By Emmanuel Gandu
INTRODUCTION
It is not a myth that Nigeria is a sinking rudderless ship captained by Muhammadu Buhari with an all-APC ground, sea, and air crew that have rejected the series of MAYDAY distress calls from helpless and endangered Nigerians aboard. This presentation is an attempt to expose the clueless Buhari government. It will be laced with an embroidery of facts, figures, and research data in order to drive home the message.
GHANA AND NIGERIA
In order to succinctly highlight those stark reality and consequences of unfriendly business policies that have contributed to the deplorable, collapsed and decaying Nigerian economy, a comparative analysis of Nigeria and Ghana will suffice:
(1) Ghana population is estimated at 31 million (United Nations 2021), while Nigeria is projected at 200 million (United Nations 2021).
(2) The fight on corruption and bad leadership in Ghana which was radically introduced by the Revolutionary workaholic fighter pilot president Lt. Jerry Rawlings intermittently in 1979, 1981, 1992, and finally ending in 2001 had brought sanity and good governance to the once gold-rich Ghana. This progressive trend had been sustained by successive regimes to date, thereby making Ghana the no.1 destination for business, education, and manufacturing amongst others in Africa.
On the contrary, Muhammadu Buhari in his second coming as Nigeria’s leader was popularly elected on the mantra of fighting corruption, insecurity, and revamping the economy. Sadly, enough, and unfortunately too, the fight against insecurity is such that the Nigerian military have been so much compromised that they are popularly described as a lame toothless bulldog.
Regrettably too, the fight against corruption by the Buhari government seemed to be a fight against only the opposition as indicated by the erstwhile APC National Chairman Adams Oshiomhole’s announcement that any “corruption accused” politician who defects to the ruling APC will be given a grand reception, and “his sins will be forgiven.” In these two scenarios presented, any investor would rather prefer Ghana to Nigeria.
(3) Nigeria banned/suspended Twitter operations from 5/6/2021 up till 12/1)2022 because Twitter suspended the Twitter account of one Muhammadu Buhari who happened to be the president of Nigeria because he used offensive language that contravened Twitter community standards.
As a consequence of this ban/suspension of Twitter activities in Nigeria, the country suffered the following losses:
√ Nigeria lost $1.549 billion.
√ Twitter headquarters is based in Ghana.
√ Nigeria have lost out to Ghana on Twitter and software related jobs, tax revenue, allied services patronage, and international image, etc.
√ Available facts and data shows that about 40 million Nigerians are on Twitter and hold Twitter accounts.
√ It means that the number of Nigerians who use Twitter are more than the total population of Ghana.
√ Despite Nigeria’s numerical advantage over Ghana, Twitter refused to leverage on this big business opportunity but went ahead to locate it’s headquarters in Ghana rather than Nigeria.
(4) Job opportunities by international agencies in Ghana and Nigeria:
(I) Volkswagen commissioned its Ghana manufacturing/assembly plant in August 2020.
(II) Toyota company commissioned some of its brand vehicles assembly plant on 29/6/2021 in Ghana.
On the contrary, Nigeria is busy looking for grazing researves and creating grazing routes for cattle, and employing the cattle policy to decimate her 200 million population.
(5) While Ghana is the headquarters for the African Continental Free Trade Area (ACFTA), Nigeria again lost out due to her unfavourable hostile policies despite Nigeria’s huge population that provides the biggest single market in Africa.
(6) Nigeria is rated as the poverty capital of the World despite being the 7th biggest oil producer in the world. According to research findings from world reputable organizations including Research Gate (2020); World Poverty Clock (2021); and the SEATTLE based group (2020), more than 50% of Nigeria’s population live in severe poverty. Interestingly, these research findings are further corroborated by Nigeria’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in its own Nigeria’s Living Standard Survey (NLSS) findings released in 2019.
In this their findings, 50% of Nigeria’s population live below the poverty line of #137, 430 ($381.75) per year. Reasons advanced by these research agencies for the poverty in Nigeria include corruption, unemployment, inequality, illiteracy, insecurity, inconsistent and unfavourable policies. On the contrary, Ghana is rated highly with a much better performance because the country has a good level of employment, less corruption, relative equality, high level of literacy, a secured country, and a conducive climate for ease of doing business – thus attracts foreign investment.
(7) Nigeria banned the use of Cripto currency in February 2021 despite being Africa’s largest Bitcoin market by trading volume. This financial policy decision made Nigeria to lose capital inflow that would have provided business opportunities and jobs to many of Nigeria’s 200 million population. Ghana, on the other hand, is opening wide its business doors to a rather free market economy in order to boost capital inflow, generate income, and provide jobs for her 31 million population.
(8) In 2019 Ghana ranked 13 places higher than Nigeria in the World Bank Index for ease of doing business. According to this world bank report, ease of doing business in Ghana increased from 57.0 score in 2016 to 60.0 in 2020, growing at an average annual rate of 1.29%. Ghana was ranked no. 118 in the world ranking list while Nigeria was at no.131. This ranking is from 1 – 190, and it starts from the best country as no.1 while the worst country is ranked no. 190. In this findings, New Zealand was ranked no. 1, Singapore no. 2, USA no. 6, UK no. 8, Rwanda no. 38, and Libya no. 186.
(9) Google (HOOGL), Microsoft (MSFT), and Huawei are among international Tech Giants that have expanded their operations in Ghana. This they do by targeting software developers and young creative minds. Regrettably, Nigeria’s 200 million population is unable to get a bite of this technological bonanza.
(10) Global Peace Index, a reputable world research organization in its 2020 survey report ranked Ghana as the 43rd most peaceful country in the world. Unfortunately, Nigeria was ranked at 147th position.
(11) In 2020 Global Terrorism Index ranked Nigeria as the 3rd most terrorised country in the world. Afghanistan is ranked no.1, Iraq is no. 2, Syria is no. 4, Pakistan no.5, Somalia no.6, DR Congo no.10. Ghana is reputed to be the most peaceful country in Africa.
Peace! © The Buhari Legacy no 8 in the series. 13/5/2024
