I watched a video on Mr Tope Fasua, PhD’s wall (see here https://fb.watch/gYeapSwCmi/). Mr Fasua is an accomplished no-nonsense Economist who pursues matters Nigeriana with a near fanatical fervor.
The video is about Ghana who is finally taking a stand against the EU as the latter was bent on choking the West African nation with condescending, counterintuitive, exploitative and paradoxical trade and environmental terms and conditions.
Ghana, according to the video clip, has now decided not to ship its raw cocoa. It is said to be processing a whopping 80 percent at home. This means that in the coming days, the streets of Ghana will become a mecca of jobs for not only Ghanaians but for young African.
The Ghana response, to my mind, should constitute part of the conversations that followers of candidates Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Atiku Abubakar , Mr. Peter Obi, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, PhD, FNSE, Omoyele Sowore etc. should engage in as a matter of overriding love for country and not just a desire to win, winning of which, I admit is a valid and noble objective.
As a party man whose camp holds a clear and decisive lead in the race towards the presidency, I can only appeal to the president-in-the-trenches to begin to harvest and collate names of men and women with whom he intends to turn around the life and economy of Nigeria!
But even though ABAT stands the brightest chance among the pack, other contenders too should keep in mind that building Nigeria is a collective responsibility. The successor of President Muhammadu Buhari and ALL other presidential hopefuls – all of whom Nigeria has been enormous blessing – shall continue to bear the moral burden of building Nigeria on their shoulders.
They must do it. Otherwise, there is likely to be an ‘otherwise’, and such an ‘otherwise’ will touch the elites at home and on the farmstead.
The anticipated fallout is a no-brainer, as matter of data and sociology. The population is young, impatient – and rightly so, and adventurous. They, according to the NBS, are multi-dimensionally poor and on the closest proximity to the very limits.
I cannot speak for the generations before me, but I know that my own generation wants results. We want manufacturing. We want homegrown infrastructure. We want devolution of powers. We want resource control. We want Ajaokuta to work. We want organizations to be socially responsible.
We want to have our pride. And whoever the Nigerian people graciously commit their mandate must be ready to start off with a ready army of patriotic elements who are proven to be competent and compassionate, and not the usual thieving thieves, not stooges whose stock in trade is tricking their principals into adopting toxic and unworkable policies!
I salute Dr Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for his courage and sense of national pride. Africa is proud of you.
For there certainly can be no rocket science in crushing cocoa beans, adding some ounces of sugar and coagulating it into an edible bar. What is there? What on earth and beneath the sea can be there that we won’t find in one, two, three or four or ten years?
– Oshaloto Tade is a researcher. He Holds a Master of strategic communication and an MSc in community relations degrees from Ahmadu Bello University and Ajayi Crowther University respectively. He is a trained policy communication specialist from – International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
He currently serves as Senior Special Assistant on Grassroots Sensitization in the government of Dr Yahaya Bello of Kogi State
