By Olu Fasan

FELLOW Nigerians, I am 60 this week; precisely tomorrow, Friday, July 24. For which I am absolutely grateful to my creator, the Almighty God! Being 60 this week, of course, means I was born in 1960, a few months before Nigeria’s independence.

My mother never stops telling me that she carried me on her back to one of the activities marking ominira Nigeria (“Nigeria’s independence”) when the British monarch Queen Elizabeth II, represented by Princess Alexandra, came to this country.

That fact, of being born in the same year as independent Nigeria, of being, as it were, her age-mate, creates an emotional bond between me and this country. And believe me, I am desperate for Nigeria to succeed; to be a truly great nation, strong at home and respected abroad, and not, as it is, a problematic or fragile state!

I will come back to that. But, first, a bit about myself. I was born in Ondo Town – Ondo City it’s now called! – to a father who played a role in building the first Niger Bridge as a foreman and a mother who was a trader.

Not a privileged background, but with determination and the grace of God, I charted a path forward through education.

Along the way, there were cheerleaders, of whom I would mention two. Mr. Yemi Akeju, former president of the Institute of Directors Nigeria, who was very supportive during my long period of study in the UK; and Muyiwa Akintunde, a respected journalist, who encouraged me to take up column-writing in Nigeria.

Now, I left Nigeria in 1989 after obtaining an HND in Business Administration from Yaba College of Technology and following a Youth Service in Rivers State. My main motivation for going overseas was, put simply: education, education, education!

After studying journalism at the London School of Journalism, I freelanced for some newspapers and then established a magazine called Marketfinder International. But, despite advertisements from Nigerian banks in the UK, the magazine needed an injection of huge capital to be sustainable.

An encounter with Chief MKO Abiola in early 1992 would probably have been a game-changer. He offered a chance of a meeting, but I didn’t pursue it.

In truth, I didn’t pursue the seeming funding opportunity and others that came up later because my heart was somewhere else. I wanted further studies; after all, that was why I left Nigeria. And the magazine, especially with other people’s money in it, would have frustrated the plans. So, after about six years, I gave up publishing and returned to school.

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But once I returned to school, I never looked back. From LLB to LLM to BL (Barrister-at-Law, of the Inner temple) to M.Sc in Political Economy and, finally, Ph.D in Law – the last two from the London School of Economics.

After the studies, opportunities beckoned. I worked at the World Trade Organisation in Geneva, lectured at the LSE, and consulted for the Commonwealth Secretariat before being appointed as a policy and regulatory adviser with the UK Cabinet Office, advising on complex policy and regulatory issues.

I subsequently represented the UK at the EU Trade Policy Committee in Brussels. The LSE retained me as a Visiting Fellow, enabling me to engage in cutting-edge research, and to teach, write and consult.

These achievements are, of course, modest compared with those of many other Nigerians abroad. For instance, Professor Charles Egbu was recently appointed as Vice-Chancellor of Leeds Trinity University. But I have been at the heart of policy-making in a major Western country, have been involved in serious negotiations in international organisations and have taught and undertaken high-quality policy research and analysis at a world-class university.

But what I have found through these experiences is how utterly shallow governance is in Nigeria and how little traction this country has abroad. In my 30 years abroad, government effectiveness and state capacity have rapidly declined in Nigeria; its government is so mediocre it can hardly get anything done.

What’s more, Nigeria’s reputation is at rock bottom worldwide; nowhere is Nigeria viewed with any serious respect. However famous you are, the Nigerian passport can cause you huge embarrassment at most foreign airports!

For me, this is hurtful. As Baroness Chalker once told me, Nigeria should be part of the world’s solutions, not part of its problems. It should stand tall in the comity of nations, not self-referentially or self-deceptively, but based on genuine progress and achievements.

So, I wanted to make a positive contribution. But how? Tony Blair, former British prime minister, recently said there are two ways to make a difference: You either have power or vast amounts of resources. But he added that if you have neither, “you can establish influence by the force of your ideas”.

Well, that’s precisely what I was seeking to do as a public intellectual through weekly interventions in my columns. And with some encouragement!

About six years ago, on November 8, 2014, I began writing for BusinessDay. Within a year of the column, the then editor, Philip Isakpa, sent me an email. “People are following you and your articles are deep”, he said, adding, “and you are contributing your quota to Nigeria’s development through your thoughts and insights.”

Four years later, in October 2018, I started this column and have received similar comments. I mean, when you are told that the legendary Uncle Sam Amuka, the distinguished publisher of this newspaper, was keen to talk to you and had, in fact, tried to reach you, well, you must know what you are doing is valued and appreciated.

So, Tony Blair is probably right. You can establish influence by the force of your ideas. But I am not deluded. Ideas are not enough. They need receptive ears. Sadly, Nigerian leaders are impervious to reason and thoughtful ideas. Otherwise, they will know that Nigeria’s future lies inexorably in its restructuring.

Yet, at 60, my passion for this country remains undying. Its change will come!

VANGUARD