Why You Must Seek Riches

On The Path Of Winners

BY BAYO OGUNMUPE

 

Why You Must Seek Riches

THE desire for increase is inherent in nature. It is the fundamental impulse of the universe. Every human activity is based on the desire for increase. People are seeking more food, more clothes, better shelter, more luxury, more beauty, greater knowledge, more pleasure and more life.

  Every living organism is under this siege for continuous advancement. When increase of life ceases, dissolution and death set in. man instinctively knows this and he is forever seeking more riches. This law of perpetual increase is set forth by Jesus the Christ in His parable of the talents. Only those who continuously gain more, retain any. From him who has not, shall be taken away even from whatever he has left. Thus, to aspire for increase is lawful. Which is why all men and women are attracted to him who can give them more of the means of life.

  Do everything that you do in the firm conviction that you are an advancing person and that you are giving advancement to everybody. Feel that you are getting rich and that you are making others rich by conferring benefits on all. Do not boast of your riches, true faith is never boastful. The boastful person betrays doubt and fear. Let every act, tone and look express the assurance that you are getting rich. Undying faith in your riches will attract wealth and helpers to you.

  Impress others in such a way that they will feel that in associating with you, they are getting and will continue to get increase for themselves. See that you give everyone use value greater than the cash value you are taking from them. Take pride in doing this and let everybody know it.

  For that, you will have no lack of customers. People go where they are given increase and Jehovah who desires increase in all, will move you toward men and women who have never heard of you. Thus, your business will increase rapidly and you will be surprised by the windfall of benefits accruing to you. Hence from day to day, you will be able to secure greater advantages.

  But doing all these, you must never lose sight of your vision of financial independence. However, hearken to this word of caution! Beware of the insidious temptation of seeking power over others. Nothing is so pleasant to the profane mind as the exercise of power over others. The desire to dominate for selfish gratification is a curse of civilization. For ages, kings have drenched the earth with blood in their battles to extend their dominions. This is the source of poverty in a country like Nigeria. Corrupt leaders lay waste the lives and hearts of millions in their scramble for power over others. Commercial gain inspire politicians to lust for power. Therefore, you should  beware of being tempted to seek authority, to become a “master” and be considered a lord, one who is above the common herd, to impress others with lavish display of wealth.

  The mind that seeks mastery over others is the competitive mind. In order to become a champion, it is not necessary that you should rule over your fellowmen. Indeed, when you fall prey to the struggle for high office, you begin to be conquered by fate and your environment. Thus, your getting rich becomes a matter of chance and speculation. This is the golden rule of creative action. Do all you can do at work with your undying purpose of getting ahead. But do not work with the idea of currying favour with your employer. It isn’t likely he will advance you by your good work.

  The man who is merely a good workman, is valuable to his employer, it is not in his employer’s interest to promote him. He is worth more where he is. To secure advancement, being more than too large for your place, is necessary. The person who would advance is the one too big for his place and who has a clear vision of what he wants to be, and who is determined to be what he wants to be.

  Begin to think and act this way and opportunities will speedily open for you. Do not try more than fill your present position with a view of pleasing your employer. Do your work with the idea of advancing yourself. Hold the faith and purpose of increase and soon your power of purpose will begin to radiate and new opportunities will be attracted to you. There is a divine power that never fails to offer opportunities to the advancing man, who is moving in obedience to natural law. God cannot help helping you if you act this way. God must do so in order to fulfil His purpose through you. Do not wait for opportunities, seek new and take opportunities as they come. It will be the first step toward a greater opportunity. There is no such thing in the universe as a lack of opportunities for the man of genius. It is inherent in the cosmos that all things shall be for him and work for his good.

  Our champion for today is Otto Heinrich Warburg, the German physiologist, medical doctor and Nobel laureate. He was an officer of the elite cavalry regiment during the First World War and won the Iron Cross for bravery. He was a leading biochemist of the 20^th century who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology in 1931. In total, he was nominated an unprecedented three times for the Nobel prize for three separate achievements.

  Son of the physicist Emil Warburg, Otto was born in October 1883 and died in August 1970. Warburg’s father was a member of the illustrious Warburg family of Altona but had converted to Christianity from his Conservative Jewish parents. Warburg earned a doctorate in Chemistry from the University of Berlin in 1906. He earned the degree of Doctor of Medicine from the University of Heidelberg in 1911.

  Between 1908 and 1914, Warburg conducted research in marine biology in Naples, Italy. He left the Army to return to Academia at the behest of his friend Albert Einstein in 1918. Warburg investigated cancer cells and in 1931 was awarded the Nobel Prize for his discovery of the nature and mode of action of the respiratory enzyme. In 1963, the German Society for Biochemistry instituted The Otto Warburg Medal to commemorate Warburg’s outstanding achievements in molecular biology. It is the highest award for biologists and chemists in Germany.

How To Get What You Want

On The Path Of Winners

BY BAYO OGUNMUPE

How To Get What You Want

GETTING what you want is success. In effect, success comes from the application of a cause or goal. Essentially it’s the same in every facet of human endeavour. The difference is in what people want, it isn’t in accomplishments. Success is in the attainment of goals without regard to the things achieved. The cause of success is always in the person who succeeds because if the cause of success were in nature, outside the person, then every person similarly situated would succeed.

  This means the cause of success isn’t in the environment. Thus, it is certain that you can succeed if you will find out the cause of success, develop it and apply it properly to your work, for the application of the cause cannot fail to produce a given effect. The cause of success is a cosmic power within you. You have the power to develop this power without limit, because there is no limit to the development of mental growth. You can increase this mental power indefinitely. So you can strengthen it to achieve what you want. All you need learn is how to apply your cosmic power to attain your aims.

  The development of a perfect professional competence is essential to success in your chosen vocation. Which is why the application of the musical ability causes success in music, while that of the mechanical faculty causes success in engineering.

  But what is this something in a person that causes him to use his faculties successfully? The few who succeed use their faculties successfully. It is hard to get a word, which expresses the ability to succeed at your job. But I shall call the power, poise although it means more than poise, for poise is a condition combining action with faith. Faith consists in the action of believing things which cannot be proved. And what causes success is more than this.

  This is active power consciousness the Gnostics call Cosmic Consciousness. It is what happens when you know that you can do a thing and how to do it. That places success within your grasp, since you possess a success mindset already. You can when your subconscious affirms you can do it. But if your subconscious is dithering, then affirm your faith in the success mechanism of Cosmic Consciousness. The subconscious is the source from which power comes in the action of any faculty. And doubt impugns this power, impairing its efficacy. So, for effectiveness saturate your mind with the knowledge that you can do what you want to do. Because no one has ever used all the power that he is capable of, so it is within your power to make a greater success in your business than anyone has ever made before you.

  Having filled your mind with this can do spirit proceed to undertake the attainment of what you want. Attaining your aim is made more plainly by considering this analogy. In evolution, squirrels developed their leaping power to its fullest extent through continuous effort to advance. This brought forth the flying squirrel, with a membrane uniting the legs to form a parachute, enabling it to sail distances beyond an ordinary leap. An extension of the parachute jump of the flying squirrel produced the bat, which has wings that can fly. Continuous flight produced the bird with feathered wings. These transitions were accomplished simply by perfecting and extending functions. If squirrels had not kept leaping, there would have been no flying squirrel, and no power of flight. If you are jumping only half-heartedly, you will never fly.

  In life, we advance from one plane to another by perfecting the functions of a lower plane. When an organism contains more life by functioning perfectly on its own plane, it begins to perform the functions of the next higher plane. This is the principle of evolution, and of all attainment. Accordingly, you can advance only by more than filling your present post. You must do all that you can do now, so that you can become what you want to be in the future. The doing into perfection of one thing equips us to advance to the next level.

  The perfect workman is instantly presented the opportunity to begin doing the next larger thing. This is an unfailing law of advancement. By being perfect in your job, you develop into an inventor in your professional calling or vocation. It is the perfection with which you do your work now, that extends your field and brings you in touch with a larger environment. Whenever an organism has more life than can find utility on a given plane, its surplus life lifts it to the next higher plane to find expression. Your surplus power will empower you to attain your cherished desires.

  However, the scriptures say, if you want a happy life and good and lengthy days, keep your tongue from speaking evil and keep your lips from telling lies, 1 Peter 3:10.

  Our champion for today is Arthur Moeller van den Bruck, the German historian and cultural critic whose book, The Third Empire, provided Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany with its dramatic name, The Third Reich. Moeller was born in Solingen, Germany in April 1876. He died in May 1925. He fled Germany in 1900 to avoid military service. Then he lived in France, Italy and Scandinavia. While abroad he wrote an eight volume history of the German people. In his books, he classified his countrymen according to psychological types such as, drifting, dreaming and decisive. He returned to Germany at the outbreak of World War I in 1914. In the same year he completed the editing of the German edition of the works of Fyodor Dostoyevsky. For the record, Dostoyevsky was the Russian journalist and short story writer whose novels penetrated the darkest recesses of the human heart, who has had a profound influence on the 20^th century novel.

  After the war, Moeller mounted the criticisms of European civilization as the destruction of true culture. He called for a new Germanic faith to save the country from the vulgarity of the modern industrial society. In despair over the course of German history, he took his own life in 1925. Though the Nazis denied him as their intellectual precursor, Moeller’s thoughts helped create German receptivity to the National Socialist ideology of Hitler.

Values that Make You Great

On The Path Of Winners

BY BAYO OGUNMUPE

 

Values that Make You Great

REMEMBER that the force that gets you what you want is the quest for abundant life. And what you want is an opportunity to live and enjoy more life. But you can get what you want by the operations of the universal law by which all life advances into fuller expression. That law is that whenever an organism has more life that can’t find expression on its given plane, its surplus life lifts it to the next higher plane or level. When you put the totality of yourself into a project, or work by doing it perfectly, your surplus power will extend your work into a larger field, propelling you into greater umbrage.

  Indeed, it is essential that you should have an aim in mind so that your surplus power may be turned to the right channel. Whatever you can conceive and believe, you can achieve. But do not let your ambition to interfere with your present job. Your ambition is a guide to your energy and an inspiration to cause you to apply your energy to the utmost to your present work. Live, work and plan for the future now.

  Suppose your desire is to have a supermarket chain and you only have enough capital to start a groundnut stand. Do not try to start a supermarket today on a groundnut stand capital. Just start the groundnut stand in the full faith and confidence that you will soon be able to develop it to a supermarket.

  Look upon the stand as the beginning of the supermarket. But get more business by building on human values that will enable you amass a fortune in the future.

  Do not desire for today what is beyond your ability to get today. But never take less than the best you can get today. If you are satisfied with less than the best, you will cease to move forward. The law of evolution says whoever more than fills his present position must be advanced. But it is not enough for you to put surplus life into your ambition. You will not advance far if you are an untrustworthy employee, a bad husband and father or an unfaithful friend. Your failure in those respects will make you incapable of using your surplus value for the advancement of your life. Avoid the competitive spirit because abundance is limitless, there is enough to go round. You do not need to rob others.

  However, there are moral or ethical values that will propel you towards your goals. They might include forgiveness, honesty, liberty, love, respect for life and self-control. Our values influence our behaviour, priorities as well as the moral guidance we give our children. The problems of today: armed robbery, kidnapping, terrorism and oil theft are traceable to the decline in our moral values. In 2008, researchers in the United States interviewed adults about their views on moral values. “What is disheartening is how bad they are thinking and talking about moral issues,” said David Brooks in The New York Times. Most felt that rape and murder were wrong but “aside of those extreme cases, moral thinking didn't enter the picture.

  Many viewed the matter this way: “If it feels right, do it. Go with your heart.” Is that thinking wise? Those realities should move us to question our own heart, not blindly trust it! Indeed, the Bible states: “he that is trusting in his own heart is stupid,” Proverbs 28:26. Like a compass, our heart needs to be calibrated with sound values, if it is to serve us well. But where can we find such values? Many look to the scriptures, appreciating both their wisdom and candour.

  Let us show a few examples: “Clothe yourselves with love, for it is a perfect bond of union,” Col. 3:14. Saint Paul the same Bible writer also said: “If I do not have love, I am nothing” – 1 Cor. 13:2. Love is neither sexual nor sentimental, it is governed by principle. It is love that moves us to help a stranger in difficulty, with no thought of a reward. When families lack such love, everybody suffers, especially children.

  A particular enemy of love is materialism – the belief that material well-being and pleasure are the highest values. Yet research repeatedly shows that beyond a surprisingly modest threshold, more wealth does not bring more happiness. In fact people who adopt materialistic values may actually be investing in unhappiness. This view finds support in the Bible book of Ecclesiastes 5:10 “A mere lover of silver will not be satisfied with silver, neither any lover of wealth with income. This too is vanity.” Another aphorism says: “Let your manner of life be free of the love of money,” Hebrews 13:5.

  Giving makes you happier than receiving. The Bible says: “There is more happiness in giving than there is in receiving,” Acts 20:35. But the best and most rewarding form of giving is giving of ourselves, in the form of time and energy. Indeed, by walking in the way of Jehovah, you reap many rewards. In fact, God promises: “Keep God’s way and He will exalt you to take possession of the Earth. When the wicked ones are cut off, you will see it,” Psalm 37:34.

  Our champion today is Mike Mansfield, in full: Michael Joseph Mansfield, the American politician and diplomat who served as U.S. Representative (1943-53) and U.S. Senator (1953-1977) from the U.S. state of Montana. A member of the Democratic Party, Mansfield was the longest serving senate majority leader, serving from 1961 to 1977. He was an opponent of the Vietnam War.

  After returning from the senate Mansfield served as U.S. ambassador to Japan from 1977 to 1988. Also, Mansfield is the longest serving American ambassador to Japan in history. Born in Brooklyn, New York City to Patrick Mansfield and Josephine (nee O’Brien) Mansfield, Irish Catholics, Mansfield, after the death of his mother, he was sent to live with his aunt and uncle in Great Falls, Montana. There, he turned into a habitual runaway and dropped out of school at 14.

  Lying about his age, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy during World War I. after the war, he was discharged after his real age was known. Thereafter, he enlisted in the Army as a private in 1919, serving in the Marine Corps in the Philippines. He was released in 1922. Then he worked as a mucker in the Montana copper mines for eight years. Having never attended high school, Mansfield entered the Montana School of Mines in 1927, he became a mining engineer in 1928. Then he met his wife, Maureen Hayes, a teacher who encouraged and financed Mansfield to earn a BA in the University of Montana and the MA in the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy of Tufts University in 1934.

  Mansfield entered Congress in 1943, serving five terms and the senate from 1953 till 1977. As Senate President, Mansfield delivered the lead eulogy as President Kennedy’s casket lay in state in the Capitol rotunda on November 24, 1963. Later, retired from the senate in 1976, he was appointed ambassador to Japan, serving for eleven years. He died at the age of 98, survived by a daughter, and was buried at the Arlington National Cemetery. The Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library was the monument named for him at the University of Montana.

How Swedish academy picks Nobel laureates

By Bayo Ogunmupe

WINNERS of this year’s Nobel prizes began to be announced on October 14, 2013. The winners of Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences were the last to be announced. The awards went to Eugene Fama of the University of Chicago, USA, Lars Peter Hansen also of the University of Chicago and Robert Shiller of Yale University, New Haven, USA. The trio gained the award for their empirical analysis of asset prices. The Laureates and their collaborators have demonstrated that stock prices could be predicted over three to five years.

  One approach interprets research in terms of the response by national investors to uncertainty in prices. High future returns are then viewed as compensation for holding risky assets during unusually risky times. Another approach focuses on departures from rational investor behavior. So-called behavioural finance takes into account institutional restrictions, such as borrowing limits, which prevent smart investors from trading against any mispricing in the market. The laureates have laid the foundation for the current understanding of asset prices.

  Other achievements being honoured in 2013 are as follows. The Nobel Peace Prize went to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons which is currently destroying chemical weapons in Syria. The prize for Literature was given to Canada’s Alice Munro, hailed by the award giving Swedish Academy as a “master of the contemporary short story.” The 82 year old winner is often called” Canada’s Chekhov.”

  The Nobel Prize in Chemistry was given to three U.S. based scientists for developing computer models that predict complex chemical reactions that can be used for tasks like creating new drugs. The winners are Martin Karplus of both University of Strasbourg, France and Harvard University; Michael Levitt of the Stanford University School of Medicine and Arieh Warshel of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

  The prize in Physics was awarded for a theory of how subatomic particles get their mass. The prize was shared by two men who proposed the theory independently of each other in 1964. Peter Higgs of Great Britain and Francois Englert of Belgium.

  The medicine prize honoured breakthrough in how key substances are moved around within a cell. Disturbances in the delivery of the substances can lead to neurological diseases, diabetes or immunological disorders. The prize was shared by Americans James Rothman of Yale and Randy Schekman of the University of California, Berkeley and German American Dr. Thomas Sudhof of the Stanford University School of medicine.

  However, the most important issue germane to the public is how to win and be nominated for a Nobel prize. This prize is any of five prizes until 1969 when the sixth, the prize for Economic Sciences was added. The prizes are awarded yearly by four institutions three Swedish, one Norwegian, from a fund established under the will of Alfred Nobel (1833-1896). Distribution was begun on December 10, 1901 on the fifth anniversary of the death of the founder.

  In his will, Nobel specified that the awards should be made “to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind.” The six prizes are those enumerated above. The Economics prize was set up in 1968 by the Bank of Sweden and the first award was given in 1969. The awarding institutions are the Royal Swedish Academy, for physics and chemistry; the Royal Caroline Medical Institute, for Physiology or medicine, and the Swedish Academy for Literature, - all in Stockholm – Sweden; the Norwegian Nobel Committee, for peace, located in Oslo, Norway– and appointed by the Norwegian Storting (parliament).

  Each award consists of a gold medal, a diploma bearing a citation, and a sum of money, the amount depending on the income of the Nobel Foundation. The selection of the prizewinners starts in the early autumn with prize awarding institutions sending out invitations to nominate candidates. Those competent to nominate are required to do so on the basis of professional competence and international range-federal character basis in our own parlance.

  Self nomination automatically disqualifies a person. Nomination must reach the appropriate authority in writing by February 1. From the first of February, six Nobel committees, one for each prize group, start their work on the nominations received. If necessary, the committees may call in experts, irrespective of nationality. During June and July, the committees submit recommendations. The final decision by the awarders must be made by September 15. The committee recommendations are usually but not always followed.

  The deliberation and voting are secret at all stages. Prizes may be given only to individuals, except the peace prize which may also be given to an institution. An individual may not be nominated posthumously, but a prize duly proposed may be so awarded, as with Dag Hammarskjold (for peace in 1961) and Erik Karlfeldt (for literature in 1931.) Awards may not be appealed against because the awarders are independent of the state.

  A prize is either given entire to one person, divided equally between at most two works, or shared jointly by two or three persons. Sometimes a prize is withheld until the following year. It also happens that a prize is neither awarded nor reserved. Two prizes can be awarded in the same field in one year. If a prize is declined or not accepted, the prize money goes back to the funds.

  Motives for non-acceptance of prizes may vary, mostly the real reason has been external, such as Hitler’s decree of 1937 which forbade Germans to accept Nobel Prizes because the Peace Prize to Carl von Ossietzky in 1935 was taken as an affront. Prizes are withheld or not awarded when no worthy candidate in the meaning of Alfred Nobel’s will can be found or when the world’s situation prevents the gathering of information required to reach a decision, as happened during the two World Wars. Nobel Prizes, the greatest accolade of achievement in the world are open to all, irrespective of nationality, race, creed, or ideology.

  They can be awarded more than once to the same recipient. The ceremonies take place in Stockholm, Sweden but that of Peace takes place in Oslo, Norway on December 10 the anniversary of Nobel’s death. The laureates usually receive their prizes in person, each presents a lecture in connection with the award ceremonies. The principles governing the awards were modified in 1900 to clarify ambiguous words. The basis for the Economics Prize was scientific, mathematical or statistical rather than political or social. The first two economics laureates; Ragnar Frisch (Norway) and Jan Tinbergen (The Netherlands) were given the prize for their work in econometrics – the analysis of economic activity by means of mathematics. Which is why the scientific and medical prizes have proved least controversial. The literature and peace awards have been the most exposed to criticism.

  A special regulation gave the right of nomination to members of the Swedish Academy and other academies. Others so empowered are institutions and societies similar to academics, university teachers, professors at universities and university colleges. The right to nominate was also extended to previous prize winners, or presidents of societies of authors and the like.

  The statutes also provided for Nobel Committee to give their opinion in matters of the award of the prizes, and for a Nobel Institute with a library which was to contain a substantial collection of mainly modern literature.

  For the founder Nobel, he was a Swedish chemist, engineer and industrialist. He invented dynamite and many other explosives. Through his mother, Nobel descended from the Swedish naturalist Olof Rudbeck. From his father, Immanuel Nobel, he learned the fundamentals of engineering and like his father, he was a versatile inventor, Educated mainly by tutors and was a competent chemist by 16. He was fluent in English, French, German and Russian. He spent a year learning chemistry in Paris and four years in the U.S.A studying building under John Ericsson the builder of the warship-Morutor.

  Nobel’s interests in explosives and his large holdings in the Baku oil fields brought him immense fortune. He was a recluse and he never married. Nobel had an abiding interest in literature, writing poetry in English, these propelled him to leave his immense fortune in trust to establish this most highly regarded of all awards, the Nobel Prize.

State of the Nigerian Economy 2013

By Bayo Ogunmupe

State of the Nigerian Economy 2013

IN order to measure the outcome of an economy, you have to visit the economic policy of the government. Thus, to be able to act on economic information, you may have to look into the statistics, data and other clusters of available information. Reading the statistics poorly may end up in wrong decisions taken. Timely readings will stimulate meaningful policy actions. According to Ayo Teriba, chief economist of the Econ Associates.com, data updates in the Nigerian yearbook, fact books aren’t reliable for they won’t be available for use till very late in the year.

  For example, the Annual Report of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) which ought to be published by the second quarter of the year in June, had not been published by October 31, 2013. Also, only the 2010 annual abstract of the National Bureau of Statistics was available by the end of October 2013.

  Therefore, we can only rely on statistics obtained from the Internet. So much for the hindrances to measuring the state of the Nigerian economy. However, in this exercise, we shall measure the state of the Nigerian economy on economic parameters of our dilapidated infrastructure, absence of regular electrical power and the rut and neglect of our tertiary education.

  Our current travail is linked to things we should do which we did not do either due to dearth of leadership traceable to intellectual weakness or financial profligacy. Another contributory factor is impunity – situations where culprits should be punished but the authorities refused to act.

  Let us start finding the panacea for our economic woes through the examination of impunity from prosecution now rampart in the polity. We start from oil theft, with an estimated 150,000 barrels of crude oil being stolen daily from the delta in the first quarter of 2013, and a global loss of 400,000 barrels of crude oil, it is clear, oil theft is an organized crime in Nigeria.

  In fact, President Jonathan, during his media chat in September, confessed that government had allowed the crime of oil theft to go on for too long. He also told Nigerians that those involved in oil theft were rich, powerful and well connected people in society.

  A well known militant-Tompolo recently shared the same view with president Jonathan when he said, “Oil theft is a business for the rich. Tunde Ruwase, vice president of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce recently accused the Federal Government of knowing those behind oil theft. He said only the rich and powerful could engage in oil theft, arguing that the equipment like barges, tankers as well as the manpower used in stealing oil cannot be bought by the poor.

  Nenji James, chairman of the Civil Liberties Organisation accused politicians for the crime. He said it is high time security agents went beyond rhetorics and go for the real culprits. Mutiu Sunmonu, managing director and country chairman of Shell Petroleum Development Company said, ‘I believe the perpetrators of oil theft need to be arrested and prosecuted. Until there is deterrence, oil industry doesn’t stand a chance of survival against this illegal bunkering of the scale we are seeing today.”

  Boniface Aniebonam, the chair of the Board of Trustees of the New Nigerian Peoples Party wondered how crude oil theft could go on without government connivance.

   He said something tells him that there is official endorsement of this large scale larceny. In recent years, graft has flourished like unemployment. The impunity with which crime is carried out in the country is stunning.

  Actually, criminality thrives because of impunity. Although Jonathan promised to check impunity during his last media chat, critics aver that the president’s hands are tied because oil thieves are people whom he cannot fight, they are his cronies. Moreover, Jonathan had declared in an Abuja church that he was neither a Pharaoh nor a Nebuchadnezzar. He also said he was not a lion or an army general trained to do things with immediate effect.

  However, going by recent reports economists say that Nigeria’s revenue dropped by 42 per cent monthly since July because of the distruption to oil production caused by oil thieves who hacked into pipelines. Worse still, reports from the labour market leave much to be desired. Indeed, Nigeria’s unemployment rate rose from 21.1 per cent in 2010 to 23.9 per cent in 2011, so said the National Population Commission (NPC) in a release on October 10, 2013. The NPC said figures from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed Nigeria’s economic growth had not translated into job creation.

  The NPC report said that NBS estimates Nigeria’s population grew by 3.2 per cent in 2011 from 159.3 million people in 2010 to 164.4 million people in 2011, reflecting rapid population growth.

  In 2011, our unemployment rose to 23.9 per cent compared to 21.1 per cent in 2010. It said the labour force swelled by 2.1 million to 67.2 million people with just 51.2 million persons employed, leaving 16 million people jobless. The report added that unemployment was higher in the rural areas at 25.6 per cent than urban centres where it is 17 per cent.

  Thus, unless government takes decisive steps by clamping down on oil thieves, confidence in the government will be eroded. Government needs to openly dissociate itself from allegations that those in oil theft have its backing, otherwise people will continue to see as hypocritical, government preaching against the crime. Jonathan’s estimation in the eyes of Nigerians would be poor as he would be seen as an ethnic jingoist who is more interested in the affairs of his kinsmen than the good of all Nigerians.

  Meanwhile, Jonathan’s persistent search for the saving grace may be found in steering Nigeria towards modernity. This can be achieved by strengthening the institutions meant to protect Nigeria from internal and external economic disasters. For example, the Excess Crude Account and the sovereign Wealth Fund shielding the economy from declining oil prices are now in place. Jonathan should be shopping for a competent replacement for the meticulous and indefatigable Lamido Sanusi the outgoing Central Bank governor. For an active Central Bank (CBN), a transparent bond market and a stock exchange that is on the rebound are areas where we have recorded significant gains.

  Our current financial boon has gone beyond oil and gas. The growth of our non oil sector has been impressive. Agriculture, wholesale and retail trade and services have come to the fore to compete with petroleum. But the pace has been slow compared with the joust between the president and the state governors over federal allocations.

  These fights are often dressed in the costume of true fiscal federalism.

  Though both the states and the federation have tax raising powers, both never exercised such powers. However, what we sorely needed now are institutions which ensure security of lives and property. Such institutions are hospitals, the police, the National Guard and financial independence for the judiciary.

  On hospitals, the best hospital in Egypt is owned by Egyptair, Egypt’s biggest airline. Nigeria can imitate that by partnering with a private company to foster medical tourism through creating big and efficient hospitals. Jonathan should call on Globacom, Shell or Mobil to establish hospitals for the good health of Nigerians. Two companies can partner with the government on a joint stock basis with a company becoming the core investor.

  On security, government should increase the strength of our police force from 377,000 cops to one million men, because we need 1.7 million policemen to secure 170 million Nigerians.

  In spite of our economic boom, the Nigerian nation state remains vulnerable to factional disputes such as that of Boko Haram. Repeated outbreaks of violence show limited acress to security, making the people vulnerable to instability arising from shifts in the dominant ruling coalition. Thus, it is essential for our democracy to build a strong united and enlightened civil society to check the excesses of a predatory government elite.

  Next on our agenda is the profligacy of the past as a factor in our present situation. In 2004, during Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration and the first coming of Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the Paris Club of creditors wrote off $30 billion debt. We then paid arrears of six billion dollars which was 40 per cent of the debt. But now in the light of the present indebtedness of the United States government, it is arguable whether that payment was wise. We believe it was impolitic for Obasanjo to heed Okonjo-Iweala’s advice urging him to pay our debt in a once for all basis.

  Presently, the national debt of the United States before the October 2013 two week shutdown was $17 trillion. Yet United States isn’t thinking of paying part of it in a once for all basis. That stand was informed by the opinion of economists since debt levels do not affect economic growth significantly. In 2010, economists Kenneth Rogoff and Carmen Reinhart reported that among 20 developed countries studied, the yearly growth of GDP was 3 per cent, when debt was low (i.e. under 60 per cent of GDP).

  But it dips to 1.6 per cent when debt was high, i.e. above 90 per cent of GDP. However, other economists including Nobel laureate Paul Krugman have argued that it is low growth which causes national debt to increase rather than the other way round – meaning debt propels the economy forward.

  Indeed, former U.S. Central Bank chairman, Ben Bernanke stated in April 2010 that “Neither experience nor economic theory indicates the threshold at which government debt begins to endanger prosperity and economic stability. However, a high debt level may result in inflation if currency devaluation is viewed as a solution to debt reduction. If wages are rising due to inflation, fixed amount of debt can be paid off more easily using cheaper dollars. This helps the debtor but hurts the debtholder, who receives less value in return for their loan. Those pieces of information rendered the 2004 debt payment ill-advised and profligate.

  But despite government’s no cause for alarm’ assurance, Nigeria’s debt is mounting. After the debt relief initiative of 2004, our stock of foreign debt declined with US$3.8 billion domestic debts by August 2006.

  The revered Scottish economist Adam Smith (1723-1790), author of The Wealth of Nations said that when national debts are accumulated to a certain level, there is scarcity since such debts have never been completely paid. That aphorism is coming home to roost  as Nigeria treads the old path of foreign indebtedness. According to an article by Okonjo-Iweala on Nigeria in the Internet, Nigeria’s current external debt stands at $34 billion. She gave our domestic debt as N6,537 trillion as at December, 2012. However, the total domestic debt of the 36 states and Abuja has been put at N1.5 trillion in 2012.

  But as at 30 September 2013, Nigeria’s debt has risen to N8.32 trillion, the Debt Management Office (DMO) has said. This excludes the domestic debts of the 36 states and the FCT. These data were released on the DMO website on 11 November, 2013.

  This was contained in the 2013 Report of the Annual National Debt sustainability Analysis of the Debt Management Office.

  However, economists have raised the alarm that Nigeria is treading the old path of indebtedness. For instance, Nigeria signed a $1 billion loan with China for infrastructure development as part of a US$3 billion facility approved by China at low interest rate. Thus, we have returned to the era of the debt ridden society of the new millennium. In order to stem the tide of the debt deluge, Dr. Teriba averred that Nigeria should engage the President to institute an annual state of the economy address where the president shall provide the people with where the economy is coming from, where it is going and wherewithal to attain full employment for the people.

  According to Teriba, Nigeria’s economy has grown very fast since the year 2000.  This was in response to surges in global trade. In particular, our GDP has doubled from N20 trillion in 2007 to N40 trillion in 2012. Our oil and gas output rose from N7.5 trillion in 2007 to N15 trillion in 2012. In the non-oil sector, our GDP rose from N12 trillion in 2007 to N25 trillion in 2012. Crops rose from N6 trillion in 2007 to N12 trillion in 2012. On trade and commerce our economy’s GDP rose from N6 trillion in 2007 to N11 trillion in 2012. Comparatively, with a nominal GDP of $250 billion in 2012, Nigeria is 30^th, among the list of world’s biggest economies. We were 40^th in 2005, 52^nd in 2000. Nigeria is the second largest economy in Africa, coming behind South Africa. Nigeria is set to become one of the 20 biggest economies by 2020.

  Unfortunately, Nigeria’s growth is cyclical because of our dependence on global commodity price swings. Our gains may be wiped out by any oil price crises. Which is why we need new creative thinkers as policy makers. The profligacy of paying $6 billion as debt arrears in 2004 is responsible for our present lack of electricity, poor state of tertiary education because of our inability to refurbish university laboratories. Also the current state of our economy confirms the persistence of mediocrity among our leaders. Moreover, lack of patriotism has been identified as the missing link between our oil wealth and the present widespread poverty among the populace.