WHILE NIGERIA WAITS FOR ECONOMIC RECOVERY

Presently, we are told, Nigeria and Nigerians have to learn to wait and be patient because the economy will recover next year.

One because government, we are told, is putting in place policies to get it back on its feet principally by generating more revenue and increasing national production from the non-oil sector.

Hopefully too, by the time agriculture and solid minerals present the magic wand, then all will be well and the African giant can once again stride not like a beggar nation, but as the black man's hope.

Unfortunately, nothing can be further from what is going to happen given the road we are taking today, courtesy of President Buhari and his die hard commitment to free food for pupils and courtesy of our economic theorists who don't seem to realise that many things in the world are now defying science, talk less of social science like economics.

What will happen if we do in fact find a replacement for oil and gas, is that then we will find that the world has left Africa's biggest economy far behind once again and so, the developed economies will continue to dictate everything for us.

Simple: Out there the world is more concerned with the development of social robots today and we are not; with how to handle the mountain of reusable plastics clogging waterways and we are not; how to be part of the new age industrial revolution driven by information technology and we are not.

Out there they are concerned with how to handle climate change and we are only able to warn our citizens to pack out of fraud prone areas for their own safety. They are concerned with education that produces products as skilled in practice as they are grounded in theory.

In fact, even our present institutes charged with developing mainstream techniques and new product varieties are under funded and have become ghosts of their original dreams

The world out there is talking and developing electric cars for tomorrow and we are not.

Just like yesterday. We killed our vehicle assembly lines, sent our battery and tyre manufacturers packing and strangled our textile mills and much more while others moved theirs to the next level.

Now we so happily import latest brand of cars, tyres, batteries, clothes alongside the used ones to ensure every one in the pecking social order of Nigeria is caught in choking grip of always growing appetite for imported goods.

More than ten years ago, telecommunications was set free from control and ownership by government but without plans to ensure that Nigeria at a point, stops importing hand sets or phone batteries. Now in view of our population and very natural love of talk, we have no option but to allocate foreign exchange as our traders jet to China for supplies.

But for what Dangote cement did with great help from government of the day, the cement Armada of yore would have been part of today's issues too.

Now Dangote and his team, we hear are leading the way out of petroleum products persistent shortage.

Fine, the only snag is that soon Nigerians will start importing and showing off their electric cars. Why not now fund research that will come up with Nigerian electric car that can use fuel as well?

After all when the world goes electric, we are likely to still have, if not crude oil, at least gas. And going electric was actually the non petroleum producing world's counter to OPEC while member countries like Nigeria behaved as if the oil boom was for ever.

No, those are not the kind of strategic questions the giant of Africa intoxicated with change mantra ought to be asking and focussing on, what befits is free food for primary school pupils, political ego polishing and heavy doses of wishful thinking.

No wonder, when it comes to charting ways out of the current economic maze, no presidential stamp is necessary, oh vice president Osibajo comes in quite handy or the Customs and other agencies announce fiscal policy changes and rethinks as swift as All Pronouncements can be Compromised.

When it comes to war against corruption, war against insurgency and stepping into the ring to lead the charge in political battles, we hear President Buhari has ordered, president Buhari has directed and APC governors have been directed or decided.

Too bad. The real battles that demand the Presidents attention at the same time are the battles to set agenda for tomorrow today, on behalf of the black race. No black nation can ever do that with a begging bowl as its main sword and with a house divided against itself for whatever reason.

Above, needed is vision beyond today's aches and mounting unpaid salaries and decades old winner takes all politics.After all China and India did not get to where they are today focussing on teeming poor but today all stand to benefit from leading edge economic prosperity.