Sit Down and Govern – Frank Ofili

Sit Down And Govern

Since I became an adult every person who comes to power in Nigeria always spends tens of millions of tax payers money on foreign trips to woo foreign investors. Except perhaps General Sani Abacha, General Abdulsalam Abubakar and President Umar Musa Yar Adua.

Abacha’s case was well understood. For obvious reason of the phalanx of local and international pro-democracy forces arrayed against him, he hardly ever ventured outside Abuja except to install democracy in Sierra Leone, laughable as it was.

Abubakar was too much in a hurry to drop the hot plate thrown on his lap following Abacha’s sudden demise. If he ever nursed the ambition of staying put, the sudden and mysterious death in detention of the symbol of the June 12 1993 agitation, Bashoroun MKO Abiola, ensure he perished the thought.

Yar Adua’s regime was of course truncated and cut short by ill-health and his eventual demise.

Aside these three, every other person that came to power in the Third and Fourth Republic, aside Shonekan, who was never there, spent hundreds of dollars of tax payers money in search of foreign investors. Tinubu is walking the same well-worn path.

But I thought these things ought to be obvious to the discerning. No significant foreign investment will come even if you relocate Nigeria, as she currently is, to the destinations of these foreign trips. The negligible few who came in the past did not come because of the wooing of our leaders. They came because the opportunity was there and they were willing to take the risk. Even at that, how many are still remaining.

Methinks the best way to attract sustainable foreign investment is to fix the country. And how do you fix the country?

It is simple really. Sit down at Abuja and govern. Provide security. Provide healthcare. Provide quality education. Provide justice. Ensure accountability and transparency. Reduce and streamline our unwieldy bureaucracy. Pursue and promote a national value re-onrientation.

Let the international community see these things happening and nothing else is necessary to unlock the Nigerian economy to its full potential. Not even a million foreign trips.

Na so I see am