Make no mistake about it; fixing Nigeria should never be left to any one individual or entity. The rot and stench successively left by the ultra-narcissistic leaders have not only brought the country to its knees, her limbs are so badly crushed that the surgery needed to make her walk again will have to be ruthless and total.
Let’s face it; the Nigerian story is the stuff paradoxes are made of. The level of poverty is simply mind-boggling, in a country touted to be growing economically. And there is enough blame to go round here.
Is it redeemable? Oh yes! But suggesting that the government alone at whatever level is left to bear the responsibility can best be described as
naïve.
Perhaps, there has never been a better time in our history to cultivate the Public Private Partnership model in nation building than now. This is because, even with all the good intentions in the world, this government, and even the one to come after it, will just be scratching the surface if ever it decides to walk alone.
Aside strengthening public institutions with its multiplier effects on the business environment, any government of the day must work with individuals and organisations in the private sector if it wishes to succeed.
One man who has already shown – and still showing – the way is Aliko Dangote, the president and chief executive officer of Dangote Group. Maybe it has do with his having to build a business right from the scratch and nurture it into a global brand, or being confronted daily with a prevalent level of poverty that should never be rationalised, or, as he said recently, because he owed his wealth to the society that has been kind to him.
Whatever his motivations are, Alhaji Aliko Dangote is daily making, not just Nigeria but also Africa a better place one plant at a time.
With the commissioning of another cement factory today in Duala, Cameron, Africa’s richest man leaves no one in any doubt of his intentions and readiness to create wealth by creating opportunities on the continent.
Just recently, he also commissioned another Dangote Cement plant in Ethiopia, which he says is in line with his vision to become one of the world’s biggest cement producers, a dream that has seen him planning and setting up new cement plants and terminals across 16 African countries, including Senegal, Ghana, South Africa and Zambia.
But even beyond Africa, he is also expanding his cement empire to Nepal in Asia. That project, he says, will be operational in 30 months.
Coming home to Nigeria, Dangote has the largest sugar refinery in Africa and the third largest in the world, producing 800,000 tonnes of sugar annually.
His efforts have achieved four major goals of strengthening local manufacturing capacity, generating employment, preventing capital flight, as well as providing locally produced goods for the people.
The group presently employs over 11,000 people and you can only imagine the multiplier effect on thousands of families across the continent.
You can say he is a man on a mission; development and wealth creation mission, that is.
Of course, it is easy, and also tempting, to point to privileges in terms of waivers and other opportunities that he might have leveraged on to grab a piece of the moon. And yes, no one can shrug off these props – and perhaps a bit of luck – in the making of Africa’s richest man.
But as we reflect on the life of a former Nigerian president who was propped to office and even named goodluck, we see that props and luck are not always a guarantee of performance.
Within five years that president produced propsters who raised Nigeria’s private jet club from zilch to a $4billion industry; those who borrowed millions of dollars from bailout funds and used same to buy houses in Dubai and South Africa; crooks whose expensive lifestyles were subsidised by a miserable public.
Clearly, Dangote has chosen a different path. Beyond his wealth creation efforts within Nigeria and Africa, Dangote has also invested very heavily in developmental efforts. His foundation donated about N30bn to charity between 2012 and 2014. That is about N1.5bn monthly in philanthropy.
From taking electricity to 15 villages in Benue to founding a scholarship scheme in Yewa, Ogun State, there is hardly any region of this country that Aliko Dangote has not touched positively through his foundation.
The world has also noticed. At the gathering of Nigeria’s business leaders and philanthropists in Abuja last week, the UN secretary–general, Ban Ki-moon, singled him out for special commendation for his dedication to humanity.
In a country where the super-rich are usually identified by their almost criminally extravagant routine, aimed sometimes at devaluing the weak and poor, the Dangote example cannot be lost on anyone.
Ref: http://www.leadership.ng/columns/456806/just-a-few-more-dangotes
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