10
BUSINESS DAY
www.businessday.ng
www.facebook.com/businessdayng
@businessDayNG
comment
@Businessdayng
Thursday 14 March 2019
comment is free
Send 800word comments to comment@businessday.ng
Okey and Nigeria’s struggle to solve a perennial problem
Oluseun Onigbinde
I
n the distribution of Nigeria’s patronage, politicians consider certain ministries or agencies juicier than others. This “juice factor” is usually connected to how much rent or contracting occurs within the space. This is why NNPC, Customs, FIRS, CBN, Ministry of Finance, Power and Works Ministry are the ready places that you see average politicians and bureaucrats warm up to. There are also silent ones like TETFUND, NDDC and Ministry of Petroleum. Not forgetting the National Security Adviser with not only huge capital budgets but opaque spending. However, does that really matter? In the line of things, are we not meant to pay attention to planning and policy spaces such as Ministry of Planning, Ministry of Trade and Investment and others who mainly set policy objectives? I have been paying a bit of attention to the ideas of Okey Enelamah of the Ministry of Trade and Investment, who came into government with a great record of success in the private equity industry. I must admit that it took a while to fully understand what he was up to; we are all witnesses to President Buhari’s ability at enlisting many “ghost ministers” only seen in newspaper articles, their impact hardly felt. In this space, Okey Enelamah, who leads one of the most important Ministries
in Nigeria, seems to stand out. Let us review what he has been up to. I like the idea of Made in the Nigerian Exports known as “Project MINE”. In a recent article, I made it clear that Nigeria keeps basking in small numbers that are heavily dependent on oil. 95% of Nigerian export value is still tied to oil, putting the Nigerian currency value in an unstable mode. A quick review of Nigerian export numbers which rose from $44bn in 2017 to $62bn in 2018, was still dependent on the upswing in oil prices. Compared to South Africa with exports of $103bn with a more diversified portfolio and a smaller population, Nigeria cannot fix its competitiveness challenges unless it asks itself: What am I going to sell to the world? However, as usual with lofty ideas in Nigeria, Project MINE is facing challenges as the Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority (NEPZA) is resisting the transfer of N14.38bn into a Special Purpose Vehicle known as Nigeria Special Economic Zones Company (NISEZCO). Under the Project MINE is the creation of the Special Economic Zones (SEZs), a model that India has rightly used to scale its infrastructure challenges, aimed at boosting exports. The federal government is raising $500m in equity in the next few years and it has identified Enyimba Economic City, Funtua Cotton Cluster, Lekki Free Trade Zone as the early investments. These are good ideas and the huge goal to “Increase and diversify foreign exchange earnings to at least US$30bn annually by 2025, by increasing manufacturing sector exports” is welcome. Side-stepping the bureaucracy might be a good short-term reprieve to achieve its aims and this might have a lasting effect on the implementation. However, as seen in the debilitating condition of Agbara Industrial Area,
starting out such projects with its sparkling facilities is great but the big questions remain: how is it structured for maintenance? How does it not become just another idea ground to extinction by bureaucracy? That Nigerian government is looking for another N15bn to revitalize its Kano and Calabar export processing zones is an evidence of its poor perennial maintenance culture. Diversifying Nigeria’s export base which is interlinked with jobs, economic growth and currency stability is an existential challenge for Nigeria. Also linked to the export growth plan is the recent $30bn export financing deal that Nigeria signed with African Export-Import Bank, Africa Finance Corp., the African Development Bank, Bank of Industry and Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority. While the details are still sketchy, Nigeria needs to do more to support entities interested in manufactured exports out of Nigeria. This is tied to the entire competitiveness process of business registration, infrastructure for the movement of goods, quick port services and standardization of agencies. The route to making a country globally competitive forces it to raise its standard of service delivery. This is why I believe that Nigeria needs to be more export-growth oriented than reducing imports. Using limited imports to conserve foreign currency does not make a Nigeria immune from oil price swings, only a diversified exports base will do it. I have also noticed an improvement in Nigeria Trademark Registration but the process needs to be more decentralized and faster. Wilbur and Orville Wright had it easier registering their patent and trademark in 1906 than what exists in Nigeria today. We have to do more, but not for trademark registration alone but in improving our human
‘
A keener look into thriving economies shows that their foundations are built on people, not just on the size of their population, but turning them into assets
capital development as a nation. No matter how lofty the ideas of boosting our exports might sound, without investment in the human capital, it will always come short. Nigeria has a huge gap in technical and adaptive skills, creating challenges for manufacturing entities to find the right personnel. A keener look into thriving economies shows that their foundations are built on people, not just on the size of their population, but turning them into assets. This is what we systematically destroyed. We did not turn our own citizens into assets, losing the opportunity to understand that the unit of diversification lies in optimizing human capital within societies that create opportunities to allow citizens to thrive. A look at economies staying ahead and diversifying apace shows their focus on the “Knowledge Economies”. They continue to succeed because they prioritize people over politics. If President Buhari needs to keep a few of his ministers for his second term, Enelamah should get a shout. Nigeria currently has a diversified economic base but its foreign currency swings, public revenues and exports are tightly linked to oil. This is an anomaly that started since oil boo period in 1973 and each administration has failed to make a significant dent. It will be good to see where the Special Economic Zones (SEZs) anchor and the value they bring in another four years. This might be a chance to write a legacy in how Nigeria escaped a mono-product economy. Will the country hit it or miss it? The answer to this is beyond Enelamah as other agencies of government also have a crucial role in this huge task but he has re-started an important conversation. Oluseun Onigbinde is the co-Founder of BudgIT and currently an Obama Foundation Scholar at Columbia University, New York
Rev. (Dr.) S. T. Ola Akande: A life of grace, passion and goodness
Tunji Olaopa
W
hen a man becomes nonagenarian, such a man already embodies a legacy. Yet, a legacy is never an unqualified good. There are several who have passed through this world, and we hope to never ever see them again. And yet, there are those who are still alive and kicking, and we keep praying and hoping to have them with us forever. These kinds of people embody the legacy of a life well-spent. For Paul Tsongas, “We are a continuum. Just as we reach back to our ancestors for our fundamental values, so we, as guardians of that legacy, must reach ahead to our children and their children. And we do so with a sense of sacredness in that reaching.” There is no one who has come in contact with Reverend Samuel Titilola Oladele Akande—father, husband, pastor, teacher, author, educationist, Doctor of Philosophy, die-hard Baptist and grand nonagenarian—who will not immediately recognize that he or she is standing in the presence of an embodied legacy divinely scripted and delivered to the world by the Almighty. Papa Akande is truly a continuum whose very life reaches out and deep into the hoary past
of not only those who carried Christian values and the torch of Christ, but also those ancestors that embodied the best experiential insights the Yoruba culture could teach. This is just one of the reasons why it is a living blessing to have the 93 old Papa with us still, and to keep joyously celebrating every year that meets him on earth. I am especially gratified that I could appropriate Rev. Akande by an intimate kinship and excellence trajectory that ties both us, as well asRev. David AibinuOlaopa, Rev. T. A. Adejumobi, Dr. J. A. Adegbite, Prof. OjetunjiAboyade,Prof. E. LatundeOdeku and so many illustrious others, to Aawe—that small town of small people with mighty vision. I once had the good fortune, indeed one out of many, of benefitting from this trajectory of excellence. I had attended an interview at Niko Engineering Co. Ltd. owned by the late Eruwa-born billionaire, Chief AdeseunOgundoyin, to whom I was recommended for a job as his Research Assistant. This was far back at a time when I was still struggling to earn a living. I was eventually appointed as General Manager (Corporate Services). What was remarkable and a testament to how much that generation upheld meritocracy, was that Chief Ogundoyin later sent for me when the report of my sterling performance at the interview got to his desk. The first name that got out of his mouth was Rev. (Dr.) Ola Akande whom he regarded as a mentor by dint of his deep theological scholarship and how the grace upon his ministry greatly inspired his life, his business and his unquenchable thirst for knowledge as a Baptist and an intellectualentrepreneur in his own right. “I shouldn’t really have been surprised when I heard that you are also Aawe-born, as virtually all my Aawe friends I have are great minds and accomplished professionals” he concluded. Indeed, Reverend S. T. Ola Akande is a tow-
ering figure and exemplar of all that the Aawe parents invested in their children. Of course, when on March 31st 1926, Papa Daniel Oladele Akande and Mama Susannah Ayannihun gave birth to a wailing little lad, no comet blazed the sky to herald the arrival of a star. But both of them made a decision to invest in him the best of education they could afford, and the best of Christian upbringing they could inculcate in the impressionable mind of an eager boy. This is a life that reaches very deep into the heart of humanity and deeper still into the heart of God.It is indeed a life that is solidly comforted and supported by the everlasting love of a woman—Mama Comfort OlalonpeKehinde. A woman that stays with one for all of one’s life as pillar and embodiment of virtues as mama, now 87, is the diadem of one’s life. They have been together since 1956 when they got married. From an early age, and through the dedication of his parents, Papa Ola Akande had been connected with the Baptist Mission. While serving as a teacher at a Baptist school in Ghana in 1949, God started tugging at his young and yearning heart. Once Baba made up his mind to answer the call of God and enrolled in the Nigerian Baptist Theological Seminary at Ogbomoso in 1952, he set his face to a lifelong trajectory of educational and Christian service that has been without blemish. Pastor Ola Akande made a huge deal out of his ministry. For him, what is worth doing at all is worth doing well. And right from the onset when he took up the pastoral responsibility, he also cultivated a perspective that is different because it was founded on a different understanding of the values that Christ represents. Pastor Akande began to immediately make a good impression with his sermons (and of course laced with his impressionable Oueen’s English). These were
always well-composed, deeply researched, and well-delivered but fiery sermons that hit right to the hearts of evil and wrongdoing. These were messages I would leave Aawetown very early on Sunday mornings to listen to at OritaMefa Baptist Church, Ibadan. Listening to his sermons planted the seed of the thirst for a deeper understanding of the Scripture that led to my earning a Diploma in Christian Theology. I am not sure I am the only one that was so deeply inspired to learn more. I am definitely also not the only one that Baba’s sermons castigated. From the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Lagos to OritaMefa Baptist Church, Baba Akande was the scourge of those who would not be single-minded intheir worship. He takes Christ’s admonition in Rev. 3:15 seriously: “I know your deeds, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish you were either one or the other!” And so, those who wished to have one leg in cults and fraternities and another in Christ, Papa combatted from the pulpit, and at great danger to his life. But it was a confrontation that was tinged with Christ’s compassion. It was this different spirit that enabled him recalled some OgboniFraternity members that the church had excommunicated. He trusted that the Word of God has the power, more than excommunication, to reach deep into their hearts. That different Christological perspective worked; those members eventually openly renounced their Ogboni membership and became hot, as Christ hoped they would. Note: The rest of this article continues in the online edition of Business Day @https://businessday.ng Prof. Tunji Olaopa, retired Federal Permanent Secretary & Professor of Public Administration. tolaopa2003@gmail.com, tolaopa@isgpp.com.ng