If America is thinking of infrastructure, in spite of the advancement it has made, I doubt that prioritising this by Nigeria can be wrong. I suspect that there must have been a mix-up somewhere for Mr Peter Obi. I still like him though. I believe he should have a place in public service, even if in an advisory capacity. I know he loves statistics. I do too. But I don’t see a place for him at the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics.
I also think he is quite passionate about Nigeria and governance, impressed that he is one of the few who actually invests a bit of time in thought – he is always thinking about what is being done, how it is being done and how it can be done better or differently. Whereas one might not agree with some of his prescriptions, especially of late, not being sure of how much of what he says is politics and what is a dispassionate interrogation of policy.
Obi said: “Their debt has actually reduced because instead of being 50 percent of their GDP, it is now about 30 percent. What happened? Bangladesh took the money to SMEs. Today, Bangladesh is the second biggest exporter of textiles in the world. But first, to Mr Peter Obi’s comparison of the $35 billion he reports Bangladesh to be making from “textiles and textile materials”, with what he says Nigeria is making from oil. That is strange.
Dealing with actuals: In 2019, Nigeria’s total exports was, in fact, $63.8 billion, with revenue accruing to government from oil and gas being $34.22 billion. In the same year, while I could not isolate the revenue that accrued to the Bangladeshi government from total exports, which was $39.34 billion, the guess is that it is nothing compared to what comes from oil exports, with government directly involved.
He cites government’s investment in construction, first, of “a good network of roads linking the medium-sized cities to the larger ones, including the capital Dhaka and the major port city, Chittagong”, and later construction of rural roads as critical to the economic growth experienced by Bangladesh. “This situation was remarkably transformed within a span of 10 years, from 1988 to 1997, with the construction of the so-called feeder roads.
'not being sure of how much of what he says is politics and what is a dispassionate interrogation of policy.' This is struggle every political observer in Nigeria go through. We aren't sure if politicians are playing politics or making honest evaluations...