Asher's Blog

A country does not feel developed because a small number of people can purchase comfort. It feels developed when an ordinary person can depend on the road, the school, the hospital, the electricity supply, the police, the court and the basic administrative systems of the state. Development becomes real when dignity and predictability are common rather than privately purchased.

That is why impressive buildings and wealthy neighbourhoods are insufficient evidence of progress. If the successful citizen must provide private power, private security, private water, private education and private transport around failing public systems, private excellence is compensating for public failure. The country has produced wealthy individuals without yet producing broadly shared capability.

China is instructive because of the speed and scale of its transformation. Since reform and opening began in 1978, its economy grew at an average rate above nine per cent for decades, while close to 800 million people moved out of extreme poverty. That achievement did not result from one policy or one charismatic speech. China improved agricultural productivity, created special economic zones, invested heavily in infrastructure and human capital, expanded manufacturing and allowed local experiments to inform wider reforms.

Nigeria cannot and should not copy China’s political system. Development purchased by silencing citizens is not the model I am proposing. The useful question is how a democracy can acquire the focus, continuity and execution discipline that China applied to development while preserving elections, rights, open debate and lawful limits on power.

The first lesson is that a nation needs priorities that survive a single administration. Electricity, transport, foundational education, public health and justice cannot be reinvented every four or eight years. Nigeria needs a long-term national programme with measurable milestones, transparent funding and public scorecards. Elected governments may differ on methods, but the core destination should be protected by broad political and civic agreement.

The second lesson is to create places where reform can be tested and then expanded. China’s special economic zones were not only tax concessions; the successful ones combined infrastructure, administrative competence, investment policy and links to the wider economy. Nigeria can identify cities and regions with genuine advantages—agriculture, manufacturing, technology, logistics or creative industries—and remove the specific obstacles preventing those places from becoming globally competitive. A zone without electricity, transport, competent management and policy continuity is only a signboard.

The third lesson is disciplined measurement. Governments announce projects easily because announcements create immediate political value. Development requires a less glamorous habit: publishing whether the road was completed, whether electricity became more reliable, whether children learned more, whether court delays fell and whether businesses created productive jobs. A democracy should be better at this because citizens, journalists, legislatures and courts can independently challenge the numbers.

The fourth lesson is leadership that builds institutions rather than personal followership. Nigeria needs courageous and morally serious leaders, but the greatest leaders will use their authority to make competence survive them. Procurement must be transparent, regulators must be credible, courts must be independent and public appointments must reward ability. Righteous leadership is not merely a leader who claims good intentions; it is leadership that makes corruption difficult even for friends and successors.

Democratic focus is possible when institutions make continuity stronger than personality. Parliament can adopt long-range infrastructure and education commitments, independent bodies can publish delivery data, states can compete openly on results, and courts can punish the misuse of public resources. Civil society and business leaders can maintain pressure when political attention moves elsewhere. Elections then become occasions for judging execution, not invitations to abandon every existing plan.

Most importantly, citizens must feel the improvement. A development strategy has failed if GDP grows while commuting becomes more dangerous, schools teach less and families remain one illness away from ruin. The test is whether the market woman, young graduate, factory worker, farmer and small-business owner have more time, safety, opportunity and confidence in the future.

Nigeria already possesses ambitious people, significant capital, natural resources and a large market. What we have lacked is the ability to coordinate these advantages around a few priorities for long enough to produce compounding results. China’s story shows what sustained national attention can accomplish. Democracy gives us a different route: consent instead of command, transparency instead of secrecy and institutions strong enough to preserve direction through changes of government.

Nigeria will feel first world when ordinary competence becomes normal. The lights work, the road drains when it rains, the court delivers judgment within a reasonable time and a child’s future is not determined completely by the wealth of the child’s parents. None of this is mysterious. It demands focus, discipline, truthful leadership and the patience to keep building after the applause has ended.