Let’s SWOT Nigeria

I have read various articles in the Nigerian newspapers for as long as I can remember. I am sure many of us have read many of these articles too. The articles usually boarder around the inefficiencies of our government, failure to deliver the promised dividend of democracy, corruption and plenty plenty plenty. The problem I observe is that these articles focus on only a single aspect of an organisation’s strategic challenges. It’s weaknesses. No organisation would survive if it keeps on like this.

I think it is time we do a SWOT analysis on our father land Nigeria.

I am sure a SWOT analysis is not new to many of us. Especially those who work in the business environment. For those who are not familiar with it, SWOT refers to Strength, Weakness, Opportunity and Threats. Every organisation periodically needs to identify areas that affect this four. The purpose is to get a common sense view of the organisations performance and make common sense deductions. Nigeria is no exception to this rule. At least we all know its weaknesses. A SWOT analysis is not an exercise in futility. The primary purpose is to identify your weaknesses and see how you can convert them to strengths and also see how you can convert threats to opportunities. In fact some strengths even have underlying weaknesses. For instance, an organisation with excessive cash in the bank implies many things. They might be under investing, they might not be managing the treasury efficiently by taking advantage of financial investments opportunities. They might even conclude that the treasury department is not as competent as they should be and needs overhauling. As a matter of fact, a SWOT might make you realize that you have more strength than you have chosen to identify. Now I hope you understand, let us SWOT Nigeria.

Let’s start with strengths. This is primarily due to the fact that S comes first. Sorry all pessimists who focus on weaknesses first. I guess putting S first is intended to create an air of optimism. Hmmm, We are not as bad as we thought.




Strength:
· We are the most populous black nation. That is something we all know even though we don’t know how many we really are. This is a huge strength because there is strength in numbers. Well, there has to be.
· We have a diversified culture. Contrary to popular belief, this really has its strength. The strongest organisations usually possess all sorts of skills within it.
· We are rich in natural resources. Ok, we are rich in oil. The largest producer in Africa. Ok, we used to be. Being number 2 should also be considered a strength. I never knew Angola had so much oil.
· We have land mass. Yes, we do have excessive land mass. Zimbabwe should dwarf us in the agricultural sector. Well, they do now. Thanks to Mugabe. But at there very best, we were grossly inefficient. I think I am jumping into weaknesses here. I wish I could tabulate these observations. It would have been easier to understand.
· We have a brand. Weather we like it or not, we do have a brand. Who does not know Nigeria anywhere? We would talk more about this later.
· We have extremely intelligent individuals. Take note of individuals though. Talk to an average Nigerian and you would get a full analysis of our country. Even though the focus is usually on weaknesses. We even have a Nobel Laurette. We have a booker prize winner. We have a computer genius recognized worldwide. Did you know the Big Brother 2 house was designed by a Nigerian. Professor Omotoso I think. You see what I mean? All the way in South Africa. The problem is we are individuals not a group.
· We are extremely optimistic people. We still believe Nigeria will be great someday. No matter how bad things get, we get hope well well.

We can go on and on about our strengths. We have many and when we do realize so, we might as well start talking about them. America has its weaknesses too. But watch an average American movie and it reels of hope, a unified nation, a nation where you leave no one behind and definitely a nation where you can be all you can be.

Compare this to Nigerian movies. We don’t preach a theme that could make us collective and productive. We talk about juju, polygamy and sadly corruption. Yes, this is who we are but we need to start portraying who we really need to be. I was talking to a Zimbabwean recently and her understanding of Nigeria was based on these home videos. Yes, I said Zimbabwean. The censor board needs to try and re-address these issues before we loose our values completely.

Now to our weaknesses
· We are corrupt. No surprises here. Transparency international rates us as one of the most corrupt nations in the world. We are currently rated 121. the good news might be that we are not alone. Four other countries are with us on this position. Nepal, Sao Tome, Togo & Vietnam. Talk about a photo finish.The bad news is that Ghana is rated 67, Gabon is 96, South Africa is 54. Please note that 121 is worse than 67. The higher the worse. Are we really the giants of Africa? To be more direct, we are extremely corrupt
· We are greedy: Grab all we can. Don’t bother asking why or how much.
· Unemployment rate is high. No figures to quote but who thinks otherwise? Remember this is a SWOT no need to get too analytical.
· We are not future oriented. Our leaders have no clue what we will be in 5 years time. They don’t even have a clue about tomorrow. What legacy are we leaving behind? All those things just don’t matter. What can I chop now. I need to buy that house in Dubai. That’s even going too far. We have started buying houses in Ghana.
· Money defines us. A Nigerian is as important as his net worth. Who cares? We have no interest in intellect. We don’t see the gains. At least immediately. What a waste of 120 million people. Nigerian movies, please take note. You make it worse.
· Our Academy has collapsed completely. We really have no clue on the impact of this to the future of our children and grand children. I can’t paint it here. Let’s leave it to our imagination. All I can say is that it is completely gruesome. We have computer science graduates still being lectured on Fortran. Worse of all, the programs are written on paper. We have accounting graduates who have no clue what accrual and cost accounting refers to. My God.
· Our value systems have failed us completely. We have parents in high places who steal public funds like that were the primary job description. Their kids enjoy this booty and see nothing wrong with it. You rarely find a kid whose parents hold high position living a frugal life. They flaunt it and we just can’t do anything about it. As a matter of fact, being their friends is also flaunted with pride. Values like honesty, fairness, diligence to duty just don’t exist any more.
· We have a weak brand. Tell a foreigner you are a Nigerian and you are in for it. 419 springs to mind. Aggressiveness follows suite. That is really how the world sees us. Yes, everyone knows us. But they do so for the wrong reasons. The sad part is that we live in self denial. We have leaders who pretend these flaws don’t exist. By the way these same leaders have their kids schooling and living in countries with a more favourable corruption index. Even Ghana. I know a previous Governor whose son schooled in Ghana and was eventually kicked out after the egunje option ran out. I hope our level of corruption has not started to hunt us. Level of corruption is positively correlated to the behaviour of our kids. Maybe if we can prove this. Maybe they just might stop. Ooops, I forgot, we have no values.



I hate to go on about our weaknesses. I am beginning to sound like all the other articles. Now I get it. There are so many weaknesses and it hurts so much we just keep on talking and writing about them. Maybe I have missed a weakness. Our leadership fails us. Our leadership has not been sincere. That could easily be deduced from some of the weaknesses. That’s the beauty of SWOT.

Opportunities
Now let’s look at the opportunities out there.
· Globalization. The trend in globalization over the years have definitely trickled our way. Access to information and education in countries that still take it seriously. We now have access to technologies that would have otherwise eluded us. Are we taking advantage of it? We have lecturers who don’t use these facilities at their optimum. We have government who can reach the people more easily using these cost effective options. Rather than create websites that could address these communication flaws, we are more interested in awarding bloated contracts for websites that add no value. I heard of a government website that cost 40 million naira. I won’t tell the URL. I also came across a website recently that belonged to a current minister of states for one of our ministries. I was utterly impressed. He really wanted to reach out and fix the Nigeria problem. I sent him an email on some of my observations and I was surprised when I got a reply two hours later. It all comes down to sincerity of our leaders.
· Increasing oil prices. In the 70s, Gowon said that we had too much money but we had challenges spending it. Then the boom went away and we surely did not know how to spend it. Fast forward to Now. The boom is here again and it seems the story has not changed. Someone said Gowon was too young at the time. A little trivia for you all. How old was Gowon when he was president? Your discovery would shock you. I am not sure if age was the problem anymore. How old was IBB? How old was OBJ? and how old is Yar Adua? There must be other factors beyond age and beyond Mr. President. Let’s not look back and repeat the 70s oil boom wastage. We shouldn’t make the same mistake twice.
· We have land mass, we have people. Agriculture offers us an opportunity for growth like never before. We all know the Malaysia story. It is beginning to sound like a legend though. Was it real? We talk about it like we all saw them come and we saw them carry those seedlings away. Maybe they took the best seedlings. Maybe that is it.
· We have negotiating power. I hate to break it down to you but we have the resources to make demands. The world needs us. Don’t let them bluff you. The oil companies need us. They would have left if they did not. With all the kidnapping, they still hang around. The problem is the government agencies. NNPC / NAPIMS/ DPR are all working in their self interest. Do a research on Oman and the realities will shock you. They protect their country like it belonged to the individuals that work there. In summary, they are patriotic. Are we telling us we are getting the best deals from the Oil companies? Do they have oil spills in Saudi Arabia, Oman & America the way we have here? The truth is that our official cut corners and the oil companies choose to play along. Any business man would do the same I guess. But what happened to corporate social responsibility? Academic I guess. The bottom line is that we have negotiating power. Thank God for Oil. But what are we doing about it while we can?
· We have a huge number of experienced Nigerians in diaspora. We have the best of the best Africans gaining huge experience in developed countries. The irony is that they left because we refused to function. But we can turn the tides if we sincerely want them to come back. Nigerians love home and are very proud of being here. Like we realized everyone tries to work in their self interest so we can’t blame them. Obasanjo did it by bringing in the Okojo-Iwealas. Well, for a while then things started falling apart. If you bring in people based on values then that is what you get. They don’t dance. Period. I am yet to see a similar initiative by Yaradua. I hope it is not an indication not to change the status quo. All we hear are the same old same old names. Are we not tired of below par performance from our leaders. Mr President, you are as good as the people you employ. We have a vision 2020 with a happily after ending, yet, we have no knights in shining armour. Who are we fooling?


Threats
· Globalization. Make no mistake about it, globalization has its challenges too. Please don’t eat all you are offered. Everyone one works in his self interest. So do countries. We hosted Professor Eric Maskin recently who won the Nobel Laurette in economics for 2007. He argued that globalization widens the gap between the rich and the poor countries and also ends up degrading the environment. Think about it, if I employ you to take care of my house because you do it most efficiently, I would still do better with my house than yours. As a matter of fact my primary objective is to make my house better off. Like everything in life, there are drawbacks. We need to look at globalization and provide a win-win position. It explains the current focus on local content in the Oil & Gas industry. But, are we looking deep enough?
· Poor Academia: Still connected with globalization, we would need to provide the work force that can compete with the world. If we open our shores as it is now, we would be robbed. As it is, we are completely inexperienced and unprepared to compete. If we eat globalization in its totality, WE WILL LOOSE.
· Poor Infrastructure: Same argument. WE WILL STILL LOOSE. Our leaders need to understand that we are cutting off our noses in order to spite our face. What’s the connection? I am not sure. I just like saying it.
· Abundant Natural Resources: Oil seems to be a cause to us. Let’s call it the abundance paradox. How do we convert this threat into and opportunity and the strength it rightfully deserves.
· Poor Leadership: Yes you can repeat similar observations. It usually seems like a repetition and maybe a challenge in differentiating between the SWOTs. The rule of thumb is that if you find a recurrent theme, then it could lead to a strategic issue that needs attending to. Leadership here cuts across. I don’t refer to Mr. President. I refer to all our decision makers. However, “the buck stops at his table”


Now we have completed the academic exercise of SWOTing our country, let us try and construct a strategic issue facing Nigeria.

Nigeria is a country abundant in human and natural resources with a high dependence on Oil as a strong contribution to GDP. The country however lacks human capital and would face serious challenges if we swallow globalization on face value. The country has failed to deliver the dividend of democracy through sincere and forward thinking leaders who don’t their country first.

I believe this summarizes the long thing I listed above beautifully termed SWOT. What a waste of time. Who doesn’t know this is our strategic problem?

When an organisation works out a strategic summary like this, the next question to ask is “What can we do to eliminate these threats and weaknesses”?

· Our leaderships needs to be sincere and get people who can do the job
· We need to address the academia. I think this is of higher priority than the power sector.
· We need to provide the necessary infrastructure to attract foreign investments and also improve efficiency locally. In other words increase our GDP from other sectors and improve our quality of life. I hear Nigerians all the time say if the Government can provide constant power, they are fine to do the rest. I totally agree. That is the least you can do for us.

The order of the above is deliberate and is listed in order of importance. Let’s call it precedence. If leadership is not sincere, then let’s kiss the other issues good bye. We see the decline in many states over the years and it all comes down to LEADERSHIP. We all love to compare Cross River State under Donal Duke to many other states. And it still comes down to LEADERSHIP. Provide good leadership and every other thing will follow.

As a matter of fact, the president’s job is just too easy. All he has to do is put the people who can act and understand what the problems are in the RIGHT places. The problem we have is in his power to take such decisions. Please Mr President, act now before the organisation we call Nigeria declines so badly we would need to be acquired. Sadly, by some of our leaders who would be richer than their country. Mobutu Sese Seko proved that it can happen.


Some bonus for you all. A few quotes from Brave Heart. You remember that movie?
I know. I know you can fight. But it's our wits that make us men.
There's a difference between us. You think the people of this country exist to provide you with position. I think your position exists to provide those people with freedom. And I go to make sure that they have it.