Development progress in Nigeria

Mark in Texas writes:

ARTICLE: White Zimbabweans bring change to Nigeria, By Sarah Simpson, Christian Science Monitor, May 2, 2008

ARTICLE: Why white Zimbabwean farmers plan to stay in Nigeria, By Sarah Simpson, Christian Science Monitor, May 2, 2008

Here are a couple of interesting articles from the Christian Science Monitor about Nigeria recruiting some of the white farmers who have been driven out of Zimbabawe. Apparently they are already having a significant effect at improving things in those areas of Nigeria where they have settled. I am not sure if this sort of thing is what Tom is talking about as a component of a SysAdmin force. I think that this is something that should be encouraged but I am not sure that AFRICOM should be the ones to encourage it.

A few things that I thought were interesting were that the success of the transplanted farmers seems to depend on having a governor or some person with political connections to fight through the corruption that seems to drag down any attempt to improve things in Gap countries. It is also interesting that the farmers had to go to the extra effort of finding fertilizer sellers who actually put fertilizer in the bags marked fertilizer. Corruption extends to every aspect of public and private life in Africa. The Chinese are probably used to these sorts of problems.

Finally, it seems that the money that the banks are loaning to finance these ventures came from Nigeria's oil revenue. It seems like at least some of the people in the Nigerian government are trying to make sure that there is something left after the current oil boom is over. That puts them one up on a lot of the folks in Houston in the 1970s.

Comments

[Larry Y]

The hardest part of development: combining the needed soft management skills with local knowledge of the bureaucracy, culture and markets, not to mention dealing with the corruption. The middle managers, if you will.

Some of the more badly run African countries are driving away that expertise, in not only whites but also Indians.

Back to the bigger picture: immigrants returning back to China and India provide those skills. Also, the huge percentage of the working-aged population of Taiwan is in China managing and running things too.