Grandiose Parlor

Nigeria is a sick nation needing disruptive turnaround!

Kara meat markey in Lagos, Nigeria. Photo: Reuters

There are three clear-cut prognoses to any medical malady: It can either resolve; turn chronic, lingers and cripple the victim, figuratively; or the victim may just caput, and succumb to the illness.

That Nigeria is sick is stating the obvious, but as apparent as this may be, Nigerians keep getting smacked in the face, incessantly, by actions and developments that continue to buttress this fact. Here are some reference points in 2009:

1. Abandoned investigations: Halliburton bribery case & power contracts investigation in the national assembly
2. The botch trial of former governors James Ibori and Goodie Igbinedion by the EFCC, suspected of massive embezzlement while in office. And the continued disconnection between the electorate and the elected; election fraud and manipulation.
3. A visibly sick and chronically incapacitated president that refuses to quit, and who is currently kept incommunicado from his cabinet members in a foreign land.
4. A retiring Chief Justice has to swear in a successor, thereby committing judicial faux pas because the president is too sick to perform.
5. The failed “6000MW by 2009” promise. In fact, the president promised to declare a state of emergency in the power sector and make it #1 priority when he campaigned for office. It has not happened.

There are several answers to this recurring theme, but one take-home message is that the nation is at a moment of peril. So what is the prognosis?

While many would wish for a resolution with little or no complications, very few are ready to pay the price to make this happen. It appears we have wallowed so long in the valley of ineptitude and sleaze that many have depleted the energy to ascend to higher grounds.

The danger of this clear: One acquires the attributes of a bottom-feeder creature. Even despite having a massive repository of natural wealth, after years of prolonged ailment, a promising nation could easily mutate into a lowly caste among nations; a retched modern-day Babylonian empire!

There are two options for Nigeria at this time – succumb to the national malady; implode and disintegrate, or recover. But the recovery comes at a price, and given the extent of grime and rust that have penetrated the national anatomy, recovery can not but be painful, and disruptive, akin to the disruptive technologies in the business and technology realms.

Disruptive technology and disruptive innovation are terms used in business and technology literature to describe innovations that improve a product or service in ways that the market does not expect… (Wikipedia)

Can Nigeria be turned around in this manner?

The only barrier to disruptive turn-around is the few, but powerful, cabal that lurk in the shadows, watchful of changes in the status quo.

Just as disruptive technologies can be threatening to the leaders of an existing market, simply “because they are competition coming from an unexpected direction”; a disruptive turn-around in Nigeria — even though of great benefit to the masses — will knock the cabal off their high horses and will be resisted.