…the big question is, how ready are we, as individuals, businesses and governments, to make 2017 significantly different and better than 2016? We can’t do the same things we did last year and expect a different result. 2017 calls for new ways of thinking and new ways of tackling the perennial issues that confront us.
“I know your works. See, I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it; for you have a little strength, have kept My word, and have not denied My name.” – (Revelation 3:8)
Happy New Year. Welcome to a year of open doors. I strongly believe we have entered a season of unbridled opportunities. The things we hitherto found difficult or impossible to accomplish will now become stepping stones to greater achievements for us. And this is because God has gone ahead of us. As a nation, I believe that we are on the precipice of new and great things. What we need, more than ever as leaders, is to be willing to serve the people in earnest and move boldly into arenas of new possibilities. We have every reason to be optimistic about this year.
While it is important for us to be optimistic about changing things for the better, it is all the more important to have plans for realising same, and this applies not only on the individual level, but on corporate and national levels as well.
In the book The Great Depression: A Diary, Benjamin Roth describes the optimism that attended the year 1934. The previous year, 1933, had been a terrible one. Banks were closed, businesses were at a standstill, and over 10 million Americans had lost their jobs. But they went into the New Year with hope. The streets were filled with people in joyous celebration, hotels, theatres and clubs were jammed, and there was a sense that things were going to get better. But this wasn’t just idle optimism. The government, stoking the embers of hope, had a series of plans and policies to turn the tide. And fifteen days into the New Year, the president (Roosevelt) began to engage Congress with new policy proposals, which they kept pursuing and reinventing until the depression was fully beaten back.
So the big question is, how ready are we, as individuals, businesses and governments, to make 2017 significantly different and better than 2016? We can’t do the same things we did last year and expect a different result. 2017 calls for new ways of thinking and new ways of tackling the perennial issues that confront us.
Let us build momentum with little victories and recover as quickly as we can from seeming setbacks. I believe the same dispatch with which the government has tackled the menace of Boko Haram can be employed to deal with the pressing challenges of the economy and the irritating menace of rampaging herdsmen destroying lives and property.
Let us keep focus on key areas and pursue their accomplishment to a logical conclusion. I was recently speaking with a dear friend who reiterated the important role agriculture could play in our development, if made priority. No other sector, according to him, can solve the twin problems of employment and food sufficiency, like the agric sector can. We have the land, we have the people, and we have the environment. What is lacking are the incentives and adequate investments in production, storage in particular and marketing. The world economic giant China, would not be what it is today without the contribution of its agricultural sector to its development. In fact, the value of agriculture to the Chinese economy tripled, following the 1978 reforms that heralded the Chinese boom. And the Chinese government has continued to make serious investments in the growth of agriculture. By 2009, direct subsidies to farmers had reached 123 billion Yuan. The effect of this has been:
1. The raising of rural incomes;
2. Production of low cost food which keep wages down for workers in the industrial sector;
3. Production of fibre and other crops that can be inputs to production in other parts of the economy;
4. Supply of commodities that can be exported and the earning of foreign exchange which can help finance imports of key technology packages and capital equipment;
5. The supply of high quality labour to factories, constructions sites and the service sector.
Let us build momentum with little victories and recover as quickly as we can from seeming setbacks. I believe the same dispatch with which the government has tackled the menace of Boko Haram can be employed to deal with the pressing challenges of the economy and the irritating menace of rampaging herdsmen destroying lives and property. I believe 2017 will see us making significant strides in every facet of our lives, by the grace of God. Happy New Year. Welcome to new possibilities. Welcome to open doors.
NIGERIA HAS A GREAT FUTURE.
Taiwo Odukoya, a leadership and relationship expert, is the Senior Pastor of The Fountain of Life Church.
Image credit: everdaydaynigeria.com.
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Two key things here;
We cannot continue the same way and expect things to change for the better in every sphere.
Let us focus and tackle other pressing issues as was done to boko haram. Celebrate little victory and we will celebrate more at the end of the year.
Fantastic advise for the season.