ABEOKUTA—Former President of United States of America, Bill Clinton, said yesterday in Abeokuta, Ogun State capital, that the inability to manage the nation’s natural resources well was one of the three major challenges Nigeria was facing as a nation.
The former US president, who was speaking at the 18th Annual Awards of Thisday newspaper, organised to celebrate Nigeria’s best teachers, further tasked Nigerian leaders to tackle unemployment, brain-drain and to maximise the potential of the citizens.

The 42nd American President, who spoke in the presence of former Nigerian President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, Ogun State governor, Ibikunle Amosun, his counterpart in Delta, Emmanuel Uduaghan and other notable Nigerians, said Nigerian leaders mismanaged the proceeds from oil, under-utilised technology and failed to retain its best brains.

Clinton said: “When I became President, my Secretary of Commerce did a lot of work in Africa before he was tragically killed in a plane crash in 1995.

“I said he should make a list of 10 most important countries in the world for the 21st century. Nigeria was in the list.

“Imagine the future of the entire continent if Nigeria fails or South Africa fails. So, you are a country of potential. I will say you have about three big challenges.

Oil money, economic distribution, brain-drain

“First of all, like 90 percent of the countries, which have one big resource, you haven’t done well with your oil money. You should have reinvested it in different ways. Now you are at least not wasting the natural gas. You are developing it in pipelines but you don’t do a better job of managing natural resources. “Secondly, you have to somehow bring economic opportunity to the people who don’t have. This is not a problem specific to Nigeria. Almost in every place in the world, prosperity is heavily concentrated in and around urban areas.

“So you have all these political problems: violence, religious differences, and all the rhetoric of Boko Haram.

“But the truth is the poverty rate in the north is three times greater than what it is in the Lagos area. To deal with that, you have to have both powerful stake in the local governments and a national policy that work together.

“As you keep trying to divide the power, you have to figure out a way to have a strategy that will help in sharing prosperity.

“The third thing is there has to be a way to take the staggering intellectual and organisational ability that Nigerians exhibit in every country in the world in which they are immigrant and bring it to bear here, so that the country as a whole can rise.

“One of the people on my trip with me today, who unfortunately could not come up here because he had to go and visit his family, is a young Nigerian-American named Nnamdi. He is an all pro-quarter back footballer for the Philadelphia Eagles.

“Both his parents have PhDs. His sister has a PhD. He often says ‘I’m the failure in my family and I only have a university degree and I play football.’ “My point is: there are Nigerians who are like this all over the world. What you have to figure out is how to keep those people in Nigeria and how to ensure their success encourages others in the country.

Solutions

“So, I think solving the economic divide that is in your country will help the political divide; making better use of your resources.

“Nigeria is trying to set up an investment fund where the Federal Government will set it up and the governors are being consulted so that they can concentrate the capital. That is the problem in India.

“They have unbelievable entrepreneurs but they are not very good at collecting capital and investing it in infrastructure so that they can unite the poor part of the country with the rich part. That’s what you have to do. And then, you have to empower people with education so they can succeed at home as well as around the world.”

Speaking on the essence of education, Clinton said: “I have to explain that education is more important in dealing with the challenges facing Nigeria. On the continent and the entire world, we are living a revolutionary time, full of positive and negative forces.

“The information technology is good for people who can take advantage of it. I see this all over the world. Cell phones give farmers the access to information about crop prices and fish prices in Africa and Asia.
http://demipost.com/bill-clinton-tells-goodluck-jonathan-to-step-up/

No surprise. All world leaders and expert observers are now openly clamouring for this very "underwhelming" President to up his game. It is only in Nigeria, destroyed by ethnic disunity, we enjoy running away from the truth. Perhaps Clinton is Yoruba and David Cameron Hausa since, according to some, every criticism of GEJ is driven by the "hatred" the Yorubas and Hausas/Fulanis have for him.

@Gbawe
The same way renown world Human Right Ogranisation is warning Fashola to desist from committing crime against humanity by witch-haunting Igbo traders and home owners after extorting their taxes and levies without providing them necessary social services.

@Topic
GEJ fumbles sometimes but the level of insults he receives have become astronomical compared to his predecessors who performed below standard, if not woefully.

Let's give GEJ some breathing space to apply his policies for us to judge.