• Expecting investors to invest in an environment with almost collapsed basic infrastructures is the best description of 21st century IRONY.
• The primary responsibility of a government and starting point in this should be provision of enabling environment for investment not organising a talk show.
• Massive investment in critical sectors amidst near absent human capital development /management is recipe for XENOPHOBIA.
• Don’t tell investor that when you recover some looted money worth God knows how much from your predecessor you will build your state so fine to look like Dubai.
• Don’t tell investor that you’re building a power plant and that it will be completed next year. Tell him with facts that you have sustainable 247 electricity supply and that planning is underway to diversify the source thus improve the generation, supply and distribution for industrial use.
• Meanwhile, don’t tell investor that you’re building roads, or railway or airport that will make doing business in your state easy but tell him that yours are better than the Abu Dhabi’s already. Convince him on the value you added that make yours better than what could be found in your competitors’ domain (all those wonderlands).
• Don’t tell investors you’re fighting corruption; that it’s endemic in your state during the previous administration. He will steer clear and watch you fight the monster; if you kill it, the investor knocks on your door, if God forbid it wins, he proceeds to Johannesburg.
• As we emphasise on investing in agriculture, let one of the investors set up a farm along Safana/Batsari road. In the farm let there be a large cattle ranch.
• You don’t ask a faraway investor to invest in your state when it citizens are running away from it. Something must be wrong he will think.
• If investment takes place haphazardly as we want it now we will have rather in place a LOOTING MACHINE system that will not translate to real development; leaving us arguing over figures that seem real on PowerPoint but have no impacts on the lives of Mai-danwake(s).
• An investor knows your environment more than you ever thought he has. He can’t easily be deceived.
• Talk shows don’t deliver results, critical thinking, careful planning and passionate implementation rather do.
• Talk show is after all sweet: There will be eating, drinking, taking selfie, speeches and round of applause. After the merriment, the “business as usual” continues.
• Until we get serious, I will say, ALLAH RAYAN JAHAR KATSINA
Baba-Bala Katsina
bababalakt@gmail.com
Tsangayar Malam Dan Malam