Food for thought?

I was just thinking of the potential we have as a people and as a country. kai, our GDP has been between  6 to more than 8% in the last 2years , mostly dependant on oil( Google it). Western European countries and the US will give an arm and a leg to have this sort of GDP. China's GDP has been growing at the average of 10% yearly in the last 30years (Wikipedia). UK grew 0.5 in the 1st quarter of 2011 and the US grew less than 2% in the 1st quarter of 2011 as well.  Many more developed countries are struggling. These countries engage in the full productivity of its people. i.e. everyone works and accounts for their time at work.  Every 8/10/12hrs shift is fully accounted for. When you go to work, it is expected that you mostly remain busy until break time and then after break you go for the last lap. These people work hard to earn their wages. 

Now compare 9ja, where my people who are civil servants (state and federal) lie idle at work. For those of them who happen to be in offices that have internet hooked up PC's, they browse, they chat and while away time (most of them). Come end of the month you get paid.  Don't get me wrong, most of these guys want to work (or maybe some?) but there simply isn't any work for them to do. As a very good friend told me over the phone "Jigga, we wan work but work no dey for us to do" sitting in his office browsing.  

Check this out - one achieves his first degree in a Nigerian university and then goes abroad to get a Masters degree. He then comes back home and is made to waste away in an office doing nothing.  This is mind bugling... all that education and its being wasted like that?

In my opinion we run the biggest welfare/benefit system in the world (the west can’t touch us) where you employ people and pay them for doing nothing. And guess what? GDP is great!  Now imagine if my people were being productive at work and how this would reflect nationally..olboy e , we go de laff go bank nationally and that might be another stream of income for the us. We'll probably be ahead of the Chinese. So in a nutshell, 9ja’s GDP is great even after all these. So make we make people work nah?

What china is doing now is not new. These guys are making products en mass; whatever you want, China will produce (and they make it cheap). Way back when, my people made clothes and other items but we called it "ABA MADE" and my people knock am. My people made sure you are a laughing stock when you were caught in the possession of these so called "ABA MADE" products. Now the Chinese are doing the same thing that the ABA people were doing; the so called fake and low quality products, but guess what - the world is flocking to China for these products. If 'ABA MADE' was allowed to grow in 9ja, the country would have been a financial hub for the whole world just like China is now. Kai, imagine looking at the back of your TV, Radio, laptop etc and seeing that print “Made in 9ja"...OMG that'll be a great feeling for Naij People and we will make it cheaper than China or anyone else, trust us nah. 

Summarily, my points are as follows. 1. Can we try and make those employed in the public sector, i.e. civil service more productive? Abeg make we try small.

2. Let’s try to patronise ‘our own’. Can we as a government/people encourage manufacturers? Let’s go back to the drawing board. Most times these manufacturers just need little capital to add a bit of quality to an already working product.