Lessons From Japan

Amidst bogus titles ranging from “The Giant of Africa, Economic Hub of Africa, etc, attributed to our nation Nigeria,  many of her citizens are locked up in poverty. There’s also a conspicuous low human development despite the abundant human and natural resources the country is endowed with.
Worried by this development, a semantic scholar, Richard Eke Imade, took time to explore key initiatives taken by Japan in its quest for development.  In his research article on Japan’s development experience,  published in 2016, Imade had wondered why a  replication of similar transformative initiatives in Nigeria remains elusive.
Like every other concerned Nigerian, Imade has refused to come to terms with what he considers an  inability of Nigeria’s successive post-independence leaders to leverage on numerous learning opportunities inherent in Nigeria’s history.
Definitely, the resercher isn’t alone in his world of thought, as his work literally portrayed the worries of many who may not have had the opportunity to pen down their thought for a wider readership.
Come to think of it, the country’s access to mainstream and alternative development paradigms through decades of development cooperation, obviously had gotten the potential  to build a strong, cohesive and prosperous nation.
No doubt, the extractive political and economic institutions foisted on the country by its post-independence leaders, colonial legacy and political instability, coupled with mono-economy, policy inconsistency, widespread corruption, among other factors, as outlined by the scholar, may have accounted for its inability to learn from the development milestones of other developed nations.
No need too to argue that the placement of selfish interest above the public’s by the country’s past leadership may have imensely relagated it to the supposed dark  corner it has remained, howbeit, we will remain a people most miserable should we continue to dwell in our past without using it to chart a pathway for our future.
Haven realized that poor leadership, persistent instability, over-dependence on crude oil, among other factors were responsible for the current abysmal performance of Nigeria in key development indicators, translating this  knowledge into a capacity for meaningful development outcomes, becomes imperative.
After all, the economic expansion of the developed world in the last two centuries has been based on an explosion of knowledge about what can be made, and how. Goods and services are made by stringing together productive capabilities – inputs, technologies, and tasks – just as words are made by putting letters together.
Suffice it to say that countries with greater variety of capabilities can make more diverse and complex goods, just as a scrabble player who has more letters can generate more and longer words.
The writer thus posits that the current Nigerian leadership must negotiate the country’s development within the currents of contemporary realities, eschewing those conducts that undermined inclusive prosperity.
Today,  the entire world talks about Japan. This is so because the  Japanese government played a vital role by  creating an enabling economic environment which was evident   in complementing  the development of superior production and enterprise systems by Japanese industry.
Japan’s great and unbelievable fast technological and industrial breakthrough started when it banned the importation of articles into the country.This means that Nigeria’s resolve to ban  certain import goods may well pay off someday.
Even though some econmic analysts consider the import ban strategy  a good initiative by the CBN,  positing that  it will  inspire local production and automatically impact on the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), we still may not rule out governmental attitude towards its implementation as a major determinant of  the level of result to be expected.
All the same, what Japan’s experience demonstrates with great clarity is that  problems arising from efforts geared at fixing cracked or dilapidated system should propel  the masses to greatness instead of deterring them.
While it is hoped that President Buhari’s administration’s  strategies to revive the country’s ailing economy in this dispensation, on the other hand, the role of the state has become more profound. Such roles must include charting a strategic direction for the country.
States are also expected to aggregate and align national development aspirations with private interests, removing socio-cultural impediments such as those associated with gender, ethnicity etc while strengthening others such as occupation or community-based cooperatives and other grassroots initiatives through appropriate legal and social interventions.

Sylvia ThankGod-Amadi