Resetting Nigeria for progress
By Adekunle Adekoya Problems are like plants, they have roots — Obafemi Awolowo (1909-1987). IN case you don’t know the root cause of our problems today, please take time out and read below: 42 years ago, precisely on 25/07/1980 the exchange rate was: $1 = 0.80k Are you surprised? Well, we were far more productive in 1980 than we are today. In 1980 the key reasons for economic growth were as follows: *We were a net exporter of refined petroleum products. Today we import all our refined petroleum products. *We rode in locally assembled cars, buses and trucks. Peugeot cars in Kaduna and Volkswagen cars in Lagos. *Leyland produced trucks/buses in Ibadan and ANAMMCO in Enugu also produced buses and trucks. *Steyr in Bauchi produced our Agricultural tractors. And it was not just Assembly, we were producing many of the components: *Vono products in Lagos produced the vehicle seats. *Exide in Ibadan produced the batteries, not just for Nigeria but for the entire West Africa. Berec ...