Extra: Nigerian Politicians Smoking
Indian (Nigerian) Hemp
By
Okechukwu E. Asia
Boston, MA, USA
ifyandokey@yahoo.com
How I wish that what Nigerian politicians
were smoking is Indian hemp, which would have meant that Nigeria is
exporting $50 Billion per year in computer chips, have advanced
industrial base, nuclear weapons, world-class universities and colleges,
technological advancement, steady economic growth, incorruptible legal
system, corrupt-free society, good health care system, healthy
democratic and civil society and rich in moral values.
There is nothing Indian in what they are
smoking now. It is very obvious that what they smoke is a lot of
Nigerian mixtures. Its nutrition fact include: Failed political system,
corrupt president and aides, corrupt and shameless senators, illiterate
governors, failed education system, armed banditry and government
assassinations, crumbled infrastructures, ego massage party officers,
presidential rudeness and foolishness, ethnic hatred, military and
police brutality, kill n’ whack, lack of health care system,
substandard hospitals, nepotism, institutional indiscipline, endemic and
epidemic diseases, and the list goes on.
Last week, I was discussing with my Indian
friend who had just graduated from Boston University with a M.Sc., about
the issue of the developing countries and why he is going back to India
after spending only five years in the United States. He looked at me and
said, “You should go back to your country and struggle there with
dignity.” He has finished shipping some of his properties and his family
back to India. He said that there is this quiet competition among
nations and what I have learned in my lifetime would be more useful if I
apply them to the benefit of my country in which my children and
relatives will be primary beneficiaries. The western countries are
running out of human resources, the little they have are either lazy or
unable to compete in the real world, so they employ the tactics of
encouraging brain-drain immigration which the developing countries has
fallen victims.
The lure of the so-called higher wage jobs
is nothing but a systematic connotation to encourage professionals in
developing countries to abandon their homelands and emigrate to the west
and be whitewashed into believing that the west is superior and you are
one of us. Are you truly one of them? He asked. You will earn their
(west) respect if your country today became an economic power and
resisted their heavy handedness in convincing you to depend solely on
their finished products. You will earn their respect when most citizens
of your country are not interested in taking vacations to a foreign
country, and they will be forced to ease their restriction on their visa
protocols.
He told me, the world today is more like a
soccer competition, where many teams compete for titles and superiority;
half or your whole team should not abandon their team and joined other
teams because they are not doing well presently. When you do this you
not only abandon your own team but your supporters and you loose your
respect. Developing countries have always been encouraged to abandon
their countries and immigrate to foreign lands. In the process you
endanger your children’s ability to speak your language, understand your
culture, and the constant humiliation that follows.
While Nigeria is heading to doomsday and
receding into fourth world, India is cruising into the first world club.
Every aspect of India’s economy today is active and producing resource
necessary to national development. While in Nigeria except for oil
sector, the rest are either abandoned or doomed.
A look at India’s export activities over
the last four years made me wondered how long more must we wait for
Nigerian politicians to get their acts together. India exports more than
$34 billion worth of diamonds and jewelry representing 29.5% of world
market; Iron and steel $12 billion (5.16%) of world market share;
textiles $34 billion (25%) of world market; organic and inorganic
chemicals more than $25 billion (15%) of world market share; engineering
and machinery including electrical machinery $51 billion (21%) of world
market share; vehicles and parts $40 billion (8%) of world market share.
(Source: India Trade Mission and U.S Department of Commerce,
Washington, DC). And where did Nigeria factor in, in all these
juicy economic growth? – Zip. Nigeria only “manufactures” crude oil.
This crude oil thing has been the source of our failures.
From the above figures, it is obvious that India is aggressively
challenging the United States in foreign direct investments and could be
a “bigger ground story than China over the long run.” (Goldman Sachs
report: Global Economic paper No. 109). The report further predicted
that India is better placed than China for future growth. Slowly but
steadily, India will overtake China. Reacting to his experience in
India, Stephen Roach of Morgan Stanley financial said “ I was blown away
by what I saw on my first trip to India. After decades of stop and go,
the critical mass of a new approach to Indian economic development now
appears to have been attained. India has a well-developed banking
system, vibrant capital markets and a new generation of indigenous
world-class companies.” In another report by Jonathan Power from
International Herald Tribune wrote in May 7, 2004 edition that “India
has created world-class companies that can compete with the best in the
west, often on the cutting edge of software, pharmaceuticals and
biotechnology.”
The Far Eastern Economic Review of April 15, 2004 described Indian
economic wonders as an “eye-popping 10.4% GDP growth in the last quarter
has excited hopes that India will become the next China. India now looks
better than China. India’s growth model promises more stable,
sustainable expansion and bigger returns for investors than China.
Eventually India will overtake China in growth and per-capita output.”
And how is Nigeria doing in terms of economic growth and infrastructure
development? Our politicians have buried our progress both individually
and collectively in official corruption beginning with Mr. President
himself, Mr. Olusegun Obasanjo through his lieutenants and political
appointees down to classroom teachers. Nigeria’s economic growth and
exports is 419 letters. This writer receives more than one hundred of
them each week. And as long as we, Nigerians, continue to accept and
tole rate the wicked behaviors of our politicians there will be no end
to our sufferings.
It is clear that what Nigerian politicians are smoking has nothing
Indian in it. It’s all crappy Nigerian mixture. How I wish!
Okechukwu E. Asia
Boston, MA, USA
ifyandokey@yahoo.com