nairaland.net

Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo on Wednesday called on the Japanese government to make more investments to help modernize the West African country.

"Nigeria is willing to receive more investments from Japan to maximize relations between the two countries," Obasanjo said when receiving a seven-member delegation from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC).

Obasanjo noted that Nigeria particularly welcomed joint venture investments with Japan to produce power and petrochemicals such as fertilizer.

He also said Nigeria could do with more Japanese construction companies in the country.

According to leader of the delegation Yuichi Ishimaru, more Japanese companies have come to Nigeria under the present administration than before.

He said the JBIC, owned 100 percent by the Japanese government, was committed to providing investment funds for various projects in Nigeria to improve bilateral relations.

Source: Xinhua

Why is Nigeria always looking for foreign countries to get anything done?

How about empowering your own local scientists? The only real way to make Nigeria better is to clean the country up from the ground up.

Nigeria has a stream of unlimited PhD's, most of whom reside in countries around the world. How about tapping into the vast knowledge these scientists have, and use it to better the country?

Why do we always think that if it's not foreign made, it must be of inferior quality? We need to change this mindset, else our progress is going to be very expensive and painfully slow.

I don't know why Obasanjo won't gather a group of Nigerian scientists under one roof, with Internet access. Charge these scientists with coming up with a solution for a problem such as producing fertilizers from local raw materials. Then monitor their progress every few months. Any of the scientists that is not pulling his weight, should be replaced.

With this kind of encouragement, Nigeria would be able to cut down on importation, and perhaps even become an exporter to other countries.

Instead of researching problems for a possible solution, we always take the path of paying for ready-made options at very high cost.

Is anybody thinking out there? Or do we simply have more money than brains?