President (Senator) Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu you have chosen today (29th December, 2024) for this epochal event and we have responded by declaring that we are here to discuss critical issues—not grievances, no matter however excruciatingly urgent they may be.
You have rightly acknowledged that our nation (not only Lagos State) is contending with hunger and anger which have created an amalgam of rage.
Several cities, including Lagos have witnessed deadly stampede over distribution of food and other palliatives.
It is against that toxic background that you have gone to great lengths to avow that you do not derive any joy by inflicting pain on our citizenry whom you have pledged to serve. However, the future portends HOPE and the sacrifices we make today will provide the salvation and redemption for future generations. The real enemies are poverty, anarchy, ignorance, inflation, kidnapping and unemployment.
Your unwavering optimism is anchored on the vast potentials of our beloved nation which you have personally advertised all over the world in your drive for foreign investments.
We share with you the axiom that no nation can be greater than the sum total of the quality (not necessarily the number) of its people.
Our own perspective is that pain and suffering are conspirators in the audit trail that leads to grief followed by trauma which calls for healing.
You are perfectly entitled to insist that your guest list should be restricted to only those who are willing and able to sincerely participate in the healing of a severely bruised and battered nation which in the last six decades after our Independence on 1st October 1960 made too many wrong choices compounded many missed opportunities to build a robust political economy that would profoundly ensure enduring peace, demonstrable stability and impregnable prosperity for all its citizens under democracy without regard to ethnicity, religion, gender or age.
The timing of your invitation is flawless. It coincides with Christmas and New Year— festive season for penitence purification, humility and abnegation while we seek the limitless mercies and abundant blessings as well as the benevolence and beneficence of the Almighty.
At the risk of telling you what you already know, Lagos is a unique brand and all of us who are gathered here are entitled to regard ourselves as Brand Ambassadors for Lagos. The hallmarks of Lagos are abiding serenity and tranquility on sublime waves of bottomless goodwill, genuine love, and irrevocable mutual respect which our ancestors have bequeathed to us.
Lagos abhors indolence and duplicitousness. That is why we are here to assure Mr. President that we relish the challenge that came with your invitation – to banish sadness and grief by substituting the symbols of HOPE. We are here to redefine the horizon by injecting fresh contours which would provide the glimmer of hope in the dark abyss of despair.
We agree with you that our nation (especially Lagos) is vulnerable but you have also reminded us that the Almighty has endowed us with vast resources—both natural (and unnatural !!) as well as oil, solid minerals, abundant sunshine and vast arable land. Our resourcefulness and resilience are unmatchable.
Regardless of whatever we have neglected or abandoned, we urge you to champion the rescue mission. The tools at your disposal are allies with which you are very familiar, namely:
Value proposition
And SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats).
At the top of the agenda, the usual suspects are corruption and trust deficit as well as governance issues. We must add accountability, looting and waste of public resources.
Ultimately, we have to canvass a fresh perspective to our economic and financial strategy with regard to a roadmap that recognizes the banana skins:
Foreign and domestic debts
Debt servicing
Debt forgiveness
Phantom debts
Taxation
Oil Theft
Security
Abandoned projects
Fiscal Policy
Monetary Policy.
It is precisely because we believe that the next challenge is already here that we would urge you to beam the searchlight that would transform into a ray of sunshine through the dark clouds of despair. You are not only the Chief Pilot but also the Commander-In-Chief. Hence, we are obliged to take our cue from you. Our own experience has taught us that economics is not an exact science.
Hence, no one can guarantee the eventual outcome of policies and programmes.
In any case, there are four critical components to economics.
Economic theory
Applied economics
Economic history
but the fourth (and probably the most important) is Common Sense !!
Just in case things go wrong, we must have an alternative strategy that would avert apocalypse. At any rate, economic progress is hardly ever a straight line.
The bottom line revolves around the people—how are their lives better now than six decades ago?
Without being judgmental, we can nevertheless subscribe to and endorse the axiom. “The largest room in the world is the room for improvement”.
We can also draw plenty of lessons from the Nobel Laurate, Professor Wole Soyinka’s book: “We Must Set Forth At Dawn”
Perhaps, we should add the poignant vignette from Dr. Maya Angelou:
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said; people will forget what you did; but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
These are the critical issues we have on our agenda for your consideration:
Protection and preservation of our cultural heritage.
Creation of more local governments.
Lagos State from serenity and urbanisation to slum and drug zone
Empowerment of Lagos State indigenes.
Alienation of our ancestral landed property without adequate compensation and provision of alternative property.
Provision of potable drinkable water in the state.
Federal government properties in Lagos. Lagos should be given option of first refusal.
Poverty alleviation in Lagos state and Nigeria to prevent further stampede and deaths. Lagosians and indeed Nigerians are hungry and angry.
Provision of Heritage seed money to empower vulnerable Lagosians.
Preservation of our historical monuments for tourism purposes.
Introduction of Lagos State Hall of Fame.
We thank you sincerely for the generous hospitality you have extended to us. It provides eloquent testimony to the relevance of what the great Chinua Achebe postulated in his book:
“Things Fall Apart”
“A man who calls his kinsmen to a feast does not do so to save them from starving. They all have food in their own homes. When we gather together in the moonlit village ground it is not because of the moon. Every man can see it in his own compound. We come together because it is good for kinsmen to do so.”
The problems confronting us bear repetition:
Resource Gap
Crisis Management
Infrastructure deficit
Naira / Dollar / Sterling purchasing power parity going back six decades (the naira was introduced in 1973.)
Fortunately, Professor Paul Collier of Oxford University has come to our rescue. Here is a quote from his book “The Bottom One Billion”:
“Around the world right now, one billion people are trapped in poor or failing countries. How can we help them? Economist Paul Collier lays out a bold, compassionate plan for closing the gap between rich and poor.”
Professor Collier is a serious and highly respected researcher. According to him Nigeria’s hidden assets in the UK and US as well as other parts of the diaspora were previously estimated at £stg 100 billion (but probably £200 billion by now). If we could recover even a fraction of that, we would have solved our nation’s financial problems. Why are we dragging our feet?
Besides, we also have the “Phantom Debts” which have trapped us in bondage.
We must especially thank Prince Tajudeen Olusi who facilitated this meeting. At the age of ninety, he remains a fountain of knowledge about the history and tradition of Lagos.
I thank him for reminding me that in 1908, my grandfather Dr. J.K. Randle founded Nigeria’s first political party, the People’s Union. His ally was none other than Prince Olusi’s illustrious father, Oba Sanusi Matiku Olusi.
I am fascinated by Prince Olusi’s reminiscences about “Anikura” a well-known thief in Lagos; “Egbe Meso”, a group of formidable women who in the 1950’s challenged male domination by insisting on the right of women to swap husbands; “Saka Alawo”, the champion fisherman from Isale Eko; and what was known as “Tukuniyan” – a game played with boiled guinea fowl eggs. Whoever won would decide whether it was “Joje” (shared prize) or “Jelo” (winner takes all !!).
That was old Lagos. It could well be that Mr. President would consider our contribution as old stuff while the modern age relies on data; analytics; computer simulations/projections; high tech and ultimately, AI [Artificial Intelligence]. Either way, we are haunted by the millions of children who are not in school. Education and Health are like Siamese twins. It is a moral issue which compels us to acknowledge that:
“The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world it leaves to its children”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
Mr. President we hereby assure you that WE ARE UP TO THE TASK.
Randle delivered this speech at a meeting of some leaders of Lagos with President Bola Tinubu in Lagos last Sunday.
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