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In the space of six years, Britain has had for itself five prime ministers. These events can only be attributed to a few factors such as Brexit, the global economic meltdown, and the declining influence of the Kingdom. It came as a shock to the whole world when now-former Prime Minister Liz Truss announced her resignation just forty-four days after she took over from Boris Johnson. Within a week and a few days, another astonishing event happened: 42-year-old Rishi Sunak, a British Indian took over from Liz Truss as prime minister. This will mark the first person of colour to hold such a prestigious office in the history of the United Kingdom. From Winston Churchill pontificating about Indians being incapable of self-government in the 1950s to being the poverty capital of the world towards the end of the 20th century to becoming CEOs of nearly all the Fortune 500 tech companies in the United States to becoming the British Prime Minister, India has indeed come a long way. India no doubt is an emerging giant we must watch out for.
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It will be sad to remember that at one point in the 1960s, Nigeria alongside India and Brazil were dubbed as the future emerging giant by economic experts and scholars. Sadly, while India and Brazil seem to be fulfilling this prophecy, Nigeria in 2017, took over India as the poverty capital of the world. Although India still has a long way to go, yet has come a long way from behind. In fact, India’s tech, engineering and medical ecosystems are mind-blowing that nearly major global pharmaceuticals are being run by Indians. On the other hand, Nigeria struggles to emerge as a sub-regional giant with worsening economic woes. While India has lifted millions out of poverty, the reverse is the case in Nigeria. The World Bank and other financial agencies are predicting more economic gloom for Africa’s most populous nation. India began to astonish the world when the major tech companies in the United States had Indians as their CEOs: Sundar Pichai – Alphabet, Parag Agrawal – Twitter, Satya Nadella – Microsoft, Arvind Krishna – IBM, Raghu Raghuram – VMWare, and Vivek Sankaran – Albertsons. Also, in the startup ecosystem, India is dazzling the world with over 500 registered startups with 100 of them attaining unicorn status. There are so many struggling nations like Nigeria has to learn from India.
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Another sad reflection on Nigeria following the recent victory of Rishi Sunak as the new prime minister of Britain is the Nigerian question on citizenship, race relations and ethnic conflict. Here is a pontification for Nigerians to reflect on following Rishi’s emergence:
“Rishi Sunak, an ancestral Hindu with an Indian origin, whose Indian parents migrated to the UK in 1960 from Kenya and who is soon to be the prime minister of Caucasian, largely white Great Britain is being congratulated by people who just yesterday were telling their fellow citizens to leave Lagos.”Like India, Nigeria has all the human and natural resources to make all the differences. As 2023 approaches, Nigeria must elect officeholders who take hold of Nigeria’s diversity and wealth and the nation around for good. While many pontificates about electing their kinsmen, whose mental and physical capacity is incapable of making pap out of corn paste, it is high time Nigeria elected a leader than can move the nation from consumption to production. Featured Image Source: Business Hallmark
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