What do I say about knowledge? What do I say about education? What do I say about inculcating, imbibing? What do I say about attitude? It was our juvenile learning: Slow and steady wins the race. The Bible teaches us ‘longsuffering’ as a fruit of the Spirit. A Yoruba adage says: Ojo kan ko laa gun k’orun, meaning: It’s not the day you start growing that you reach the sky. Late Dr Tai Solarin, in one of his words of encouragement to me sent me the words of Elizabeth Browning, “Great things are done with a great purpose, great effort by great mind with persistent patience.”

Chairman Mao in his revolutionary effort, closed down Universities in China for many years in order to make China’s universities producers of men of change and not just mere certificate holders. After the tragedy of the Second World War, Japan closed her borders to foreign products.

Here in Nigeria, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, in his wisdom as a genetic and trained economist, principled social welfarist, built the foundation of South-Western Nigeria economy through factors of production. Building economic foundation through factors of production is laying the foundation for industrial growth and economic emancipation. Factors of production are labour, land, capital and entrepreneurship. Land means all the natural resources; labour means manpower; capital means means of exploration, means of production; entrepreneurship means management of resources. Chief Awolowo was a great manager of resources, a gift to the Yoruba race. Chief Awolowo created farm settlements in order to manage natural resources, he paid highest wages in the country in order to get the best from workers, he enforced tax to raise capital, and he introduced free and compulsory education in other to build entrepreneurship. If the military had not intervened in politics, if Awoism had continued in South Western Nigeria, the region would have been an industrial nation by now.

We lost focus, economic emancipation and social egalitarianism through mismanagement of the economy at the advent of the oil boom. We went flamboyant with our fiscal policy, making naira stronger than dollar, equivalent to pound sterling, thereby attracting economic poachers called investors. Nigeria became a land where everything was lucratively marketable. The economic policy was fatally squandermaniac, very productively loathsome, but import-friendly. Attitude they say, stays strong, difficult to change. Nigerians inculcated the spirit of ostentation, indolence, hedonism, Ise kekere, owo repete: little work, much money.

Economic recession of the 1980s that depressed the oil price to a unit indices would have taught us a lesson. It was an era of turnaround fortune. Corpses of victims of hunger littered the streets, luxury riders turned their cars into cabs. Tokunbo (foreign borns) remembered their privileges of dual citizenship and ‘dialogued with their legs.’ Nigerians trooped out through the deserts as Nigeria became a hell of a nation to live in. Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP), that would have been a catalyst of growth, had its potency punctured by reckless spending and un-resourceful political transitional project.

One would have thought Nigerians had learnt their lessons through the recessions of the ‘80s; one would have thought if the opportunity of the ‘80s had come again, Nigerian economy would have been better managed. Nigeria’s economic policy would have been directed towards regenerative production. However, the opportunity came again. Gen Abubakar Abdusalami’s 1999 budget was based on $9.00 per barrel oil price. Before the end of 1999, the oil price moved up to $40. It continued to rise, rise and rise till it rose to 120 dollars per barrel. My dear compatriots, what have we got to show for it? What is on ground to identify with the years of resurgent oil boom? Would I be wrong to declare it “flagrant wastage of reincarnated oil boom?”

I have gone on an odyssey of thought. I have browsed electronic and print media, and I’ve not been able to get result on any nation that was helped to develop by another nation. That is why I am so highly aghast by these Fourth Republic leaders, sorry, ‘rulers’ adoption of appeal for foreign investment. I don’t know the public relation officers of sugar for the ants’ siege. There is no sentiment in business; vultures will find their ways to the abattoir. The amount that has been spent, from 1999 till date, by the rulers, on appeal for foreign investment is enough to industrialise the nation. For God’s sake, why are we in a hurry to enjoy, rather than develop. I am concerned. I am concerned about the level of unemployment in Nigeria. I am concerned about the level of under-employment in Nigeria. I am concerned about the effects of unemployment in Nigeria. I am concerned about my friends and colleagues in the Diaspora who are waiting in vain for the conducive period to return home. What about the posterity’s judgment on my generation. Yes, the rulers do not care. They only care about themselves; they only care about today. Should we ascribe this to ignorance, mediocrity or sheer wickedness?

There are many forms of international enslavement in the world today. At one point or the other, the rising nations fight seriously for their freedom. In the 80s, Brazil was enmeshed in international debt. Brazil’s debt became a yoke of threat and encumbrance. When it got to the climax of embarrassment, Brazil retorted and declared she was not going to pay any debt any longer. Brazil dammed the international economy. She was not paying debt and not getting another loan. Consequently, Brazil’s creditors appealed for debt payment reschedule. Thus, Brazil looked inwards and doggedly recovered economically. Today, Nigeria borrows to pay salaries. What a shame!

On July 21, 2015 I bought a laptop at an international sales outlet. Not quite a month after, this laptop developed fault. I took it back since it had a year warranty. This laptop was just delivered to me on October 20, 2015. For two months, I was deprived of doing what nature compels me to do, which is writing. As I grieved my deprivation all about, I was made to realise that the brand’s name does not mean equal quality internationally. That is, Lenovo of London is not of equal quality with Lenovo of Nigeria. I was made to realise that most of these technological products imported into this country are of inferior quality to the foreign ones. My dear compatriots, the information reveals that we have more than 100 million handsets in this country; we have more than one million laptops and other communication gadgets. What does it take to manufacture these products? Why are we in a haste to enjoy and not to develop? Why did Obasanjo license the GSM service providers, and not insist on phone production in the country? Imagine how many jobs the communication industry would have given to the country. Imagine how stronger our naira would be.

Currently, there is an argument on electricity meters produced in Nigeria and imported meters. I consider the argument nauseating. I don’t know of any product that commenced with perfection; it is political protection that guides to perfection. Where are the political incentives and protection for our home products and services? We luxuriate in jeopardy and parade ourselves as the largest economy in Africa. Meanwhile, we run to South Africa for long-term developmental loans; we buy South African products in their malls all over Nigeria, and we pay through our noses to watch their (satellite) television in Nigeria. Most GSM subscribers in Nigeria say hello hello through their service providers; and we ridiculously dance in the streets as the strongest economy in Africa. Well, if you think you’re deceiving me, I am not deceiving myself.

•Oyeleye, whose photo appears alongside ths piece, is an Ibadan-based author.

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