The government has no business doing business. The inherent obligation of the government is to regulate; and ensures the business terrains reflect a fair level playing ground that is transparent enough to absorb healthy competitions and innovations among industry players. The state also must ensure there is constant sanity in the ecosystem that sustains the value chain of economic production. Business can only be business if the utility value of the system remains sacred. The rights of Investors, consumers and all other players in the ecosystem must be well safeguarded in building a fair level playing ground.

During my observation over the years, I safely concluded that privatization is the only viable means we can use to rejuvenate our loss-making public enterprises back to life. Because of the “rocket science” complexity of governance as reflected in the political trajectory of Nigeria, running and raising a public enterprise to a competitive edge might be very difficult; because of the recurrent administrative bottlenecks and bureaucratic malfeasances that characterize our public service. In checking this anomaly, we need to start questioning the system. One should wonder what business a politician has in managing an enterprise. Of what consumption value is the expertise of subject matter technocrats if they are often schemed out of the ‘control’ equation? Again, what business does a politician have in managing a business?

If we take a snapshot of our existential economic realities, it is irrefutable that almost all the enterprises ran by successive governments in Nigeria fell short of survivability – which eventually resulted in loss-making. This performance indicator shows the state lacks the corporate intuition and bureaucratic discipline to sustain a business venture for a longer period. Building a profit-turning public venture goes beyond having unrestrained access to government loans and finances to run it. The quality of personnel at the management and… click this link to continue reading

 

The PALM #5 Edition