Research has consistently shown that
diverse teams produce better results, provided they are
well led. The ability to bring together people/talent
from different backgrounds, disciplines,
ethnic/cultures, religion, generations, even political
affiliation and leverage all they have to offer, is a
must-do for leaders who want positive development and
peaceful coexistence. By creating Center of Excellence
in every State in the region, allowing and supporting
them to focus on the use of States within the regional
networks to accelerate innovation, partnership and
collaboration,
enabling people in loosely-joined, open
networks to think and act strategically; and in
partnership with local private sector and Small Business
Development Center’s across the World, it would also
showcase the pivotal role of small and medium scale
enterprises (SMSEs) to employment growth and prosperity
and investment and business opportunities to the world,
with the goal of making the region an investment
destination.
Collaborate at the Top First
It’s not enough for leaders to spot
collaborative opportunities and attract the best talent
to them. They must also set the tone by being good
collaborators themselves. All too often, efforts to
collaborate in the middle are sabotaged by political
games and turf battles higher up in leadership. To
partner and collaborate more effectively the Northern
States Governors must demonstrate good collaborators
themselves.
Show a Strong Hand
As with the issue of complacency, once
leaders start getting these centers to collaborate, they
face a different problem: overdoing it. Too often people
will try to collaborate on everything and wind up in
endless meetings, debating ideas and struggling to find
consensus. They can’t reach decisions and execute
quickly. Collaboration becomes not the oil greasing the
wheel but the sand grinding it to a halt. The solution
should be
emphasis on a balanced approach to
development and following already established targets
and timelines for economic growth of the region.
Solid Mineral & Agriculture
Northern Nigeria is blessed with land for
agriculture as well as natural mineral resources
sufficiently concentrated in commercial quantity for
commercial exploitation. Mining opportunities are huge
and there is no state in Northern Nigeria that does not
have different mineral resources in commercial quantity.
Some of the minerals include iron ore, gold, mercury,
ironstone, limestone, lead, zinc, crude oil, natural
gas, marble, dolomite, clay, emerald, aquamarine,
columbite, tantalite, manganese, vanadium, chromite,
wolfram, limonite, tourmaline, zircon, ruby, sapphire,
topaz, fluorspar, coal, mica, garnet, glass sand, beryil,
graphite, spinel, kaolin, zoisite, agates, onyx, barytes,
etc. Northern Nigeria is therefore amply endowed with
many useful solid minerals which appropriate incentives
and the political will of governments will stimulate
private sector participation leading to
industrialization and human capital development. This
means, States, through their Center for Excellence could
collaborate with genuine investors to establish
mineral-based industries, including petrochemical,
refinery, detergents, metallurgical, cement, electronic,
pharmaceuticals, fertilizer, animal feeds, ornaments,
kaolin plants, etc., including agro-allied industries
and livestock value chain (more details under
herdsmen/farmers crises).
We have neglected science, engineering,
medicine and technology for a very long time and schools
have been relegated, teachers incompetent, research and
development (R&D) almost non-existence or not
encouraged, consequently, equipment, machinery,
services, raw materials, research-development and even
human capital are continuously being imported, so many
misdiagnoses resulting to medical holidays abroad for
simple ailment. Industrialization is a process of social
and economic change whereby a society is transformed
into a modern, innovative and efficient system with good
family societal values that ushered in a form of
philosophical change, where people develop a different
attitude towards one another, toward their perception of
their environment and thus their well-being. Research
has shown that Northern Nigeria receive six hundred
(600) watts of solar energy per square meter for a daily
average of 11 hours thereby making the region among the
highest in the world of quality sunshine. If only 0.1%
of this sunshine is converted and harnessed at an
efficiency of just 1%, it will almost meet the energy
needs of the entire Northern states. Solar can be used
to design and develop a photovoltaic powered lighting
and other applications. Many have suggested that, with
constant power supply, processed tomatoes, onions,
ginger, carrots, beans, chilli pepper, potatoes,
groundnuts, vegetable oils, sweeteners and syrups from
grains, livestock feeds, cotton, etc, which are
available in commercial quantity could bring Northern
Nigeria out of its present depression. Almost everyone
opines that Northern State Governors should not
only begin to realign their spending more towards
attracting, protecting and retaining investors in the
solid mineral and agricultural sectors of their various
States and the region as a whole but also embark on
enhanced social investment in mass education and skills
training. Since the North remains home to vast areas of
arable land and once boasted groundnut pyramids that
dotted the landscape, such pyramids can once again come
back to become a cash crop that will finance families
and empower the region. The climate is also perfect for
cotton, which can easily be leveraged into a textile and
garment industry using technology for local businesses
to create competitive advantage with other small African
countries involved in the sector. Like what the Chinese
did some years back: built tangible infrastructure:
power, water and access roads, educated and
skill-upgraded their people making them easily
trainable, registered them: created state manpower
Database of every graduate, entrepreneurs and those that
acquired the “in-thing skills”, then invited investor
(mostly Americans and Europeans) with huge unbelievable
incentives. The catch! Any investor must employ at least
40% of Chinese workforce and they most come from the
created state manpower Database. Already, the Chinese
government had made sure that some educated
entrepreneurs. PhDs, etc., were included in the Database
with a clear instruction to go into these companies,
learn most of their trade and in 3 to 5 years quit and
start their own company, with government financial
support of-course; and clear instruction to first start
copying and gradually innovate to compete with the
original company. The end is history, now, they don’t
only compete but lead in many sectors. Likewise, during
Reagan and Japanese renegotiation of their economic
partnership agreement, Reagan compelled (re-negotiated)
the Japanese to set up industries in the US, manufacture
locally any product, including cars and parts that they
sell 2.5 million pieces or more in the USA and also to
employ 60% or more of local workforce, this boosted the
US economy significantly. Today, Chinese sell millions
of various products in our region and Nigeria all
produced not in Nigeria, not even in Africa but in
China.
Recommendation 1 - Actionable Plan
The inputs received conclude that
following this simple concept will enable northern
region to develop its strategic transition plan,
address economic shocks and volatility as well as
develop collaborative networking program and
decision making strategy.
States Leadership within the region should come
together to create and adopt a five (5) year Arewa
Regional Economic Plan as soon as possible this year
or early next year with emphasis on a balanced
approach to development and established targets for
economic growth of the region. The plan should be
built on the ideas highlighted above as well as
current regional opportunities, collaboration and
innovation.
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