Nigeria, the so-called ‘giant of Africa ‘ is fast becoming a shadow of itself. From the pinnacle of relevance as being the most populous black nation in the world to a land endowed with enormous human and natural resources, the country is loosing its highly magnified framework of international and global recognition.
October 1 1960 birthed a nation that would be known to be home to the highest concentration of black people in the world. Known for its enormous resources, each regions at the time survived independently through the instrumentality of viable and sustaining agriculture. The Eastern region was known for the abundant production of palm oil and other related derivatives. Cocoa was an export crop produced in the western region and the famous groundnut pyramid was the symbol of the food strength of the northern region. Together, Nigeria prospered economically.. The political sagacity and geniuses of the Late Chief Obafemi Awolowo of the Western region, late M.I Okpara of the Eastern region and Sir Ahmadu Bello of the Northern region ensured peaceful co-existence as they independently mapped out posterity-driven strategies to make their respective regions peculiar. Consequently, Nigeria, before the coup in 1966 and Civil War of 1967-1970, was one of the best nations to visit from anywhere in the world!
Unfortunately, the discovery of oil was the commencement of what would epitomize the decline of the viable economy. There was a subsequent shift of focus from Agriculture to oil. The 70s saw the emergence of oil gradually taking its stance as the main-stay of the Nigerian economy. The oil boom of the 80s had the Nigerian attention completely focused on the oil sector. A mega-business it was and fast growing, the politicization soon crept in. Before eyes could bleak, corruption was the developing cancer whose anomalous spread affected other sectors of the economy. Hence, making difficult foreign investment to thrive in Nigeria.
As more multi-national companies begin to contemplate leaving the once-prospering economy, the following are reasons their decisions to leave Nigeria would see the light of day
Irregular Power Supply: Nigeria is own to be the parent supplier of the power to neighbouring countries as Ghana, Cameroon, Niger, Chad, Benin Republic and Togo. But it’s ironic these countries experience steady power supply whereas it’s just the exact opposite in Nigeria! Most of these corporations spend on petrol and other alternative power sources astronomical amount of money to keep business operations running. The recurrent deficits make many foreign companies check out of Nigeria to even other countries like Ghana due to power issues. A typical example is Michelin Tires. They shut down operations in Nigeria to set up a base in Ghana due to the incessant power instability in Nigeria.
Unhealthy Political Interference
There is hardly no business set up emerging in Nigeria that would absorb one form of political interference or the other which would pose dents on the technocratic integrity and affirmative philosophy of business establishments. With that in place, private investors would have to cough out certain money to grease the palms of politicians who would use their cronies to disrupt the smooth-running of businesses run by private investors through heavy taxes and unnecessary impositions on company expenditure. If the said company complies to the status quo, service delivery would be affected and quality of products may not commensurate with consumer’s satisfaction. In addition, to recoup the expenses, consumers are being charged exorbitant prices which is actually a counter-productive one!
Security tensions
The ‘grey-area’ security architecture in Nigeria creates a topsy turvy has created clap-backs by established private investors in the country. The almost-collapsed security system in the country has paved way for several terrorist groups constituting cataclysmic aftermaths to individuals and businesses. With the dreaded Boko Haram, threatening Herdsmen, notorious Miyati Allah, masquerading Unknown gunmen and mean kidnappers destructively interfering the security structure in the North-East, North-West, North-Central, South-South, South-West , South-South and South-East geo-political zones, Nigeria is one of one that nations of the world on the Terrorist Watchlist. That alone makes it unsafe of foreign investment to thrive in the country.