Twenty five years ago, I was like many of you, fresh from the National Youth Service Corp; after graduating from the University of Benin and the Nigerian Law School.
I had turned down an opportunity to study abroad in 1976 because the promise of Nigeria excited me. Although I never dreamt of being in politics, not to talk of being a Governor, I always argued that the place of my birth, where I was a citizen, was the best place where I could be anything I wanted to be without facing any discrimination.
For me, my belief about the promise of Nigeria remains undying even if I admit that the Nigeria I dream about has not yet materialised. Twenty five years ago in 1989, there was unemployment in Nigeria but I still got a job. I did not need my father to get one for me although he tried and I refused the offer.
The simple reason was that the economy was better, there were electricity outages but not for 2 days or weeks or months unless there was a major fault. Textile mills like Aswani were still producing, dry cell batteries like Berec were being produced in Isolo. Seat belts, brake pads and batteries for cars were being produced in Nigeria. People complained then, but on reflection those days now seem like a paradise lost.
My monthly salary in 1990 was N1,400 and when I left paid employment it was N2,245. During all of this I rented a flat, bought a second-hand car from my uncle for N5,000, which was later stolen, and I got married. My employers helped me with my first rent to pay for my flat for two years in advance at N16,000 and it was the last rent anybody paid for me. By the time my first child was on the way I knew that I could not support a family of 3 (THREE) on the salary from paid employment. I moved on to a partnership of self-employment which itself was not easy. I did not earn a salary for the first 6 (SIX) months, because the practice earned just enough to pay bills and junior staff. My wife supported the family but I never stopped believing, I never stopped working hard and I never sought short cuts to making money. As they say, all is now history. But it is important for me to start my discussion here because I know how it feels fresh from school, looking at the promise of a good life, a new car, your own flat, good clothes and all the legitimate expectations of young people.
Millions of people like you have run away to other countries only to find out that life there is tougher. You may get a job, but without papers and a work permit, you will do menial work, you will almost slave and you will barely find enough to survive. Perhaps things would have been different if it was not so easy to run away from our problem. Those who survived abroad have been some of our best human resource. Think what we have lost in terms of our most valuable resource, our human capital. Think what we could have built if we did not escape, to another land. Where would we have escaped to if those people in those foreign countries had run away from their own problems? We are gradually becoming a nation of refugees, and this must stop.
This is the context and background with which I think you should discuss the theme of the conference which is “A New Nigeria by New Nigerians.”
So the question I think we should ask is this: - What does a New Nigeria mean to you and I?
I know that there will be different answers if we all answered one by one.
That indeed is to be expected. We are different in height, in age, in weight, in our thinking, in our abilities, our skills and our professions.
Nevertheless, I think that given our realities today, it is possible to propose a broad framework which can allow all our diverse expectations to be met, and even if we cannot agree on all, I feel confident that we can agree on most.
I think that a New Nigeria should be a safer and more secure Nigeria. Where children will not be kidnapped, adults bombed out of existence and where human life can be expected to last its fullest tenure.
I think a New Nigeria should be a better governed Nigeria - where Government accounts for resources, and billions of dollars do not go missing.
I think that a New Nigeria should be one in which hundreds of millions of dollars of public funds is not lost to boyfriends and girlfriends.
I think that a New Nigeria will be one where Nigeria’s money was used to build power plants, roads and bridges, refineries, schools and health facilities to mention a few.
I think that a New Nigeria should be one where we agree that our people are the most important asset that we can have. I think that we can all agree that, without a well-developed people, all other resources will have no value.
It seems to me that a New Nigeria must therefore ensure that the production of its most important asset, which starts at child birth, does not have problems like infant and maternal mortality where the baby or the mother or both die.
I believe that it is possible for a New Nigeria to develop realistic health practices, institutions and personnel that put an end to things like infant and maternal mortality and ensure a life expectancy that is not less than 70 years to start.
I think a New Nigeria must equip its human resource with the necessary skills in order to survive by guaranteeing access to basic education with competitive quality, where no child is left behind.
I think that a New Nigeria must commit to using its human capital for economic development, to build the foundations that drive a modern economy like electricity, fuel, roads, airports, seaports, agriculture and those things that make us independent and self-assured.
I think a New Nigeria should be one in which we can produce a lot of things and say those important 3 (THREE) words – Made in Nigeria.
I think a New Nigeria would be one in which ethnicity, tribe or religion do not stand in your way of getting access to land for business, shelter, farming or any other use.
The New Nigeria must democratise access to the country’s natural resources, on the basis of competitive and productive criteria, and eliminate rent seeking that has undermined our extractive mineral sector.
I also think that a New Nigeria must be built from within, a Nigeria that knows how many people are its citizens through the use of technology to collate the data, a Nigeria that is self-assured, able to defend itself, a Nigeria that chooses friends and declines relationships on the basis of what is in Nigeria’s best interest and not what is in the African interest.
I think a New Nigeria in the global community is one that is strong at home and therefore respected abroad. Do these six broad definitions come near your idea of a New Nigeria?
The next question is who are the New Nigerians?
I think it is first those who agree on the New Nigeria. I think it is also generational.
At 20-30 years, many of you are more likely to live for another 50 years and more, and if you remember that our New Nigeria plans to ensure a minimum life expectancy of at least 70 years, that possibility is in your own hands to actualise.
Clearly your own stake is more than mine. If you are able to build that New Nigeria for yourselves, I am sure that you will make space for me, my age mates and those who are older than me in your own Nigeria.
But let me be clear, that the New Nigeria will profit enormously from the energetic, adventurous and can-do spirit of your generation, with the guidance and experience of my generation and those ahead of me. It is a synergy that must be well woven along a common belief of what the roles are and who does what. In order to secure Nigeria, we cannot send our old and infirm to lead our wars. It is the young and the strongest who must fight to protect and secure us.
What our Government needs to do most is to provide services. My experience in Lagos is that I have provided direction and allowed 30-40 year olds to build things and do the hard work.
When Ebola came calling it was our young health workers, with the guidance of more experienced leaders in the ministries who fought the war.
Our Agricultural renaissance, our Traffic management, Lagos Homes, Street Lighting, Budget preparations, LASRRA and many services such as PPP office, Office of Transformation, Facility Management are being run by young men and women between the ages of 30 – 44. They are the New Nigerians. I became Chief-Of-Staff at 39 and Governor at 44.
So Ladies and Gentlemen, the New Nigeria will be built by you – the New Nigerians.
Let me share with you something I got from a group called Rescue Nigeria Group (RNG). Part of it reads as follows:
“WHERE DID WE GO WRONG? WAKE UP NIGERIAN YOUTHS. Awolowo was (37), Akintola (36), Ahmadu Bello (36), Balewa (34), Okotie-Eboh (27) and Enahoro (27) when they led the struggle for independence after the death of Macaulay. Only Zik was 42 at the time.”
These men in the late Fifties and Sixties got involved. They spoke up and they mobilised against an oppressive and very powerful colonial Government.
They were harassed, they were arrested, they were tried and they were jailed. They did not burn houses, cars or assault innocent citizens. They just built an indomitable spirit that refused to give up, in the face of tyranny and oppression.
In the end they prevailed. They built the New Nigeria of the early Sixties and Seventies. Building a New Nigeria is not about violence, it is about resisting injustice, corruption and impunity.
So being a New Nigerian starts with getting involved. Building the New Nigeria does not start and end with Government. Government policies and actions are important because they will shape what happens like lending/borrowing rate, import duty, Foreign Exchange rate, interest rate, power supply etc.
However, the private sector is where the real energies of growth and opportunities can be unleashed.