Opinion

The Ahmed Joda’s Panel was set up in June 1999 by President Olusegun Obasanjo GCFR. The Panel was charged with the responsibility of reviewing the factors responsible for ineffective and inefficient performance of the existing establishments and making recommendations that will ensure the Government’s success in executing programmes to eradicate poverty and raise the standard of living of Nigerians.

There is a unique kind of frenzy in the country today. But it is not a general or commonplace hysteria. It is limited to a tiny fraction of the population, but who curiously hold a humongous part of the country’s wealth.

A little over a week ago, on a Qatar Airways flight journeying to Doha, city of the current World Cup fiesta, I saw a film which clearly depicts the raging back-and-forth arguments between the Arab World and the West. A Betty Kathungu-Furet film, The Medicine Man is a Kenyan Swahili movie subtitled in English.

Not so long ago, he was the poster boy of what looked like an African renaissance. Ghana’s President Akufo-Addo didn’t only know what to say, he also knew when and how. I still remember 2018. Barely one year after Akufo-Addo was inaugurated, he was on the big stage.

You are a publisher of high repute, a civilised, enlightened and knowledgeable individual, a creative artist who has shown the world that there is so much class, good taste, artistry and beauty in Africa and that we do not all live in mud huts, a former presidential aspirant whose political party did not have the decency or prescence of mind to value or appreciate, a freedom fighter who fought for NADECO and who stood with Chief MKO Abiola till the bitter end and someone whose counsel I value and whose weekly columns I read avidly.

Last week, this column discussed the need to rethink productivity and economic growth in Nigeria based on the presentation by foremost Economist Dr Ayo Teriba. This week, we shall look at leadership’s role in engendering a new economic growth model to give our country a leap forward.