Entrepreneurship; the ability to create, build and preserve enterprise and wealth: The simple skill that has eluded us as a people for ages and why I worry; for it looks like we are not learning at all. Do you by any chance know why?

One may say; but we do also have indigenous businesses here, and my response – take a closer look and a revelation of the true state of these businesses will shock you to discover, just as I have written severally, that our so called private businesses in Nigeria are mere spinoff of the government establishment waiting for some kind of patronage or the other.

Revelations from the ongoing arms deal scandal supports this assertion – people receiving hundreds of millions for no just reason but with the cover of their business operations, networks and networth. Although it’s an old practice and business culture here, nevertheless these revelations cast light on our faulty understanding of the subject of wealth creation and enterprise development.

With this background and the present state of affairs in the country, what do you suppose would be the fate of enterprises in Nigeria – in the midst of foreign exchange restrictions and depreciation, inflation, weaker purchasing power, and now there is going to be a delayed budget and hence implementation; courtesy of the missing budget or whatever that means? Nigeria is on her way to losing another several months to political and leadership ineptitude, as she did through the last half of 2014 and all through 2015, in the guise of politics and politicking. What we forget is that the rest of the world won’t be waiting for us nor will the international investors/donor agencies. If we build a negative reputation and unserious image as a people, our partners and the international community wouldn’t be out there to nurture us to maturity and responsibility, nor will they be waiting for us to get ready before things starts happening. The world moves ahead whether we play a vital role in it or not.

Will the missing budget (as funny as that sounds and how ridiculous it projects us as a people) be also blamed on the last 16 years of PDP government and Goodluck Jonathan (as would APC love to have things like this), or would it be blamed on Nnamdi Kanu or Dasuki and the arms deal or could it be caused by the insurgents?

My opinion is that what is playing out now is exactly what happens when people get opportunities without adequate preparation; they wouldn’t be able to meet the cognate responsibilities. Therefore what we get is exactly the situation we are presently in now – fathom fables, bulk passing, blame game, excuses, etcetera.

My recommendations:
1. For calling our currency “shit” money (that Naira is exchanging with dollars at 305 plus to the dollar), the FX market – parallel or otherwise should be given the “Idi-Amin Dada recipe” and those handling it treated as “Obotie Men”.
How on earth would our currency be allowed a free fall when we are not aiming for an exporting advantage?

2. The handlers of the economy both on the fiscal and monetary sides should be excused for a deeper and insightful bunch, who can travel the intricate waters of the global financial market and macroeconomic politics to get us a gain – Finance Minister Kemi who for political expediency is occupying that position, should go in for internship with the likes of Henry Boyo, Odili Enweagbara, Rewane, Chukwuma Soludo and myself, to get her bearings; otherwise I see Nigeria becoming Zimbabwe in the next six months.

3. The economic team should be reconstituted, the Vice President can only continue there in an observatory status and so with Mrs Kemi. We must learn to put our best foot forward and use industry-specific expertise to solve our challenges. Economics is war and strategy is everything in a battle. For a winning strategy, our plans must be fail proof and superior. It’s not a game for those switching careers or representing interest.

4. I am suggesting that the Commander-in-Chief immediately declares an emergency in the economy and finance sector of Nigeria, taking all those that matter in these subjects to Obudu and locking them in till they proffer a workable solution. Otherwise, the Zimbabwe experience will play out here, and they would be just a handful of people to vote for them in 2019, because the rest would have run for their dear life to seek asylum in far and better economies and countries.

By the way IF Zimbabwe happens on Nigeria, where would you like to get asylum – The United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada or is it South Africa or Ghana?

Let me get your picks, folks!!!

We all know that both the leadership and the legislature are flying this kite of budget loss or whatever that means to allow for the reworking of the original budget to align with the prescriptions, instructions and counsel of the IMF and to provide for expanded deficit. The interregnum also gives them the leeway to come up with expanded domestic revenue streams and strategy of burden transfer to the masses (with least resistance and reactions).

You have got to read this excerpt from an interview with a Jewish leader about blacks. This message got to me through an old classmate, who said it was forwarded to him some days ago on WhatsApp. Please read and we will appreciate if you can share your thoughts on this interview with others.

My purpose of adding the excerpts of this interview is its aptness to the issues of the moment and the subject at hand. It helps to graphically present the malady and how much it has festered.

Now the interview –

INTERVIEWER: Why are blacks so behind economically?

JEWISH LEADER: The only aspect blacks understand is Consumption. Blacks don’t understand the importance of building wealth.
The fundamental rule is to keep your money within your racial group. We build Jewish business, hire Jewish, buy Jewish and spend Jewish.
There is nothing wrong with that but it is a basic rule blacks cannot comprehend and follow.
He kills his fellow blacks daily instead of wanting to see his fellow blacks do well, 93% of blacks killed in America are by other blacks.
Their leaders steal from their people and send the money back to their colonial masters, from whom they borrow the same money from.
Every successful black wants to spend his money in the country of his colonial masters.
They go on holiday abroad, buy houses abroad, school abroad, etcetera, instead of spending this money in their own country to benefit their people.
Statistics show that the Jews’ money exchanges hands 18 times before leaving his community while for blacks it is probably a maximum of once or even zero.
Only 6% of black money goes back into their community. This is why Jews are at the top and blacks are at the bottom of every ladder of society.
Instead of buying Louis Vuitton, Hermes, expensive cars, shoes, houses, dresses etcetera, blacks could industrialise Africa, build banks and get rid of colonial institutions by putting them out of business.

INTERVIEWER: Your thoughts on failure of blacks after 150 years?

JEWISH LEADER: Well, nothing is ever the black man’s fault. His compulsive habit of killing his own, compulsive material consumption, his inability to build business or preserve wealth are usually somebody else’s fault.

INTERVIEWER: So what can blacks do to liberate themselves?

JEWISH LEADER: Blacks must take responsibility. Blacks must unite and vehemently fight corrupt leaders who run down their country and run to IMF as though IMF is Father Christmas.
END OF INTERVIEW
Please forward this until it goes round Africa and particularly to our parasitic leaders. We all need to learn our lessons quick and build our African nations.

Do all these sound familiar to you? Is it intriguing to know that we are not learning yet, or does it incite you to want to do something about it? Then go ahead in letting our leadership know the right thing to do and compel them to obey. Also, we will all have to go for a reorientation and rediscover ourselves, retrace our steps and begin afresh in doing the right thing to develop, grow and sustain a new culture that will take us as a people to our desired destination and emancipation.

On a lighter note, in a country where a whole ship laden with crude oil gets missing and is never recovered, military aircraft gets missing, 2.8 billion dollars of crude oil revenue gets missing, 400,000 plus barrels of crude oil miss daily (at least that was the experience before now), a country where people get lost daily and never come back – why then would the loss of some pieces of paper containing estimates of income and expenditure be causing this much concern and hue and cry? If we are not able to safeguard a whole ship and the crude oil content, if we can’t keep that much crude from missing on a daily consistent basis, why would anyone expect the spectacular act of safely keeping some estimates and the sheets of paper on which they are printed?

By the way, the budget we were searching for – the national Assembly has since accepted and began to debate the amended version – isn’t even a comprehensive and innovative one for that matter. Rather, what we have there, like we have always had in the past, is a mere estimate and not a development tool or plan; it’s an annual restricted proposal and not a development rollover plan. So maybe we should begin to think along that line at our next opportunity, and plan comprehensively and not only be concerned about consumption.

That the budget is missing or has multiple versions, is really not the issue here; what borders me are the procedures, strategies and systems of budgeting that we adopt – Is it an expense instrument as we do have here and have always had as a people, or would we develop one as a development tool and plan, and as a building instrument and not just a mere consumption mechanism as the one that is missing, or as you may want to say – the one being recalled for perusal by the “Oga at the Rock”, or did they say “recalled for study”? How come Oga submitted the most vital document of the year from his office without thoroughly going through it, yet he put his name on it? My submission is that they are surreptitiously dancing to the demands of the IMF, except that they want just the “talakawas” to bear the brunt, while they “the privileged ones” continue in the reckless consumption and personal amassing of our joint patrimony.

My honest concern here is the impact and effects to businesses and the economy, which we have already started noticing. Who knows how long businesses will have to wait for the year’s budget before making their operational decisions for the year. Really because of how businesses operate here – for even when it’s a private concern, to a very great extent it still depends on government for survival. We would as a people and a nation be better off if our leadership understands the link between politics, economics, security and wellbeing; for only then would we be able to really move forward both as a nation and a people.

•Lawrence Nwaodu is a small business expert and enterprise consultant, trained in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, with an MBA in Entrepreneurship from The Management School, University of Liverpool, United Kingdom, and MSc in Finance and Financial Management Services from Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University Netherlands. Mr. Nwaodu is the Lead Consultant at IDEAS Exchange Consulting, Lagos. He can be reached via nwaodu.lawrence@hotmail.co.uk (07066375847).

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