Let me start by congratulating President Dr Gooduck Ebele Jonathan and all our leaders in government on the 51st independence anniversary of Nigeria.I also in a very special way greet all Nigerians in this same view and for their uncommon act of solidarity, belief and endurance inspite of the unwarranted suffering and socio-economic discontent which have become the lot of our people.The experience of the nation especially since 1966 when coup and counter coups entered the political lexicon of Nigeria, creating the foundation for disconnection from norms, rule of law, accountability, socio-economic and political stability and values-all which combine to negatively reshape the destiny of Nigeria ; bring to the fore the need for a re-order of priorities. We have gone from military era to one civilian administration after the other without any radical departure from this journey to perdition. The conclusion of the worldview about Nigeria is that we have gotten it all wrong and therefore, must start digging a new foundation upon which we can begin to build new blocks of hope and progress for our people. By way of personal assessment of the circumstances which brought Jonathan to power, I am inclined to believe that God is trying to give us a new grace and opportunity to retrace our steps and redirect the ship of state to a glorious voyage. This task daunting as it may appear (especially in the face of the current experience of insurgency), is a collective effort and is quite achievable.Part of the ingredient of this new direction is to have a leader with VISION and COMMITMENT who will be able to surround himself with people of like minds and then possess the listening ears so as to gauge the mood and the reactions of the people to policy actions of Government. To a fairly large extent, Jonathan's administration with the crop of aides seems to fit this bill for now in spite of the current challenges which have also generated obvious criticism. Part of the essentials which will assist this team to succeed is the subject matter of this write up 'SETTING A NATIONAL ORDER OF PRIORITIES for Nigeria. Learning from God: Nigeria as a nation and as a people and indeed this government can learn from the arrangement of God at creation. When God created Adam and Eve, He made to grow different species of fruit; isolated the place and called it GARDEN OF EDEN and put Adam and Eve therein to live. The lesson to learn from this experience in our setting a national priority agendum is that the fruits provided by God for Adam and Eve are products of agriculture to PROVIDE FOOD SECURITY and prevent any form of grumbling as a hungry man is an angry man. Therefore, in our agenda setting for this nation, AGRICULTURE must take the front seat. A situation whereby 70 percent of the food we consume in Nigeria are imported cannot be allowed to continue as a nation that cannot feed her citizenry is still a nation in bondage. Two, the Garden of Eden that housed Adam and Eve represents the provision of shelter which this government must also take a cue from and provide affordable shelter for the people nationwide. This can be achieved through a government consciously driven public private partnership (PPP). Moving forward from our lesson of God's arrangement, Adam and Eve went ahead to disobey God by eating the forbidden fruit and their eyes became open and saw themselves naked. To cover their nakedness, they quickly plucked the fig tree leafs, weaved them to cover their NAKEDNESS-This represents clothing and takes Nigeria to manufacturing which the TEXTILE INDUSTRY must be the bedrock. With learning from God, Nigeria would have succeeded in establishing a national order of priority that will first take care of the basic necessities of life-FOOD, clothing and shelter.Learning from other countries: Our new efforts at revamping the manufacturing or production sector must be determined by sincerity of purpose. To my mind, it will amount to deceiving ourselves if we believe today that Nigeria still possesses the available manufacturing/production sector to revamp. I say this because the manufacturing sector of the Nigerian economy today can be likened to the experience of a man who purchased a brand new car about 15 years ago, put it to some very good use for so many years without a single service or maintenance until the car's engine knocked and was abandoned. After several years of abandonment, somebody came and towed the vehicle to Kano or Enugu from Lagos. One fine morning, the owner of the car decided to go to Ladipo spare parts market to purchase parts to refurbish his car that has been towed to a location he cannot determine and which in reality, does not truly belong to him again. The reality of the manufacturing/production sector of Nigeria can be likened to the situation of this car owner as most of the manufacturing/production companies have moved to Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire, etc. and thus we cannot be proposing to revamp what in reality is no longer available. A new order of priority for the manufacturing sector is therefore to initiate a complete action plan that will seek to re-establish this sector with determination to make it work for Nigeria. For example, our new action plan must look back and collate information as to why we failed in our previous attempts. Our development finance arrangement must be sector-friendly. The power sector, efficient and affordable transportation system that incorporate both the rail and water transportation, simple but consistent rules and institutions that support the establishment and growth of the sector must be put in place. A subvention and other infant industry support policy is also strongly advocated. In this connection, it is strongly recommended that we start from the textile industry. The experiences of China, India, etc become veritable and apt in our circumstance.
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