POSITIVE NIGERIA INTERNATIONAL MESSAGE TO HIS EXCELLENCY, THE EXECUTIVE PRESIDENT OF NIGERIA AND COMMANDER IN CHIEF ALHAJI UMARU MUSA YAR’ADUA GCON ...

,It gives Positive Nigeria International great pleasure to write your Excellency a few months after our great country celebrated ten (10) complete years of uninterrupted democracy. This is indeed the longest reign of democracy we have had so far.

In spite of this feat, there is great dissatisfaction by the average Nigerian with the current state of Nigeria. It appears democracy so far has not yet met with the people’s expectations.

We must at this point commend your seven (7) point agenda and Vision 202020 for our dear nation Nigeria. Also the amnesty you granted the Niger Delta militants is very laudable because it serves as a huge step towards resolving the deprivation and neglect of the communities providing oil to our nation.

The problems of Nigeria are beyond mismanagement of natural resources. The present loss of human resources is even more alarming. Since 1990, Africa has been losing 20ꯠ professionals annually. Today, over 300ꯠ professionals from Africa reside outside Africa.

“In 25 years, Africa will be empty of brains.” That dire warning, from Dr Lalla Ben Barka of the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), reflects the growing alarm over Africa’s increasing exodus of human capital. In light of a dwindling professional sector, African institutions are increasingly dependent on foreign expertise. To fill the human resource gap created by brain drain, Africa employs up to 150ꯠ expatriate professionals at a cost of US$4 billion a year.

This continuous outflow of skilled labour contributes to a widening gap in science and technology between Africa and other continents. Africa’s share of global scientific output has fallen from 0.5 in the mid-1980s to 0.3% in the mid-1990s. Sadly, there are more African scientists and engineers in the USA than in the entire continent.

The need to explore alternatives to Brain Drain is a National emergency. Aside from engaging in “Brain Train”, one potential solution to Africa’s brain drain is virtual participation. Virtual participation is participation in nation-building without physical relocation. It also shows promise as a means to engage the African Diaspora in development efforts. Mercy Brown of the University of Cape Town notes that virtual participation “… sees the brain drain not as a loss but a potential gain… Highly skilled expatriates are seen as a pool of potentially useful human resources for the country of origin… the challenge is to mobilize these brains.” We sincerely hope that the Nigerian government under your leadership would positively consider this recommendation.

In 2003, Western union announced that transfers via Western Union to Nigeria had averaged about $3 billion per annum for the past seven years. A significant portion of these inflows are remittances from the Nigerians in the Diaspora. The need to effectively engage them in nation building cannot be over emphasized as our country is in dire need of the huge investments that can come through them. Surveys have proven that 90% of Africans in the Diaspora are proud of their home continent. It’s time we begin to engage them in Nation building.

In Nigeria today, Youths are not typically conceived of as productive and constructive social actors, but rather as potential sources of political disruption, delinquency and criminality. Yet, pre-independence social and political movements were often led by young people who defined themselves as 'youth' to provide dynamic support to the leadership of the freedom and independence movements or in opposition to their elders who were supposedly content to be cronies of the colonial regimes. Some political parties were explicitly organized around youth.

Whilst youth has become a global issue, the situation of youth in Africa- characterized by embarrassingly high levels of unemployment and underemployment, exodus to other continents, involvement in violent political and social conflicts, etc. - is critical and requires strategic regional and National action.

Nigeria and Africa needs re-orientation as a matter of urgency, the past ideals of amassing wealth through looting public funds and other vices must be seen as an evil of the past. We must become content as long as we have shelter, clothing, food, education and health care. Enough of unnecessary greed!

If this is not changed, true leadership would never be found. The truth is that a leader does not have to be rich even after leaving office his satisfaction should be that his plans and goals for his country were achieved. Several world leaders like Abraham Lincoln, Nelson Mandela, Winston Churchill etc after leaving office were not the richest people in their country, as a matter of fact they had not amassed wealth for themselves rather they had worked hard to establish their respective countries politically, economically, financially and most importantly they left legacies that the rest of the world still looks unto.

We need a new breed of Africans with this orientation, in view of the fact that the greatest problem in Africa has never been the absence of money but the absence of visionary and capable leadership.

Your Excellency, this great burden lies on your shoulder as Nigeria looks unto you to lead while the rest of Africa follows. It has been a deliberate approach to speak more of Africa than Nigeria because we believe the position of Africa today has been largely contributed by Nigeria’s’ relatively slow development. Africa looks unto Nigeria and we thus cannot afford to fail.

To begin with, you have to lay down a trustworthy platform for organizing credible elections in Nigeria. We propose the full implementation of the Recommendations of Justice Mohammed Uwais Electoral Reform Committee as this would go a long way in sending a new signal to Africa and the rest of the world that we are prepared to take our rightful place amongst other nations of the world. This is a fundamental step towards actualizing your Vision 202020.

President Barack Obama in his speech dubbed “Rock and five (5) pillars” at Georgetown University on April 14, 2009 stressed the need for America to return to the lofty heights of encouraging the development of the sciences and engineering. Indeed this is direly needed in Nigeria today, where there is lack of encouragement, financial support and incentive to future and current scientists and engineers.

It is important to note that the industrial boom in the 19th century America was what significantly put it above other nations of the world as most of the inventions of that time not only gave America technological advancement and advantage but also enormous financial returns. The same can take place in Nigeria if you give this approach the consideration it deserves.

We urge you to fast track the pace of progress and development in Nigeria and begin to seek ways of truly diversifying our economy. Many people have referred to the discovery of oil in Nigeria as our greatest curse. While this may not be entirely true, we need to begin to allow every state of the federation to develop at her pace. This is very important as even in the United States of America, all states do not grow evenly.

Far from the fear that some low income earning states would be oppressed or victimized, this measure would greatly guarantee that every state of Nigeria looks inwards to develop the abundance of both natural and human resources that the Almighty God has gracefully bestowed on them.