The Babatope Falade-Onikoyi Blog

At least this election cycle should be dominated by real issues, and not whether one person is corrupt or not. The entire system we are running is corrupt.  We are using a unitary system, and we call it federalism, is that not fraud? Gumi is roaming free, but Chiwetalu was flown to Abuja. What is that.  Please let's just discuss issues. I think the following issues are pertinent;  1. States and Control of their resources.  2. Regional Security systems.  3. Overhauling of education in preparation for the knowledge economy.  4. Development of the digital economy ,  that opaque startup bill.  5. AfCTA and how it will benefit Nigerians.  6. Food Security and Agricultural Innovation.  7. Public Finance; FDI, Debt Sustainability and Subsidies.  8. Legal framework for Social Investment Programme.  9. Land laws and development  10. Petroleum Industry Act 11. Energy Security. (Cooking Gas, Renewables, Refining of petrol...

Power is fleeting.  No man can be a hero to his valet. A prophet is not appreciated in his hometown. These are truths that have been with us from the beginning and if there is an end, it will remain so.  Moral of the story, that CEO or celebrity that enjoys so much power in some circles, is just a regular mortal in other places.  Power is fleeting indeed. One minute, you are the cynosure of all eyes and everyone wants to shake your hands. But fortunes will change soon, and your phone will stop ringing. You will keep asking your PA whether you have not received any calls, and they will say no. Meanwhile, you used to hide from phone calls before.  Gaining or Keeping Power  You see, we also have evidence that the best use of power is to help people, as many as possible. Human groups naturally hand power to the person that they feel will fulfil their interests. That is another truth. They won't give power to who speaks the best English, and if they do, t...

Sources of Inflation in Nigeria as established by the CBN, Federal Government and Financial Derivatives.  1. Fuel Prices.  2. Exchange Rate (Naira Depreciation, Increase in Imports and Collapse of Exports) 3. Electricity Prices 4. Food Inflation 5. Insecurity  6. I'll add Cooking Gas prices.  The CBN's target inflation rate is 9%, but Nigeria's current inflation rate is 17.83%, that is almost double the target. This is after several interventions by CBN.  Inflation problems are structural. Refining capacity will reduce the fuel prices driven inflation. Increased productivity will moderate the exchange rate led inflation.  Natural Gas Production and Investment will help with reducing electricity inflation and help drive industrial productivity and economic growth.   Insecurity is based on government, army and northern region sincerity. And this will help fight food inflation also. Food inflation can also be fought with more technological adoption....

  The Nigeria Computer Society (NCS) recently decried the decision of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to hand its digital currency project (e-naira) to a foreign company based in Barbados- Bitts Inc.  The NCS highlighted that Bitt Inc is a 3-man organisation and has lower capitalization compared to local Fintech organisations in Nigeria. The NCS stakeholders mentioned that this act negates the recent need to source goods and services locally because of the exchange rate challenges, which the CBN itself is managing. Local Fintech’s also lost the opportunity to improve their experience.  According to the NCS CBN, by appointing Bitt Inc as Technical Partners also failed to adhere to the provisions of the NITDA Act which recommends clearance for any IT project. The action of the CBN also violates “Presidential Executive Order 003 of 2017, which states that ‘’All Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDA’s ) of the FGN shall grant preference to local manufacturers of goods a...

 ASUU is proposing an amendment to the NUC Act. The objective of that proposed amendment is to stop the proliferation of universities, where there is lack of funding.  I understand ASUU. The idea is that they won't get as much compensation and benefits if government spreads itself too thin. I get that.  But the thing is this. We need to reconfigure our economy. We actually need more universities. But we need way more vocational institutions and monotechnics.  The key to accelerating the knowledge economy in Nigeria is not Universities, it is monotechnics. Just Information Technology Courses.  These monotechnics can be virtual and can award degrees. They can also be exempted from NYSC or given privilege to choose where they want to serve.  They must also be able to get full time jobs.  My objective for such an intervention will be to surpass India in production of technology talent. Nigerians can be the leaders of major technology companies abroad....

 I was going through some material on digital transformation and the instructor mentioned that human intuition is linear, but technological growth in the digital world is exponential.  Then something jumped at me. The possibilities before the human race is immense. But because we think and organize in a linear manner, we can't take advantage of these things at the scale we should.  A linear mentality will basically see one through, then move on to the next.  This is why I support all the technologies that will improve human life with unfathomable means,  without second thought , even the one that has potential to  prolong human life and reprogram our body cells.  This linear tendency is the reason why we resist change so much that we limit the progress of the human race. It is also this same mindset that has made Bill Gates one of the most disliked persons in the world. Even his ex-wife confessed that she does not want to be inside his brain. That it i...