NAIJA NOW: Why serious investors aren’t interested in us

It’s a fact, social media is crazy media, most times. That’s why when you see something that keeps sense in resonance, something so turnt, you just go like “no no no…amma blog this!”. This was how I felt yesterday while reading a post from a Nigerian who evidently waxes cranial, Afolake Esosa Ojumu Oyofo, she wrote about why Naija at this moment, at this pace, with this retrogressive belief system, may not be the best investment destination for serious investors. It happened to be the most apt I’ve read in months!

Ladies and gentlemen, hear Afolake:

“Why Serious Investors Aren’t Interested In Us.

In the ‘outside’ world, Large scale electric power distribution began in 1895 The earliest railway was in 600BC. Nuclear energy power supply was first used in1942. Africa existed then o!

The first Roman roads were built 600BC. All 113 provinces were interconnected by 372 great roads, comprised of more than 400,000 km of roads and over 4,000 kilometres of many Roman roads survived for millennia.

Today, Amsterdam is laying solar panel roads which power bikes but will eventually power cars, lights and traffic lights.

In 2015, Govt is still inviting bids for 12 gauge “Mo le goke, Mo le so” trains and concrete roads. That’s like inviting me to invest in a grinding stone instead of a blender… Time warp.

Its not just corruption but a lack of vision that means we attract the wrong type of investors. We have insisted on remaining in medieval times so we shouldn’t wonder that only the Chinese are interested.

Those ones are busy buying up the world but using Africans as lab monkeys for their dangerous, cheap bye-products. The Chinese who put melamine (a product used to fortify glass), in milk? Hmmmm. Ok. (Nigerians have complained that the President hasn’t downsized his aircraft fleet. Who will buy them? Many have forgotten that a chopper Dasuki bought, crashed on its inaugural flight, O ho! Who go buy?)

If we are ready to soar, now is when to set aside rudimentary devt and call for visioneering futuristic projects that will attract the attention of top, hopping mad scientists and govts.

Those projects will be enabled by the basic, so it becomes a double win for us. For example, if we invite Ocean environmental studies or a Space program, the investors will arrive with the enabling infrastructure to complete the project: cutting edge uninterrupted power supply, transportation, housing pods etc.

All these ITTs for solar panels I see in the papers… smh. The purpose & what comes after the solar panels is way more important. It is broader. It is called The Future! Go further Nigeria! “

Excellent talk!