At the recently concluded 78^th United Nations General Assembly and in the Independence Day address, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu set the right tone and demonstrated Nigeria’s renewed attitude towards serious business, economic reforms, and foreign direct investments.

In a fast-changing world where non-state actors, Russia-Ukraine war, artificial intelligence, and other events are disrupting global workforce, century-old financial systems, and socioeconomic structures – Nigeria’s forward-thinking administration contends with domestic and international challenges that require a bold vision, unorthodox thinking, and sheer commitment to drive economic diversification and financial inclusion. In this fast-changing world, Nigeria also contends indirectly with trillion-dollar global companies whose ambitions have the potential to overwhelm our local industries with disruptive technology and cash.

Across the ocean, the world’s leading oil producer, Saudi Arabia, is making waves with a bold Vision 2030 initiative that is centered around economic diversification and three pillars: A Vibrant Society, A Thriving Economy, An Ambitious Nation. The vision includes the US$500 billion futuristic city called NEOM – a direct challenge to the thriving success story of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar’s emergence as an economic player in the region. Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, the young and audacious crown prince of Saudi Arabia, has also embarked on unprecedented domestic reforms, bold investments in advanced technology, and opening the economy for foreign investments in State-controlled sectors – other bold investments include the US$101 billion in renewable energy projects and approximately US$37 billion on its energy distribution.

I recognize that Nigeria is not Saudi Arabia; however, the Tinubu Administration should consider an audacious national vision – like Saudi Arabia – that inspires patriotism across ethnic lines, aligns with our economic interests, and with the same urgency for diversification as the petrostates. It is worth noting that the fuel subsidy removal is a very significant and bold step in this right direction despite the temporary pains at the pump.

Resilient Nigerians

Nigerians are some of the most creative, resilient, and hardworking people in the world. With modest or no government funding, the sheer creativity and resilience of filmmakers have built the third largest movie industry in the world: Nollywood. Young Nigerians with humble beginnings and high ambitions on the streets of Lagos, Port Harcourt, and Enugu are dominating global music charts and headlining the biggest arenas and stadia in Europe and US; similarly, relative success is being recorded in the fragile Nigerian Tech industry where past regulatory policies can sometimes seem adversarial. Nigeria’s very powerful diaspora whose yearly remittances and record achievements have rivaled Nigeria’s oil revenues and partly inspired strong desire for mass emigration such as the “Japa” syndrome cannot be ignored as a big asset. There are other countless stories of unsung heroes being demonstrated daily by honest Nigerians without fame or fortunes.

Yet, Nigeria’s creativity or resilience has its limitations. President Tinubu’s antecedents of visionary leadership, bold ideas, and international exposure present a rare opportunity for Nigeria to harness her human resources, rise to surmountable challenges, restructure and potentially double the economy in a few years.

Nigerians will thrive with Tinubu’s visionary leadership.

For over 110million Nigerians whose lives are engrossed in the hustles and bustles of urban life, they have high expectations – despite being in the fringes of political access – that this administration will somehow transform their lives with progressive antecedents of President Tinubu and the Lagos State government. For most well-meaning Nigerians, they will thrive under Tinubu’s visionary leadership!

President Tinubu’s visionary leadership has potentials to drive a credit-based economy, by unlocking at least US$300 billion worth of dead capital in residential and agricultural land alone; a visionary leadership that enhances accessible credit and monitoring of credit worthiness for all working-class Nigerians; audacious leadership that can initiate new credit-guarantee products to augment business and middle-class capital – and revisit the bottlenecks and bankability thresholds that stifled past foreign capital inflows into bold infrastructure projects and energy deals.

Visionary leadership that recognizes the limitations of government resources by incentivizing tax breaks for well-intentioned private capital to bet on Nigerian ingenuity for mass job creation, innovation, and democratize luck through equal opportunities for ‘the connected’ and average Nigerian.

With some patience, Nigerians can greatly benefit from visionary leadership that punishes the remnants of our dark history, stoked through selfish rhetoric of religious and ethnic divides. As a great people, we should support bold initiatives that challenge the status quo for the future of energy, invests in education and skills, food security, economic diversification, and prepare mainstream society for the socioeconomic shocks of artificial intelligence.

I am very confident in the capacity and compassion of President Tinubu – despite the temporary pains of his reforms – to drive sustainable change and economic transformation. This great country will blossom with a socioeconomic renaissance that brings broad prosperity and improves our standing in the world. For these reasons, we are rooting for President Tinubu and his economic team to stay the course.

Dare J is a finance executive with global experience in government and investment finance. For any inquiries related to this Op-Ed, you can email: Djoincorp@gmail.com