Yemisi Izuora
Former Minister of Power, Raji Fashola, has called on Nigerians to take advantage of opportunities in the country to make fortune and work harmoniously to develop the country.
Fashola, who is also a former Governor of Lagos State, wondered if people from other countries are living in our country and building prosperous lives and businesses for themselves and their families on our land, why do we the owners of the country not become challenged to look inwards and ask whether we are optimising our opportunities, and further still whether we recognise them.
Fashola, who spoke on “WHY I REMAIN OPTIMISTIC ABOUT NIGERIA,” At the 60th birthday lecture of the Publisher of City People Magazine, Mr. Seye Kehinde, said that Nigeria has given us a brand, and for those who are in the business of Brand Management, this is an asset to work.
“Certainly, if people from other countries chose to live and work in Nigeria, it cannot be anything but a place of possibilities and optimism.
“If a Nwaneri and Saka are playing football for England, an Adeyemi is playing for Germany, an Ugochukwu is playing for Armenia and many of our Nationals are flying the flags of other countries in a world that is capitalizing on immigrant human capital, has the time not come for us to change our game, heal our wounds and re-brand ourselves to keep what is ours and take from those who are not optimizing theirs?” added Fashola.
He said, It is my unshakeable belief that if we put our best foot forward, stop hating ourselves and stop diminishing our brand, some of our neighbours will ask to become states in our country.
After all, many of their economies and social life live off what we provide.
In the economic agglomeration that is ECOWAS, made up of 15 states, we represent roughly up to 40 per cent of the productive capacity, with possibilities for increment.
He argued that Nigeria is the classic case of an enterprise that is too big to fail, and we must stop blaming ethnicity and colonialism because the nations that we currently envy experienced all that and more and they are thriving.
Unlike other nations that are either land locked, lack natural resources and have only people who have prospered with them, we have more.
He questioned, “But before I move further let me ask some of those who valorise countries like Rwanda if they are aware that they have no sea port and import through Tanzania or Burundi.
“They have evolved from near bankruptcy before the 1994 conflict and have moved on from the conflict to nation building.”
He challenged the country on tourism development, saying “As far as Tourism assets and destinations are concerned, how many of us are aware that in our country there are no less than 170 tourist sites and destinations that require either access roads, manpower training and management to become lucrative centres of job creation, enterprise and enormous wealth that help to bridge inequality and expand our economic diversity..
“In the course of my tenure of public service as Minister in the Federal Government, I travelled across the 36 states twice by road, driving averagely twelve hours per day and it afforded me an opportunity to see the beauty and diversity of the land where our home as a people is situated.
“My inspection tours of projects like the Chanchangi Bridge in Taraba State the home of the Jukuns, Bodo Bonny Bridge in the kingdom of the Famous King Jaja of Opobo, reconstruction of damaged transmission power stations in Borno, the home of Shehu El Kanemi of the Borno empire, Oyo-Ogbomoso road, part of the territory of the old Oyo empire to mention a few, simply reminded me that I was treading in the precincts of greatness.
“There is just a lot to unpack which gives me such optimism, that I wish I could bring them before those who seem to think otherwise.”
He urged Nigerians not to give up on the Nigerian brand that has so many opportunities.