THE  high sea piracy of the old Western economies, the buccaneer economies typified by American cow boys culture proved to the doubters a fact of life: that the sands heaped by one storm are washed away by another and the wealth stolen by one gang is quickly taken over by another gang and the security of life and property was like the words spoken in the wind.

These realities were real and forced a rethink and the birth of a new order and a new nation.

The lesson of the buccaneer culture shows that it is in the best interests of the political and mercantile class that the NQP comes alive, and soon too!

Nigeria’s manufacturing sector suddenly fell into bad times as foreign made goods, mainly of dubious quality, invaded and took over our market places. In the absence of a National Quality Policy, it was each operator on his or her own. Of course, local operators could not stand the storms.

The dreaded AIDS pandemics have ravaged more African nations with poor job opportunities than societies where jobs are more readily available. The internet and events around the world show clearly that the Western world is more depraved than Africa but it is here that AIDS has had its worst impacts.

For the Devil finds jobs for idle hands. Crimes, including social perversions such as stealing and robberies, prostitution and child abuses, broken homes and delinquency are high prices that Nigeria pays with an import -dependent economy. But it could be worse and is actually worse than these.

Today, the nation’s agriculture and manufacturing sectors, the textiles and fashion and transport groups are devastated by the deluge of foreign products that pour in mainly due to the absence of a national quality and standards policy to checkmate collateral damages brought by the onslaught of unscrupulous international traders.

In the ’60s, the United States waged a steel war on Asian nations and the Soviet Union that targeted the US market with cheap steel products.

The Asians and the Soviets were shipping steel to America at prices far below the American-made products. From steel, the Asians inched their way into automobile and America was on the verge of losing the overbearing control it had enjoyed on the global markets. Today, the American automobile industry is a shadow of the old but notwithstanding, the US largely and effectively uses NQP to her advantage.

A National Quality Policy transcends quality goods and services regime to lay the solid foundation necessary for the emergence of a nation ready to stand on its feet and contribute its quota in the comity of nations.

Cost efficiency in simple economics means the ability to produce goods and services and deliver them at prices comparative to others in relative terms. But in Nigeria, the distinction between purely economic, political and socio-moral businesses have long been eroded by the overriding culture of the balance sheet:  People might invest a few hundred million Naira and become local government chairman so they can access hundreds of millions that  they would not necessarily have to account for.

The cost of state governance, is astronomical; education is expensive and certainly ignorance is costlier. And all these are reflections of one defect and deficiency: The lack of a National Quality Policy that allows the substandard hold sway!

Essentially,  a NQP lays the frameworks and underlining values, objectives and processes and infrastructures by which a nation seeks to inculcate and drive a new culture of excellence in the productive sectors and which operations induce quality consciousness and adherence across boards to impact positively in all areas of national life.

Mr.  JOE ANATUNE, a brand strategist, wrote from  Lagos.