TIME TO INVEST IN NIGERIANS

Orile-Iganmu is a densely populated slum in Coker-Aguda LCDA of Lagos State about 10 minutes drive from Lagos Island, the financial capital of Sub-Saharan Africa. 

The contrast between both communities is so sharp and shocking that it is difficult to believe they are in the same state.

I recall my first visit to Orile-Iganmu in April 2007 and how I found it difficult to comprehend how poverty could be dwelling so close to the affluence on Lagos Island.

While deals worth billions of Naira were the order of the day in gleaming towers on the Island, Orile-Iganmu seemed locked in a stone-age time wrap. 

In the last few months though physical development has finally come the way of Orile-Iganmu courtesy of the Lagos State Government. 

Facilities at its sole health center are being upgraded and major existing roads are being rehabilitated with new roads being constructed.

Although the road construction is resulting in the demolishing of buildings, residents of the community are visibly excited at these developments. 

The only worry seems to be the need for the road constructions to be completed before the start of the raining season. 

Flooding has been the bane of the community over the years with the start of the rains seen more as a curse than a blessing. 

The expectation is that the speedy completion of the road projects will avert or reduce the annual flooding that makes living in Orile-Iganmu hellish. 

A more subtle implication of the ongoing physical developments that are going on in Orile-Iganmu are the new buildings already springing up in the community. 

This is also attracting more affluent people to relocate to Orile-Iganmu as rental values increase pushing poorer residents further to the outskirts of Lagos State. 

Local initiatives have been commenced by some community organizations such as Orile-Iganmu Progressive Association and Dynamic Youths to empower Orile people. 

Various trainings are going on to equip youths with vital working skills and also to develop the talents of those interested in the arts. 

The initiatives also extend to primary school pupils who are being assisted in the pursuit of quality educations. 

Those in business are being taught entrepreneurial skills while being encouraged to register or incorporate their businesses and embrace banking services. 

Lectures are regularly organized bringing experts in various fields to share their experiences to help the people adjust to the demands of a changing environment. 

The goal is for an empowered resident of Orile-Iganmu to emerge and take advantage of the physical developmental efforts of the Lagos State Government in the community. 

The efforts of these local organizations may be on a small scale but they point a pathway to the designing and implementation of a new order towards prosperity for all. 

It is a system that has to recognize and appreciate the importance of people as the main resource of a nation, state or community. 

The usual practice is to place emphasis on infrastructural development while the people are pretty much left to fend and train themselves. 

At least $100 billion of the stimulus package announced by President Obama during the last global financial crises was to revitalize the American educational sector with even more to be spent on health care. 

The advances made by America since the 1940s have depended on breakthroughs made by Americans in virtually every field or endeavor. 

Complacency set in once prosperity which is the offshoot of these advances turned Americans increasingly towards consumerism. 

The global economic crisis is forced Americans to reprioritize and pump trillions of USD towards programs that will develop Americans. 

In Nigeria, education and health are now private sector driven resulting in a pay as you use financing model further widening the gap between the rich and the poor. 

Trillions of Naira are budgeted and spent annually by all tiers of government with scant regard for the actual development of the Nigerian as opposed to Nigeria. 

Education, health, housing, and other programs that seek to improve the quality of life of all Nigerians must once more become the top priorities. 

The treatment of Nigerians as observers in articulating their developmental needs should be reversed in favor of a partnership between the people and those in government. 

Nigeria will find it difficult in the months and years ahead to fund the infrastructural development projects that have for years cornered a lion share of annual budgets. 

This is as revenue receipts from the sale of crude oil and gas increasingly decline, but investing in Nigerians will produce the advances that will propel us to prosperity.

The untrained, unskilled, un-empowered, uneducated and poor Nigerian of yesterday is at the head of the mob that is wrecking carnage today. 

There is still time to reverse or reduce the destruction that will be caused by this empowered mob tomorrow but only if the choice is made to invest in Nigerians today.