For those of us who have raked in over
a decade in the United States or Western Europe, the prospects of ever returning home to Nigeria seems as daunting
as the prospects of Nigeria ever stabilizing its shattered politics and economy. With the two seeming parallel
tasks of enormous foreseeable resolution, hopes fail and the future beckons us with un-quantifiable pessimism.
Having spent nearly twenty years outside Nigeria, I took the difficult steps to measure my return to Nigeria. Having
listened to President Obasanjo at Harvard University in May 1999, he conveyed an air of hope as he beckoned on
us to return home to help in building our country. From that moment, I concluded that I would take the necessary
steps to accomplish the dream. Nigeria had always held the title and prospects a powerful and rich African country,
but the reality on the ground seems to prove that its citizens wallow in serious deprivation of life's most essential
needs: shelter, food, security.
In Nigeria, acute shortages of the three named life essentials seem unmistakably glaring. On an average, most Nigerians
are truly poor. I have embarked on several trips to Nigeria and had paid very close attention to the elite, the
rural and the urban nomenclature of our country. The gap between the few haves and the large have-nots in Nigeria
is unbelievable. The presence of any form of Middle class is a farce. The daily survival skills of Nigerians have
turned these otherwise hard working and loving people of myriad ethnic configurations into a walking skeleton on
a large frame. Life is terrible and only a few manage to comfortably enjoy basic necessities. The teeming unemployed
have become an acceptable truth and norm. After years of struggle through an educational system and bureaucrats
that seek notice from government by paralyzing the very institution that will graduate better leaders of the country,
the Nigeria Higher and lower education system is in horrible shape. In the end, the endless "strikes"
deliver more punishment to the students than the leaders of the country .The students graduate into more frustrating
future. In desperation, many turn to modified trading, others to endless "applicant" status. Yet many
seek a way out of the country, even to countries like Bangladesh and Haiti!
On my mission to return to Nigeria regardless of the conditions, I have enrolled at the Prestigious Nigeria Law
School in Bwari, Abuja in order to fulfill the ed requirement for foreign trained lawyers. The experience thus
far is overwhelming. Having lived in the USA for close to two decades, it is astonishing to live under a controlled
environment. You must attend classes in suit and ties (black for that matter under the intense heat). Full shoes
and no sandals. Women must wear long sleeves and no trousers to class. No TV allowed in the hostel rooms and no
refrigerators or cooking stoves either. This school, which is built on a massive land in the outskirts of Abuja
ought to be the pride of the now three or four Law schools established in the country. Life is slow and the teeming
workers seem very busy at doing little. The infrastructure is relatively new, but poor maintenance raise serious
questions, for example where the school has 7 generators to augment the fairly stable power supply in that part
of the country, yet, only one is functional to supply power to the administrative block only, during power outage.
They never thought of selling some of them to refurbish others!
Life on Campus sharply contrasts with life in Abuja, our new capital. Abuja City is a modern well planned Capital,
almost better than my Local Boston City in the USA. Streets are lit, the architecture is modern and refreshing.
Paved side walks and new paved roads give an appearance of an opulent city. Yet inside this city, a terrible divide
abounds. To purchase a piece of land in the tightly controlled FCT, it now costs over 10 Million Naira (about $90,000)
in Abuja City. A decent three Bedroom Apartment in Abuja Garki, Wuse, Maitama and other fine districts cost over
Two Million Naira ($18,000) per year. This city is clearly not meant for average Nigerians. In desperation, the
poor masses are huddled into "satellite towns" from where they make daily runs into this very pricey
and expensive city of Abuja.
However, Abuja is in dire need of hard capitalists from US and Western Europe. For Nigerians like me who lived
in the USA for a very long period and enjoyed robust business engagements, the prospects of thriving successful
business opportunities for investment in Abuja is clearly viable. For returnees wishing to settle in Nigeria, Abuja
is by far the choice place. Life is better in Abuja than in New York or London, and certainly betters that inCape
Town, South Africa. Food is cheap for our standards in the USA. The business environment is great! An investment
in a medical clinic in Abuja or its suburbs will bring great financial returns. An investment in a private Nursery
School is a great opportunity; a computer school is highly desired in Abuja and its environs. A bed and breakfast
place is a winner as the few available hotels average over N12,000 per night!. There are teeming visitors daily
into Abuja and even a well planned taxi company with advance call numbers to your frequent passengers will eliminate
the present cast of uncoordinated and potentially dangerous cabs that ply passengers from the far city to the Airport.
A commercial line loan from a good bank will provide an investor in real estate, the necessary funds to sell pricey
properties to Diasporans with a short term mortgage that will enable them pay off the property in a few years.
It is a very lucrative Business in Uganda and their National in US and UK have benefited enormously.
Nigerian-Diasporans need to take seriously, the need to invest in the country. The Government is run by a generation
of men with little technocratic, technological, business and administrative know how. They should be sensibly ignored
for now, as their time shall come to pass. But you cannot kill a robber by standing on the far side of the river
bank while firing your 9mm gun at him, from across the river. The private sector should lead the engine of growth
and it seems the government is getting to understand the sermon. Think of what Nigeria would be, if we shed our
pessimistic ideas and roll our sleeves to support business growth in Nigeria that will in turn result in good job
market for our teeming unemployed. We cannot wait for the government. Our business moves and investments will shape
government policies.
Nigeria is a country of great men and women. With our fumbling and stumbling steps into democratic ideals, it is
worth attempting, the very crazy, but foreseeably reasonable decision to return home to our fatherland.