- By Reno Omokri
First published in my column, #TheAlternative, in Sunday ThisDay of September 1, 2019.
Two West African leaders went to Japan last week. Two of them lobbied Toyota to invest in their nations. But Toyota chose to invest in Ghana and snub Nigeria. Why? After all, Nigeria has a greater market than Ghana with her by far larger population. But what is in a HEAD is more important than the SIZE of the HEAD.
Toyota snubbed General Buhari of Nigeria and signed with Ghana for a reason. Only a fool agrees to invest in a country whose President makes CRIMINALS his MINISTERS and makes ACTIVISTS who protest against this him PRISONERS. You can’t be LIFELESS in America, and LIVELY in Japan!
You think Toyota will trust their investment to a man whose preferred reading is CARTOONS? GODLINESS is next to CLEANLINESS and CLUELESSNESS is next to LIFELESSNESS!
Have you heard Nana Akufo-Addo speak? You will feel pride as an African when he talks. His command of the English language and various Ghanaian languages is powerful. He speaks in a way that makes you want to listen and listens in a way that makes you want to speak. Compared to him, General Buhari is very lacklustre. Very lacklustre indeed. No wonder Toyota did not give him the time of day.
Akufo-Addo often speaks without reading a speech. He knows what he wants and says it. He does not outsource his government to his Chief of Staff. He is in CHARGE and Toyota knows it! Perhaps Toyota might have invested in Nigeria if our real President, Abba Kyari, had been in Japan, rather than the figure head called General Buhari.
Before General rose to power, Nigeria was Africa’s number one destination for Foreign Direct Investment according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. Please don’t take my word for this. Google it. Under Buhari, however, Nigeria is not even the number one destination for FDI in West Africa. That would be Ghana.
You cannot have a CARTOON loving leader and expect Toyota to invest in your country! Toyota makes CARS, not COMICS. They have done their due diligence. Who will entrust a $180 million investment to a man who opens newspapers and goes straight to the CARTOONS!
It is not only Toyota that snubbed Nigeria for Ghana. Dunlop Nigeria Plc and Michelin Nigeria limited have relocated to Ghana. That already gives Ghana a comparative advantage over Nigeria. But more importantly, good leadership relocated from Nigeria to Ghana in 2017 via Nana Akufo-Addo!
Take something as fundamental to both Nigeria and Ghana as KILLER HERDSMEN. Akufo Addo gave a shoot at sight order. Google it. General Buhari said “giving land for ranching is better than death”. Google it. If you are Toyota, where would you go?
The failure of leadership in Nigeria under General Buhari is so acute that Nigerians now open bank accounts in Ghana and other neighbouring countries in order to safeguard their savings from the ineptitude of General Buhari’s economic policy. An economic policy that orders the Central Bank of Nigeria not to provide foreign exchange for genuine businessmen importers, yet giddily provides forex for pilgrims to Jerusalem and Mecca.
Akufo-Addo is an Oxford and University of Ghana alumnus. Where is General Buhari’s certificate? Even Toyota can’t find it with all their technology. And you want them to invest in such a leader? Are they foolish like those that voted for Buhari?
I am willing to sponsor the next Guilder Ultimate Search and to triple the winnings if the organisers can make General Buhari’s WAEC certificate the object of the search. Maybe they can achieve what the 14 SANs Buhari hired could not do and unearth his certificate. I am sure the show will end without a WINNER!
Before he was executed, the late Major General Mamman Vatsa gave a word of advise to the Nigerian people saying ‘when you start to insult yourself, you will never lack those willing to join you’. Such is the condition Nigeria finds herself with General Buhari. Ghana is laughing at us
How could a nation of people that are the most educated of any immigrant community in the United States end up with a leader like General Buhari, a man whose highest educational qualification is a WAEC certificate and even that is questionable!
The quality of the Gross Domestic product of a nation is in direct proportion to the quality of her leadership. Do you think it is a coincidence that we became Africa’s biggest economy under a PhD holder and went into recession under a man of questionable WAEC status?
But until then, do not blame Toyota. Blame yourself for voting in a leader that does not know that West Germany ceased to exist in 1990!
Reno’s Nuggets
