NOTHING LEARNED, NOTHING CHANGED: It’s a depressing conclusion but it’s inescapable. And this is it: unless a miracle happens, this column has determined that the Bola Tinubu era would be a flop worse than all the others since 1999. As a keen watcher of the polity, one sees the same old ruinous trickeries that have kept Nigeria down being dusted up by this government and pressed into service with an especial unconscionable gusto.
Just when we thought we had discarded the jejune idea of our elected leaders shuttling the world, supposedly insearch of ‘foreign investors’, Tinubu reintroduces it with a fresh, lascivious fervour. Unperturbed by a most barren 100 days in office, and the excruciating socio-economic conditions he unleashed in his wake, Tinubu staged what is perhaps the most frivolous week-long carnival by any sovereign in a foreign land.
He travelled for six days to New Delhi, India with no fewer than a 50-member entourage comprising new ministers, special advisers and numerous frontline businessmen, ostensibly to secure foreign investment on the sidelines of the G20 Summit. Though Nigeria is not a member of the influential G20 nations, President Tinubu was said to have been invited by President Narendra Modi of India, the host.
A simple video goodwill message would have sufficed.But new ministers and aides who hardly know the location of their offices much more the core functions and policy thrusts of the government were hauled to India in search of investors. Gullible Nigerians have been told $14 billion worth MoUs were signed with Indian investors and some of them are rejoicing.However, numerous troubling questions arise from this Indian jamboree?
What is the cost of this trip? Do we need to burn tens of millions of dollars at this time in this manner? Do other countries go on this type of wild adventure to find investors in an Internet age?We once had Indians in our rail and steel sectors. We only have tales of woes to tell in the aftermath. There’s an unfolding Olam scandal currently.
Olam is one of the major Indian investors in Nigeria currently. Do we need investment experts to determine that India needs investment capital far more than Nigeria; meaning that any investment by Indians outside their shores would be a highly predatory venture. Historically, there’s a long-held notion that Indians hardly invest to add value in host environments.
INVESTMENT, WHOSE INVESTMENT? Since 1999, almost all Nigeria’s presidents and governors have embarked on one investment trip or the other but there’s not a single wheel to show for it. Over time, Nigerians have caught on to the trick that our leaders are ironically, on a money-laundering mission in the guise of chasing investors abroad. Examples abound:
In March last year, Nigerian Governors’ Forum organised an investment meeting in Dubai, UAE. The 36 Governors were billed to be present but about 14 made it.
They reportedly had 74 multinationals bringing $15 billion in investments to Nigeria. But it turned out a ruse, a last minute forex grab scheme by out-going governors.
Several never-do-well Governors were in the team including Aminu Tambuwal (Sokoto); Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia); Kayode Fayemi (Ekiti), Bala Mohammed (Bauchi); Diri Duoye (Bayelsa); Ben Ayade of Cross River, among others. Many of them left their states far poorer than they met it.
Last month Nigerian governors in their dozens were in Kagali, Rwanda for a supposed retreat to get leadership tips from President Paul kagame. Though these trips are sometimes under the auspices of multilateral agencies, our public official have no qualms about blowing public funds (scarce forex) at the slightest pretext. They also have no compunction about shipping cash out of Nigeria. They need be told that we now know better than believing them when they tell us those cock and bull stories about foreign investors.
NO INVESTMENT DESTINATION THIS: How do you woo foreigners to an arid land where long existing investors are bailing out. One of the oldest pharmaceutical companies in Nigeria, GSK evacuated from Nigeria early this year. Not a whimper was uttered by government officials in regret. Their cold reaction and body language suggested “good riddance.” Several other multinationals have bolted to little neighbouring countries like Ghana and Senegal without Nigeria’s officials bating an eyelid. Yet they deign to travel abroad in search of investors.
Of course, the basic enabling environment suitable for business to thrive are starkly absent. Nigeria is among the most terrorised countries in the world. It’s in dire lack of infrastructure; corporate governance rules are obeyed in the breach and corruption is a big, fearsome monster that even the brave would shudder to confront.
So should we grant that our leaders are truly in pursuit of foreign investors, the operating environment is too forbidding for anyone to thrive in.
IS NIGERIA LACKING IN INVESTMENT DOLLARS? Lastly, it has been said that investment dollars are not scarce, but good men and conducive environment are not easy to come by. If our government and leaders are serious, there are enough funds at home to vastly industrialise the country. A state governor on this trip is facing accusation of pocketing statutory funds belonging to local government councils in his state since 2021. This column can confirm that nigh all governors in Nigeria do it. This is why poverty level keeps rising in Nigeria. Nothing trickles down to the rustics.
Another story is told of a shrewd native investor who approached a former governor of Ekiti State to allow him build an airport in the state. It was to cost only about N2 billion then. All he ask for was the design. The governor declined. He instead, borrowed N20 billion eventually left the state an uncompleted airport huge debt burden. The country is littered with such uncompleted mommoth projects, legacies of official graft.
THE WAY OF PRODIGALS: We wager that nothing would come out of this Indian bazaar too. Just the way nothing was reportedly achieved by former President Goodluck Jonathan’s Chinese and Brazilian revels of those days. Jonathan once travelled to Brazil with an entourage of about 116 members and stories flew back home ahead of the group about how they painted the place red. Olusegun Obasanjo boasted that he travelled to 97 countries of the world. And he never travelled light, he loved large retinues like a king! They burnt our forex like unrepentant prodigals.
So like Obasanjo, Jonathan and Buhari before him, Tinubu is doing the wild goose chase already. They can’t sit at home and work. The tens of millions of dollars wasted on this trip could have reformed the maize value chain in Nigeria if Tinubu is minded to work and produce. Currently the poultry sector is in trouble; we still import maize. Do we need Indian investors to help us grow maize in Nigeria?
Now that you know, next time any president or governor tells you he’s travelling abroad to seek investment, tell him to check Google first.
voiceofreason
Feedback: steve.osuji@gmail.com /12.09.23
