Why Boko Haram is the best recipe for economic boom in Nigeria since the discovery of oil
War is horror. There are few things more destructive than he carnage that results from war. Natural disasters, for instance. But sometimes, war can be the solution to a booming economy.
Before America joined in the fight against Hitler in World War 2, her economy was wilting. Unemployment was at a record high, the effects of the Great Depression were present in the minds, stomachs and businesses of the people.
But immediately the Empire of Japan bombed Pearl Harbour and forced President Roosevelt to declare war, the machinery of economic boom kicked into place.
For you see, to keep the troops fit for battle, American businesses began to organise and manufacture. Women, for the first time in the history of the country, joined the workforce; increasing human capital by nearly 50%! Intel. Weapons. Food. Uniforms. Entertainment. Medical Supplies. These and more were needed to win the war, not counting the aid collaboration that flowed in and out from allies
The Stock Exchange began to thicken with activities and the dollar indeed strengthened. At the end of the War, Hitler was dead and America was alive. Her economy, that is.
And this is the reason for the title of this piece. That the Nigerian Government is yet to realise that the terror threat on hand is the perfect opportunity to create jobs.
Recruiting the troops, their uniforms, their foods, medication, their intel and equipment, amidst others are a key employment tools.
No, I don't mean the selected companies to whom weapons sales contracts are being awarded to.
I mean if indeed the government made the fight against terror the collective fight of all, then citizens will care enough to volunteer information, give their bio-tech ideas on how to smoke out the enemy. Then people will care enough to come forward with their machines that can detect explosives and/or neuter them ere they explode. The farmers would have gone to their farms earlier to harvest food for the troops. We might have explored technology to render our military planes more stealth. Satellite tracking might have managed to predict the movements of the terrorists. That 17 year old kid might have found a way to track them from their latest Youtube upload. Doctors might have been on hand to treat wounded men and rehabilitate shell-shocked ones. Etcetera.
If the government had involved us, made this war ours, then we would have said, the troops need us, need our expertise, our loyalty. Let's unite to fight our common enemy.
If the government had made this fight our fight, then we would have cared enough to engage in creative ways to rid our land of this enemy and by so doing, inadvertently, creating more jobs and an economic boom that's non-oil related.
But sadly, the rhetoric behind the war on terror is this: 'we know the people behind Boko Haram. They are in my government and their aim in to destabilise my efforts so that everyone will say I have run an ineffective government.'
When citizens begin to say 'ehn, let them kill themselves in the north, nothing consign me, I'm a Southrrner', then the collective resolve needed to weed out terror while growing our economy is lost.
The green is lost.
War is horror. There are few things more destructive than he carnage that results from war. Natural disasters, for instance. But sometimes, war can be the solution to a booming economy.
Before America joined in the fight against Hitler in World War 2, her economy was wilting. Unemployment was at a record high, the effects of the Great Depression were present in the minds, stomachs and businesses of the people.
But immediately the Empire of Japan bombed Pearl Harbour and forced President Roosevelt to declare war, the machinery of economic boom kicked into place.
For you see, to keep the troops fit for battle, American businesses began to organise and manufacture. Women, for the first time in the history of the country, joined the workforce; increasing human capital by nearly 50%! Intel. Weapons. Food. Uniforms. Entertainment. Medical Supplies. These and more were needed to win the war, not counting the aid collaboration that flowed in and out from allies
The Stock Exchange began to thicken with activities and the dollar indeed strengthened. At the end of the War, Hitler was dead and America was alive. Her economy, that is.
And this is the reason for the title of this piece. That the Nigerian Government is yet to realise that the terror threat on hand is the perfect opportunity to create jobs.
Recruiting the troops, their uniforms, their foods, medication, their intel and equipment, amidst others are a key employment tools.
No, I don't mean the selected companies to whom weapons sales contracts are being awarded to.
I mean if indeed the government made the fight against terror the collective fight of all, then citizens will care enough to volunteer information, give their bio-tech ideas on how to smoke out the enemy. Then people will care enough to come forward with their machines that can detect explosives and/or neuter them ere they explode. The farmers would have gone to their farms earlier to harvest food for the troops. We might have explored technology to render our military planes more stealth. Satellite tracking might have managed to predict the movements of the terrorists. That 17 year old kid might have found a way to track them from their latest Youtube upload. Doctors might have been on hand to treat wounded men and rehabilitate shell-shocked ones. Etcetera.
If the government had involved us, made this war ours, then we would have said, the troops need us, need our expertise, our loyalty. Let's unite to fight our common enemy.
If the government had made this fight our fight, then we would have cared enough to engage in creative ways to rid our land of this enemy and by so doing, inadvertently, creating more jobs and an economic boom that's non-oil related.
But sadly, the rhetoric behind the war on terror is this: 'we know the people behind Boko Haram. They are in my government and their aim in to destabilise my efforts so that everyone will say I have run an ineffective government.'
When citizens begin to say 'ehn, let them kill themselves in the north, nothing consign me, I'm a Southrrner', then the collective resolve needed to weed out terror while growing our economy is lost.
The green is lost.
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