Nigeria Will Rise Up Again By Pat Utomi

New Dawn for Nigeria?
Fifty years of nationhood, a golden moment to behold. A time of jubilee. But the land is somber. It seems the celebration is for and by a powerful few. In most of Nigeria it is just another day. But we need not despair. In spite of how things look, the signals are actually encouraging, the omens good and the prospects bought. Nigeria will rise up again and the labours of our heroes past will not be in vain.
It is easy to be despondent when you are unemployed as many of our youth are, angry when your relative has been kidnapped for no just cause or you are in debt or unable to find finance for this great small business idea that will make the misery index not an experience lived but a story of the lot of abstract personages. I have struggled to contain the emotion of personal displeasure of being a victim in many of the games that leave Nigeria prostrate, and to, as objectively as is possible for a human, there being no such thing as complete objectivity in these matters, to immerse myself in the data.
The growth numbers of different economic institutions at home and abroad, the Failed States index, the Jobless Growth study of the World Bank; the Generation Next report, the Newsweek report on the misery centres of the planet in which only Burkina Faso ranked worse than Oil rich Nigeria; and I come away greatly encouraged that Nigeria will rise up again and be paradise dreamt of in 1960.
All things considered, as one European Ambassador to Nigeria who served in China said to me recently, Nigeria keeps reminding him of China 15 – 20 years ago when he wrote reports about the likelihood of China’s take off and people at the home office politely filed away his reports. I can feel it in my bones that Nigeria is set to explode unto the global scene with outstanding economic growth, a new sense of pride and commitment to its natural leadership role in Africa.
As I review things, I see a huge population living abroad, broadening skills and supporting relatives in a way that has made for the strong domestic demand that drives above the premium annual GDP growth rates; combine that with the Youth population that can yield massive demographic dividends as our democratic effort begins to produce leaders whose objective is advance of the common good, not the pleasures of power, and the pillage of the commonwealth. I can project growth that makes China look like modest accomplishment. I know, therefore in my heart that Nigeria will rise up again.
Indeed I think it self-evident that if our elite can discover its mission and decide in the Franz Fanon sense not to betray it, that we will go from de – industrialization in which manufacturing collapsed from 13 per cent of GDP to less than 3 per cent of GDPs to one in which our factor endowment yields value chains into global markets where we are extremely competitive creating millions of quality jobs. Here I pay tribute already to such initiatives by people like Pedro Egbe in Oil and Gas in the Niger Delta but expect same for Gum – Arabic and Chemical Industry corridors in the North West, Food Processing in the North Central and Rubber in the South West. Surely Nigeria will rise up again.
It is not by accident that I fell in love with a song and appropriated it is my personal anthem.
Nigeria will rise up again, Nigeria will rise up again, (twice)
God will heal our land, restore us anew,
Nigeria will rise up again.
But it will rise not in the acrimony of self first in search of personal comfort-zones. It will rise in the realization that “I am because we are”, and that all can work together for a win – win outcome. Nigeria seems like a crippled giant because of a zero – sum mentality. We can all win if we work together. The trouble with the speed of the spirit of Nigeria soaring in flight remains a challenged middle class too wrapped in the pursuit of individual comfort zone that they forget that “ I am because we are”. The Nigerian spirit in ascent has to draw strength from new thinking that gives up the zero – sum mindset in which someone else’s success is seen as the loss of another. A win – win logic in which we discover the mission of our generation and collaborate in its pursuit will quickly see Nigeria rise again, a new set of values, replace this present times of a collapse of culture. The urgency of now is getting all to work together for advance of the common good rather the dominant way of plotting the end of the dream of your neighbour as assurance of your victory, Nigeria will rise up again.
As we celebrate 50 years of Independence and we seem separated between those in power and positions of privilege who celebrate and most of the rest are left wondering what is going on, a sense for the possibilities which profit all, especially as it is clear the present modus vivendi is not sustainable, should bridge the imagined divides between stakeholders, that Nigeria may rise up again. Surely we can overcome the many injustices that mark Nigerian history and God will heal our land that Nigeria may rise up again. The peace and prosperity symbolised by our flag should rally all to a common vision so that Nigeria will rise up again.
• Utomi, Political Economist, Professor of Entrepreneurship, and Business Angel was candidate for President in 2007.