NIGERIA: OUR GOALS

Dear reader, my heart is burning. It is burning with a dream of a better Nigeria. A Nigeria where Yola, Aba, Ilorin, Onitsha, Damaturu, and Abeokuta will be as beautiful as Paris, Orlando, Sydney, and (note this) Cape Town. I look forward to the day Nigerians will proudly have on T-shirts and caps with inscriptions like “I love Nigeria” or “I love Abuja”. As we prepare to celebrate 61 years of independence, we must begin the process of creating a better tomorrow for us and for our children.

Since vision is one of the indispensable characteristics of leadership, our leaders must capture and communicate a picture of a preferable future. We need good storytellers in government, who can use words to inspire us to develop wings in our imaginations and fly into the possibility of a developed country.

Anyway, I am only thinking aloud. Today, I am thinking about our goals. When I heard in the news that the Federal Government is preparing a budget for the next three years, I was excited, because, without specific goals like that, we cannot expect to succeed. The research was carried out on the graduating class at Yale University in 1948. Only 3% of
the students had their career goals clearly written out. They even had plans for the achievement of those goals.

Another 10% had goals, but they were vague and not clearly written down. The remaining 87% had no specific plans. Twenty-five years later, all those who had been in that graduating class were contacted. It was discovered that the 3% that had clear goals had accomplished between fifty to one hundred times what the 10% with vague goals had achieved. The remaining 87% had become frustrated and confused. Success is the achievement of set goals.

Without goals, success is almost impossible. This principle affects individuals, families, organizations, and nations. Dear reader, on this column last week, I was thinking aloud about the need for us to capture and define a vision of development for our country. Now, take a look at this picture of Mushin, Lagos in the year 2038A.D.

Do you think it is possible? After World War II, Japan began to set audacious ten-yearly goals to be the best in the production and export of steel, textiles, and electronics. Where they did not exceed their goals, they almost did. The result was rapid development for their country President John F. Kennedy did the same when he announced in 1960 that the United States would put a man on the moon within ten years.

In goal-setting, it is not so much the achievement of the goal that matters as much as the change that it produces in us. Goals inspire us to change our thinking and our direction. When in 1999 the late Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, then minister for Power and Steel, Chief Bola Ige, announced that he was going to turn a stone into bread by ensuring that there was uninterrupted power supply within one year, hope was kindled in our hearts.

Of course there was some skepticism, but people began to dream of its possibility. We all know the goal has not been achieved even after five years. Is that why we should be afraid to set goals in all areas of our national life? Chief Ige’s goal has not completely failed. Just like our President’s War Against Corruption has not.

They have revealed the capacity of our system to kill dreams and frustrate even the brightest of potentials. If the aspiration of our most powerful government officials can be frustrated by our system, think about the ordeals of individuals, families, and organizations. Now, I can hear you ask: “What about the goals we have set before? Goals like “VISION 2010”,

‘Housing for all by the year 2000’, ‘Health for all by the Year 2000’, ‘Food for all by year 2000’ and several others. Well, dear reader, they have become history but we have lessons to learn from them. One of the reasons for the failure of our national goals is the fact that they have not been owned by the people. Therefore, when they were not achieved; there was nothing we could do about them. The War Against Corruption is not making much impact because it is a war against the source of income of a large part of our population.

The National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS) will likely go the same way unless it
is sold to and eventually owned by the people. And like I said in my earlier article, the best way to communicate with people is in pictures. We need national re-orientation, but it will not happen without inspiring dreams of a prosperous Nigeria and audacious and specific goals in the areas of politics, the economy, transportation,
agriculture, sports, tourism, and information technology, and so on.

The changes in the banking sector since the announcement of a deadline for an increase in capitalization for banks is an example. Things are beginning to change. The announcement of a target often gold medals at the Olympic Games in Athens was good, but it came too late.

However, if we set the same goal for the next Olympics, it is possible. It will compel us to change the administration of sports in the country. China had a target of 20 gold medals, they got 32. Like I stated earlier, the plan to have a three-year budget is wonderful. However, it is largely predicated on the sale of crude oil. If the present administration develops goals for a longer period of time and sells them to the people, it would be its best legacy.

Those goals will change our economy and even influence future elections. And in selling goals to the people, we must remember that the best way to do it is to emphasize how they will benefit the people. People cannot commit to goals that will not give them and their children a better life.

My dear reader, remember I am only thinking aloud. If you are thinking too, let us hear
your thoughts. Write me.
Nigeria will succeed!