Nigeria's Magical Economy

An American was invited to help plan our Economy, without being given

Data. He did and he later made it the title of a book: planning without Data.

Someone said that Philosophy is what you study when you want to increase your ignorance. I am yet to understand why children are shown magical films.

I also like to understand how some people earn low salaries and build houses. The word low is subjective but can someone build a house on a salary of #30,000 a month?

Many are the jobs that pay below the Nigerian minimum wage and you wonder how the workers survive. It really interests me and the findings are revealing.

However, those who do magic by doing wonders on low salaries are the real magicians. To help their trade, they sell their consciences to the devil.

They are the petrol attendants who fleece motorists. Lecturers who extort students. Teachers who sell marks and mastermind examination malpractices. Customs men at the borders, policemen, gatemen, clerks and secretaries and office assistants.

Can you believe there was a time when street hawkers were boasting of being able to buy exotic cars. That was before it was discovered that they were ferrying guns for robbers.

The above scenario make up the magic wand of the Nigerian Economy. Popular brands abroad, suffer from ambush marketing. In Nigeria they suffer from counterfeiting of their products.

This explains why breweries and other manufacturers keep modifying their containers.

Our governments of gluttons as functionaries think with their greed leaving the people with the Hobson's choice of following suit.

In other climes, to get to leadership positions, you build your profile, in Nigeria you amass wealth and then apply financial muscle to get noticed.

This explains why government officials glory in personal possession and not life changing legacies like the litany of Jakande facilities in Lagos after the man left Office as governor in 1983.

You begin to wonder if Lagos had no governors after him or the man exhausted all there was to achieve. No. It is just that being in power was the priority of those who would have followed in his footsteps.

Nigeria can achieve it's potentials if we plan more and wish less.