Olumide Iluyomade

In the past few years, the Nigerian government has consistently proclaimed and fostered this concept of ‘Vision 2020’, despite showing no evidence of an intelligent, incremental positioning strategy. It boggles my mind to think how any organization can achieve an objective or goal, without putting in place and establishing a platform for a calculated, well thought-out, critically assessed plan and strategy for achieving set goals and objectives.

In the simplest terms, Vision 2020 is the objective of Nigerian government to grow the size of Nigeria’s economy from its current position of 40th to the 20th Nation in the world by the year 2020. Having said this, it is important to remember that the 40th position is by no means a measure of the government’s performance or of the living standards in Nigeria. The 40th position was neither achieved nor accomplished! - It is simply so by virtue of the fact that Nigeria is the 8th most populous nation in the world and the 6th largest exporter of petroleum Oil. For a true measure of development and government performance in Nigeria, we have to look elsewhere. Currently, Nigeria ranks very low in the Human Development Index (HDI) as compiled by United Nations Development Program’s (UNDP) Human Development Report 2007/2008. Nigeria ranks 158th out of a possible 177 position! When using the much lauded "Ibrahim Index of African Governance", which was specifically sponsored and designed for sub-Saharan nations of Africa by Mo Ibrahim Foundation (MIF), Nigeria ranks an embarrassingly low 39th position out of 48 African nations. The 9 countries in sub-Saharan Africa which we seemed to better, are all countries that are either currently at war or are recovering from war, genocide or famine!

In Nigeria, I have come to recognize an exaggerated and excessive culture, a diversionary method of governance, the use of which is prevalent and ubiquitous - The eagerness of the government and all its proponents to have visions, launch useless books, engage in talks, organize seminars, attend conferences, host workshops and even sponsor symposiums. The ostentatious display of 'capacity' and 'intentions' whilst remaining completely devoid of true capacity, knowledge and capabilities to actually accomplishment the set goals and touted objectives! In reality, our leaders are mostly charlatans - showy and pretentious without any real substance! I have no doubt that there are many who will not agree with my observations and that is fair. I however admonish you to watch your NTA news tonight and tell me if you will hear anything of substance outside of the usual barrage of Seminars, Conferences, Workshops, ‘Talks’ and the occasional meaningless 'Launching'. This unfortunate phenomenon has been going on for the past 15-20 years! – since the days of Babangida and his useless MAMSER program and nothing has changed. This strategy has been successfully used to shroud a thriving culture of corruption and incompetence for many years! Sadly, Nigerian journalists, who are suppose to see through this thin veil and call the government to order, have become a proponent and an extension of this massive scheme of self-delusion and fraud.

I recently read an article where the Nigerian government was making preparations and arrangements for nuclear power plant facilities. I laughed to the point of rolling on the floor (but it is a sad laugh too!). I have never been able to understand why we always feel the need to outdo and ridicule ourselves before a world audience! Here is a nation that failed to maintain a simple coal fired power plant and has NOT the organizational intellect to maintain a gas turbine plant (even as we speak), yet they strut around in obtuse ignorance and promenade, talking about Nuclear power - A technology that is capable of destroying an entire nation if mishandled! The truth is any nation that has nuclear power technology, has had to develop it themselves! It is simply not a technology that one can buy on the shelf! It is as if what is going on with Iran and North Korea is totally lost unto us! We make ourselves the laughing stock of the world when we exhibit such ignorant and unschooled naiveté.

Nigerians are angry, disenfranchised and frustrated - to watch their purpose, and dreams, and hopes for a better tomorrow slip away, hijacked by depraved and incompetent leadership! To look at the horizon and see a vicious cycle of corruption, greed of mythical proportions with no end in sight. To be raped, defrauded and demeaned repeatedly by the very "leaders" charged with public trust and to see no justice in sight. To be humiliated, rejected, mocked and demeaned in foreign countries and to come home and be subjected to worse treatments! To see acute immorality and corrupt perversions continuously rewarded and to watch true nobility, honor, hard work and honesty, disdained and sent to the gallows, left to rot in misery. To endure grandiloquent speeches, listen to loud and lame plans that never come to fruition and to see one's hopes, aspirations, future and God given resources wasted on hedonistic lifestyles, squandered on redundant and obtuse minded projects and to have your sensibilities assaulted with hopeless visions, proclaimed and promoted by depraved and nefarious 'leaders' - is the most painful thing in the world!! And I share in that pain!

Having never lived up to its promises or obligation, the Nigerian government has now decided to enmesh us in ‘Vision 2020’. How could a president who failed to fix ordinary roads, even the one to his own hometown in 8 years, have any vision? I guess it makes sense for a nation to move from the 158th position (out of 177 possible positions!) to the 20th position of the Human Development Index, in the space of 12 years!! Especially a 'great' country like Nigeria which has spent the last 20 years in absolute and complete failure! - failing to provide even the most basic infrastructural needs - national infrastructures such as oil refineries, power plants and road networks have gone to the dogs!. Industries and manufacturing bases have been devastated becoming extinct amidst inane, acutely constipated and convoluted government policies. And now the same pack of charlatans, suddenly have a vision! President Yar'dua was in London, urging the business community to invest in ‘Vision 2020’. I watched in dismay, as the Westerners in attendance mockingly nodded their heads. What irks me most is not just the ubiquitous failings and lameness, but the so called 'Vision' and the mockery and ridicule that such uneducated, unintelligent and unrealistic projections bring upon our nation!

We can take a look at the history of any developed nation and see how long they have been at it, understanding the systematic and intelligent application of scarce resources to achieve national objectives over time - this tells the whole story! Development is neither cheap nor quick, and it is certainly not an unattainable challenge. It must however be tackled with not only a vision, but with great commitment, sacrifice and hardwork. It baffles me that while we have not even shown that we are able to succeed in accomplishing what the Roman Empire accomplished 2000 years ago (Coliseum, Water Aqueduct, Paved Roads, engineering marvels, Bridges and Structures …. etc), nor have we shown the slightest inkling of purpose or  understanding of what developed nations demonstrated and accomplished 60 - 100 years ago (Industrialization, WW2 technology and socio-economic growth and organization), we are willing to strut around, in abysmal ignorance, consumed with 'epileptic fits' and moronic 'nuclear visions' of the year 2020!.

How about showing us what Obasanjo did with the $200 billion oil windfall in his 8 years of misrule?? How about showing a little humility and learning to climb a tree from the bottom up, rather than this wasteful, senseless and unproductive synapses that lead us to believe we can do the unthinkable and climb from the top down!. We need to tell these leaders to stop having 'visions' and to start showing us productive, efficacious and intelligent, step by step plans - and it starts with fixing the terrible mess which 30 years of misrule and misdeeds has left the nation grappling with! It is amazing just how much damage a single generation of irresponsible leadership can inflict on a nation! If it took 30 years to utterly destroy the hopes and aspiration of a nation, it will certainly take a heck of a lot more than 12 years to fix it, even with a genius behind the wheels! - and we all know that the present crop of leaders are NO geniuses!!! (not even close)

Therefore, the question in mind should not be whether Nigeria can accomplish the goal of becoming one of the 20 most industrialized nations in the world – of course, we can…………eventually!. The question should be what are we putting in place today, to ensure that we are strategically positioned to emerge as one of the 20 most important economies and industrialized nations tomorrow. Given Nigerian government's history of performance and its current level of incompetence and overwhelming corruption, can we reasonably expect anything to come out of Vision 2020 or any other vision for that matter? I am a pragmatist and one who bases his decisions on what is proven and established, and not on what hasn't transpired! I am not elderly but I have learnt that history is credible, history is factual and you cannot keep doing things the same way, over and over again, and expect a different and better results! Based on our history and what I see now - Nigeria will be lucky to be one nation in 20 years much less being developed!

Finally, we need to recognize the challenges before us are much greater than our own individual ambitions and our individual goals. We are saddled with the enormous responsibility of forging and carving out a bright and promising future for our children and generations to come – a privilege which has been denied us! And therefore, it goes without saying that the days of shameless corruption and mindless, incompetent leadership have got to come to an end. The days of unfair treatment, marginalization and disenfranchisement of large sects of the Nigerian population have got to stop. We must enter a new era of accountability, intelligent planning & projections and smart articulate leadership. A new era of socio-economic growth, national pride and inclusive participation with a common and united front. A new dawn of social order and prosperity brought about by a common understanding of the importance of the rule of law, justice and equity. For the day is far spent and the inevitable gloom brought about by wasted and squandered potentials draws closer! If nothing at all, we should learn from history and from the contemporary example of a tiny nation like U.A.E, for beyond the horizon of our current excesses lay the looming and impending doom of an era of radically diminished crude oil importance! It will be calamitous and devastating to reach that point and have a nation that is still largely underdeveloped and totally unprepared!

Robot  # 1 | 25.11.2008 00:32

Vision 2020: Vision Or Mirage?Olumide Iluyomade In the past few years, the Nigerian government has consistently proclaimed and fostered this concept of ‘Vision 2020’, despite showing no evidence of an intelligent, incremental positioning strategy. It boggles my mind to think how any organization can achieve an objective or goal, without putting in place and establishing a platform for a calculated, well thought-out, critically assessed plan and strategy for achieving set goals and objectives. In the simplest terms, Vision 2020 is the objective of Nigerian government to grow the size of Nigeria’s economy from its current position of 40th to the 20th Nation in the world by the year 2020. Having said this, it is important to remember that the 40th position is by no means a measure of the government’s performance or of the living standards in Nigeria. The 40th position was neither achieved nor accomplished! - It is simply so by virtue...Read the full article.

Igboamaeze  # 2 | 25.11.2008 14:47

It is a mirage my brother. Just a mere mirage and nothing but a mirage...

Afeni  # 3 | 25.11.2008 15:03

Before this Vision 2020 (At this point, you might as well take away the 2020) can come anywhere close to realization, we must have: 1) Rule of law 2) Transportation networks (Working railways, good roads and efficient ports) 3) Stable supply of power and water. Until those items on the list are done, every hope for modernization is nothing but a pipe dream. What is most unfortunate is that I don't see any haste on the parts of the local, State, or Federal Government to implement whats on the list.

ttonjo  # 4 | 26.11.2008 00:13

=Igboamaeze;293724>It is a mirage my brother. Just a mere mirage and nothing but a mirage... For the first time, I totally agreed with Igbomaeze on Nigeria issue. The heartless Nigerian leaders have been taking the citizens of that country for a ride for so long, and getting away with it, to the extent that we have now become their 'dummies' that they can play around. What is 'Vision 2020?' Oh please, don't waste my time Mr. President. First it was 'Operation feed the Nation' by the then Obasanjo's military rule between 1977 - 1979, where our commonwealth and resources was wasted on the meaningless project. What did we get in return? 'Operation Mass Starvation.' God dey! Who is feeding the nation now? Your guess is as good as mine. Then came the grand daddy of them all. The deceptive evil genius, General Ibrahim Babangida, and his wife's so-called 'Better Life for Nigeria Rural Women.' Better life? For Nigeria rural women? Ahhhhh, haba! Nigeria. Are we that stupid? No, we are not. Here we go again, with the latest 419 project, the so-called: 'Vision 2020?' It is not only mirage, it is an incurable HEADACHE. Please spare us all these wickedness in the name of 'meaningless projects' and concentrate on what you people are good at doing, i.e. Nation Looting ' and stop playing on our intelligent. But I can honestly assured you all these wicked leaders that: 'You can fool some people sometimes, but you CANNOT fool all the people, all the times.' Only time will tell. One day, all these nonsense shall come to an end, and your children, and children's children shall pay for all the atrocities that you perpetrated on Nigerians. The 'WIND OF CHANGE' will blow one day and wipe them away with their decendants by the grace of God. In sha Allah!:(:(:(

Dewdrops  # 5 | 26.11.2008 08:25

Mirage even good now...at least you still fit to see "mirage" until you near am or you try to touch am. We have not actualized vision 1960.....we are talking of "20/20" vision? What was that about "faith without works" again? Please explain James 2:20, "...that faith without works is dead. " Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan! My rustic "B.K." (bible knowledge) hasn't failed me yet.

Vince147  # 6 | 26.11.2008 12:51

Don't think av ever been happier in the company of well thinking Nigerians. Big ups 2 every author on this site. Y'all are our hopes or at least like Tupac said "I won't change the world but I guarantee that i would spark up the brain that would" THIS IS MY TAKE ON VISION 2020: I don't think people like IBB,OBJ et al.. are going to be alive by 2020 (Forgive me Lord 4 that assertion) but realistically they are (most of them old enough to die by then) SO Bottom line THEY DON'T NECESSARILLY GIVE A F###. Wise thing to Do('s far most of our CURRENT leaders are concerned) Make enough for ur immediate family from a country Immensely blessed and "supercursed" at the same time, Die and let wetin want happen make e happen. well of course that's like the Nigerian unofficial National anthem. No qualms. However if anyone wants anything to change positively in this country then they should be ready to see the present generation of leaders bade farewell. I mean Every present politician and so called nigerian leader owes someone else a particular form of favor or the other and so on... Don't get me wrong that is an inborn phenomenom in the game of power n politics. But I am not ready to see the presidential Villa amongst others NIGERIAN properties handed down like a family heritage or something. NOTHING HAS OUTRAGED ME IN THAT MORE COUNTRY MORE N THE FACT THAT RIGHT B4 D LAST ELECTION NIGERIANS ALREADY KNEW WHO OUR NEXT PREZ WOULD BE. All we did was wait to see how it would be played out: "WELL Y'ARADUA WULD BE THE NEXT PREZ. HE'S OBJS CHOICE. IT HAS BEEN PROMISED HIM" JESUS!!! Talk about Government of the people,4 d people n bla bla. 140 million dummies thats the nigerian population or at least what we've been made out to be. What's d international community doing about this? what do you expect? every country in the world's on a race against the fossil fuel scarcity. which country is best left Unstable? my answer: the 8th largest OPEC country. I really dont blame them. Besides in the words of an American official (Dunno Who) on the massive rigging of the last elections : "Nigirans always find a way a survive". Let's Hope we do. I URGE EVERY WELL MEANING NIGERIAN TO TAKE A LOOK AT WHAT L.I.L da Silva is doing in Brazil. It's Historic. SuperHistoric in fact. and he's been in pwer for only what 6 years. The truth according to people like Da Silva is that if we really want to move forward as a country it sooooooooo possible and achieveable. Period. That Guy moved 20 million people from grade E and D on the social class/income ladder to Grade C !!! in the middle of Global Economic Crisis. God help our Leaders know when its time to say bye bye B4 some Jerry Rawlings Factor catches up with them. Naija 4 Life shaa. No Doubt

Prince Charles  # 7 | 27.11.2008 00:17

The kind of vision Cele people dey see for chruch. So other countries gojust siddon Nigeria go run from 100th position come enter 20th place in this world.

feyisayo  # 8 | 27.11.2008 03:12

mr iluyomade why waste your learned time speaking big grammar that they don't even understand. how can someone who does not have plan of being a president but was force/lure (and his 'ego' (or is it of hajia) will not allow him to resign) into the office have a plan for a "2020 vision", my brother it is a BIG MIRAGE, we can not achieve that vision. do we need to be told, we know its another avenue to embezzle more money. since he's been talking about fighting corruption like his predecessor, what tangible result have we seen. i was actually expecting something good from him,once i saw the list of ministres, i know we are doomed with another failed government. i look forward to the media redeeming the country from the hands of these politicians, the media espcially the journalist are the only hope of the nation. its unfortunate that some publishers, editors, reporters etc are politicians by heart and i can assure you nothing good ever comes from a politician. i hope the media is not folding their hands and waiting for the passage of the FOI bill before investigative journalism can be practice, i challenge the likes of Punch, Guardian (though the publisher's brother is one of those collecting N28m as monthly salary while his constituency members are dying of hunger daily), ThisDay (if his desire to be in the good books of the govt wont be an hindrance), Daily Independent, and the other leading dailies should sponsor their staff to carry out massive investigative reports and really reveal the varoius money each tiers of govt is collecting monthly and compare it with the realities on ground. i rest my case for now to continue another day.:sad:

mfona99  # 9 | 15.12.2008 21:02

Olumide Iluyomade: I can briefly say there is patriotism in your opinion. Indeed, it could be mirage or real vision 2020, or both. Facts: our people are not open-minded. They hate to entertain new ideas; they are afraid a Western trained Nigerian is about to take his/her job. The doors are slammed shut in his/her face whenever he/she offers an idea. Do you know why the country won't get ahead? Because the problems are created by Nigerians, and where an individual is responsible for his undoing, solution is essentially illusive. Nigeria has collected more than 400b US dollars since oil was discovered. There is not one thing the country can show for. It is one risky decision upon the other. A case in point, NigComSat project was ill-timed, extremely dangerous, and fertile channel to siphon funds from the country. Is Nigeria a developed nation? The answer is no. Does the nation have basic infrastructures? Not a bit. Does space project require uninterrupted power? You better believe it does. Now, considering the few facts pointed out, should it not therefore mean that the nation is managed by ill-educated, ignorant, unpatriotic, self-serving demagogues. Even developed nations take their time with space project - a venture that is glitch-ridden; it will always remain so. The same politicians turn around and blame the President. No Yar Ardua is a decent person, period. I am not interested in Nigerian Politics; I am interested in developing our youths. The mere fact that the President and his Vice, Jonathan, were the first such politicians in Nigeria to have declared their assets before taking office, the duo made history. If Nigeria fails Yar Ardua and the Vice President are not to blame. Let’s give credit to whom credit is due. Unfortunately, our public officials have disappointed Nigerian people, and the outcome is not hidden. Our society is disruptive; crime has taken over, our young men and women out of college live in fear; no money, no jobs. Youthful lives cut real short by violence. Yet, there are Nigerians all over the world that have what it takes to pull the nation out of the ruins, yet the conditions at home are not conducive to attract them. Some Nigerians are not patriotic; men and women, they play the double games very adroitly. Let me give you a typical example: I happen to know one Nigerian soccer coach. For more than 10 years I have been pleading with this guy to contact NFF to coach our women national team. He was told he won’t be able to deal with the senseless politics in Nigeria. This guy his brilliant, he was born and raised in Lagos, in fact he was a member of the first youth team that developed to the former green eagles before it became super eagles. He left the country to USA in the 80s. He played for Howard University in Washington, DC. After school, he established himself through referee training programs, coaching and finally became a member of North American Ref and Coaches Association. He was the first coach in the State of Maryland who led his school to 13-0 season, no school defeated his girls. He went on to win a coveted Regional Title, and he was elaborately featured in the Sports Metro section of the Washington Post Newspapers. No Nigerian or African coach in USA has such record. He runs a soccer year-round clinics training young people here in the United States. One of his students was invited by the US national team for tryouts. Making a long story short, prior to Chile U-20, seeing the problems U-17 coaching staff had in New Zealand, I wrote a letter to Monica Iheakam, a sport reporter for SunNews On-line following a story she filed on Falcons Sex Scandals. (See 10/25/08 edition of SunNews Online. At the time of this opinion, I have not heard from her. Why am I taking the trouble to tell you this? Here is why. In that report, she mentioned the name one woman Omidiran, some Alhaja -- a self-paraded patron or mentor of the team. My expectation was that she was going to immediately respond to my email. I would have contacted Mr. Johnson the coach who could have emailed match-ups against all the teams that Nigeria played in both U-17 and 20s. If she had made such efforts, Nigeria would have walked away with the two titles, you can take my words to the bank. Sir, this Nigerian born coach is skillful, and he dissected all the matches after the losses, and one could see where the losses came from and how a key player was not given assignment in terms of where the player should have been on the field all match long. So, the problems with Nigeria are that of patriotism, open-mindedness, nepotism, factionalism, sectionalism, fear, cowardice, etc. We are still languishing with the idiotic, and childish notion of he is Ibo, she is Hausa, he is Ibibio, she is Yoruba, he is Kalabari, she is Ijaw, and the so forth. This is what tears us apart, and we can never get over the hump. I am a Criminologist, with background, in media production, legal studies, etc. The public safety problem in Nigeria is ABC. As a Christian, a patriotic Nigerian, an educated person, I feel for our youths everyday because I know what Nigerian youths are capable of doing given an opportunity. I vividly recall an article I read about an 18 year old Nigerian boy in USA who performed some breathtaking calculations which, even the rich and the privileged had struggled for quite some time and came up short. Nigeria has no idea what it has lost by placing wrong people in our agencies and ministries. This has created a bottleneck in development. Back to my point, I can turn around public safety problem in Nigerian in a year's time; I stand by my word. The fact is that Nigeria is not the only country in the world. Other nations had trouble Nigeria has, and turned it around with patriotism and intellect. Now the lawmakers are crying because oil price has fallen. Of course oil is going to be less than $20 a barrel, mark my word! Fact: oil is a product of geology. Anyone knows that geologic activities are occurs uncontrollably. For the same reason, it could come to a screechy halt. Nigerians should have known that when oil was $147 a barrel, something did not look right. But what did our leaders do? They spoofed federal government; used phony contracts to dupe Nigerians of the revenue. They came up with myriads of ideas to fool federal government. In the end, reality set in, and now projects prosecution in jeopardy. But wait, Nigeria does not need oil at $200 a barrel to progress. A ten dollar a barrel oil revenue can jumpstart the nation's economy rewardingly. The fact is that the country does not have strategists, no patriots; the few patriotic and ethical Nigerians are politically marginalized. Thus, the nation is run by imposters and hypocrites, both genders -- rendering it barren of infrastructures. But the law of physics does not fail. All those who have taken pains to destroy one of the richest nations on earth cannot go without paying a price. I am frustrated because of our young ones who have been deliberately punished by these corrupt men and women calling themselves law makers as well as parents. I can care less of them, but their children are my fellow Nigerians, and those youths deserve a chance, just like they got a chance in Nigeria except that they decided to abuse the country. Here is a biblical fact for them to consider, may be some of them would have a change of mind: Exodus 20:5; for the Lord your God; am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sins of the fathers to third generation. If all seven of the world's most corrupt businessmen many years ago all perished in shame, who is that politician in Nigeria that would detect to God. May God bless our youths. Like it or not, Nigeria will re-emerge and attain the status God created for her. One thing is certain, a true, patriotic, and educated Nigerian Man or Women, is a threat to any competition whether academic or corporate; every Nigerian is never going to be the same. We are very different, we really are! And to all the few lawmakers who have fought hard to exercise a bit of transparency, you will be rewarded mightily for your courage and patriotism in a very difficult circumstance. Olumide, your opinion is outstanding, good job.

charles4u  # 10 | 16.12.2008 09:37

Mennnn....mfona99 u should make a novel..lol Anyway, whatever the case may be, I just know this past and present rulers we have in Nigeria are just enemies of progress. I don't even wanna waste my time writing too much, This bastards (omo ale) we have in government are not the ones that will make Nigeria better or good. so until we have better people there ..then we can start predicting.