustainable development.