VISION”LESS” 2020

Nigeria is a country not short of jesters. Years ago, we had “Housing for all by the year 2000”.The year 2000 came and passed with more people becoming homeless. The next thing was “Vision 2010”. By the time the year 2010 is around the corner, nothing has been achieved and the horizon of the vision has moved farther away.

As a matter of fact, Nigeria is still a country that cannot guarantee constant supply of electricity. You can imagine the impact that is having on businesses.  You can imagine the whole lots of money being wasted on importation of generators. You would even wonder why the country cannot save some money by producing generators locally.  Nigeria is still among the few nations of the world that is still afflicted by Polio disease. This is preventable by early childhood immunization. Guinea worm is also a disease that I wonder if some developed countries still teach in their medical schools. This also can be eliminated by provision of clean water. In some cases, mere education of the people to ensure they boil the water they drink or use could prevent guinea worm affliction! It is a shame that Nigerian governors are happy to be photographed with great American citizens like Former President Jimmy Carter and Microsoft’s Billionaire Bill Gates who came to help in their philanthropic drives to eliminate polio, guinea worms and other diseases from the face of earth.

Nigeria on average produces 1.5million barrels of crude oil daily. This translates to a whopping USD180 million daily revenue when crude oil went as high as USD120 per barrel. Even now that crude oil is as low as USD35 per barrel, the country still earns USD35million daily revenue.  Rather than spending the oil money to build and maintain the necessary infrastructures, the successive Nigerian military or civilians rulers have wasted all the money on useless projects and in most cases corruptly enriched themselves, their cronies and families. It is disheartening that since 1959, when oil was first discovered in the country, gas flaring is still on. Yet the country is blessed with more natural gas resources than crude oil. No successive government have been able to stop gas flaring which is among the major contributors to ecological hazards in the Niger Delta areas.

I saw a picture on the front page of This Day newspaper showing the inauguration of some members of the Vision 2020 Business Support. The title on the picture is “Looking at the Future”. I could not help but busted into laughter at this photograph. It means that Vision 2020 is the latest vogue of the visionless craziness. One thing is certain, Nigeria as a country has not imbibed the long term planning culture. The successive governments are found of taking one step forward and three steps backward. Hence the country has been motionless whereas the world is moving forward thereby leaving Nigeria behind in all things except corruption and poor leadership. As far as I am concerned, those who referred to Nigeria as a mere geographic expression are not far from the truth. Nigeria is not yet one nation.

Mike Atanda

Robot  # 1 | 17.02.2009 08:20

VISION”LESS” 2020 Nigeria is a country not short of jesters. Years ago, we had “Housing for all by the year 2000”.The year 2000 came and passed with more people becoming homeless. The next thing was “Vision 2010”. By the time the year 2010 is around the corner, nothing has been achieved and the horizon of the vision has moved farther away. As a matter of fact, Nigeria is still a country that cannot guarantee constant supply of electricity. You can imagine the impact that is having on businesses. You can imagine the whole lots of money being wasted on importation of generators. You would even wonder why the country cannot save some money by producing generators locally. Nigeria is still among the few nations of the world that is still afflicted by Polio disease. This is preventable by early childhood immunization. Guinea worm is also a disease that I wonder if some develo...Read the full article.

icglobalsystem  # 2 | 18.02.2009 06:42

What do you expect from a nation where almost every citizens believe in miracle and sloogans...Just imagine the phrase "vision 2020"...How can you have vision when there is no electricity to brighten your vision?How can you have vision when you are driving on roads that lead to perdition?How can you have vision when there is no portable water to drink?Greatness can only be attained by hard work,dedication and quality idealogy not by dreaming and seeing visions.Vision 2020 my foot.!!!