Lest we forget, GSK and P&G are businesses aimed at making profit for the investors. If their business models are not working anymore for them here in Nigeria as they used to and they have chosen to exit, why must we bemoan their departure?
It is worth recalling that when Nigeria was unbundling the telecoms sector a little over two decades ago, the major telecom firms from Europe and America failed to show interest. But the Zimbabwean and South Africa Econet and MTN, respectively, bidding for and got the licences and together with Globacom, a wholly Nigerian network, they have been dominating 200 million plus subscribers’ market.
After the successful privatization, European and American firms have been angling to have a piece of the pie, as it were.
A similar scenario played out in the energy sector in which no major European players showed interest. But with the reforms in the sector engendered by the 2023 Electricity Act, the firms that neglected to invest significantly in Nigeria’s power sector like Siemens of Germany now have our country in their gaze.
Hopefully, GSK, P&G, etc, will also return to Nigeria sooner rather than later simply because a market with a population above 200 million is too big to ignore.
I have read some interventions in the mass media where it was claimed that the Asian and Chinese firms replacing the European and American firms exiting are not high on corporate governance standards.
Was SHELL Nigeria not bound by the highly rated corporate governance rules in its home countries, England and Netherlands, when it committed the atrocities in Ogoni land which the international court in the Hague has after a long legal battle managed to compel it to clean up and still ongoing?
The truth is that it is no longer the case that the Chinese, Indians, or Singaporeans have no high-standard corporate governance rules. They do, hence, their economies are thriving, and they are active in European and American markets.
As a matter of fact, there is no evidence to that effect because no firms from the Asian world have been found wanting in terms of environmental abuse like the Royal Dutch Shell in Nigeria.
From experience, more often than not, it is usually during contract administration and personnel recruitment that corporate governance rules are thrown up.
Regarding the corporate governance void that some pundits presume is being left by the exited firms with Western ownership, the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, is doing well regulating the publicly quoted firms, and Nigerian extractive industries regulatory agencies in the oil/ gas sector are expected to keep keen eyes on industries in that sector to ensure high standards of compliance with extant rules.
In conclusion, I hold the view that the ongoing reforms are desirable, and they hold the promise of a new Nigeria.
I understand quite well the severe hardships that we are all going through concerning the alarmingly high cost of living triggered by the subsidy removal policy.
We are all in the same boat sailing in the high-cost-of-living waters.
All hands are needed on deck to take the ship to the shores, so in our various small ways, we should try to help ourselves to survive.
In our spare time, let us do recreational farming in our yards around our homes growing simple crops like tomatoes and other vegetables presently attracting high costs before insecurity issues that are compelling our farmers to stay away from the farms and the reason there is a shortage in the supply of food abate.
While one aligns with the government’s appeal that Nigerians should return to the farms, it must, first of all, guarantee adequate security to prevent further murdering of our hardworking farmers by the nefarious ambassadors-outlaws wreaking havoc in our towns and villages in the hinterland.
The introduction of high technology into fighting insecurity must be prioritized just as a non-kinetic approach to combating the criminality that appears to be overwhelming our country should be stepped up by getting sociologists and psychologists involved.
There has been quite an elephant-size reliance on military efforts at combating the menace and ant size in the soft approach.
As a former president of the USA Barack Obama once admonished, the fact that we have a big hammer does not mean we have to go on hitting all the nails.
Let us consider fighting religious insurgency and banditry from another prism so that we can fully enjoy the benefits of President Tinubu’s socioeconomic and political reforms.