Fellow Nigerians, by now, most of you must have heard the lame and intellectually leprous excuse given by Lai Mohammed as the reason why twitter moved its HQ to Ghana despite the fact that Nigeria has the highest traffic in the sub-region.
Lai Mohammed’s response wasn’t only patently false, it was depressing and a clear sign of intellectual dishonesty. Unpatriotic Nigerians have absolutely nothing to do with such a major investment decision. The blame lies completely at the feet of the FG for what they have failed to do over the years.
According to the financial times, foreign investment decisions are usually influenced by the following factors;
- Stability of government policies
- Independence of judiciary
- Presence of infrastructure
- Security
- Market availability
- Ease of doing business
Did you see anywhere the patriotic level of citizens was listed as a factor? Aside market availability, we are nowhere to be found in the other 5.
Lai Mohammed needs to be reminded that it was not unpatriotic citizens that made the US, UK, France and Germany to issue negative travel advisory to its citizens about travelling to Nigeria. It was the total and complete failure of Nigeria to provide security that warranted this.
Lai Mohammed must be told clearly that it was the government that invaded the houses of Supreme court justices at night so as to intimidate them. Imagine a foreign company having a case against the government. Is that how they will invade the house of the judge handling the case?
The policy summersault by government on forex availability is enough to drive any reasonable investor away. What role did we the citizens play in making the government absolutely incapable of sustaining a reasonable forex policy? I don’t even want to talk about electricity and other infrastructure.
As usual, what Lai Mohammed attempted to do was to deflect attention from the failure of the government he
speaks for. The convenient thing was now to blame the citizens since it will at this point sound rather lunatic to be blaming the previous government.
We must collectively reject this blame and instead, educate Lai Mohammed on the reasons why any reasonable investor will shun Nigeria until there is a drastic change in the way things are done.
The international community keeps listening to the barbaric manner students are kidnapped from their schools, how travelers going about their normal businesses are kidnapped on the way, how bandits and other terrorist elements are having a field day, and how the government keeps paying ransom to bandits. Are these not enough reasons to drive away investors?
A minister of information should among other skills possess these 3; he must be sufficiently knowledgeable in world affairs, he must be visibly eloquent and must inspire a level of confidence in the citizens. Lai Mohammed lacks all! He is rather an expert in propaganda and peddling of falsehood.
While it is sad that investors that should naturally come to Nigeria are looking at other smaller countries, the positive is that this should be a wake up call to the government to rise from its eternal slumber and take charge.
Nigeria has lost its glory in the African region.
Rather than telling lies and blaming the citizens, the government should as a matter of urgency act in a responsible manner.
