FROM PARIS TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: NIGERIA’S FUTURE IN FOCUS Following our dialogue at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) office in Paris yesterday, we made a one-hour stop at a Nigerian restaurant, where we met and interacted with fellow Nigerians before departing for Strasbourg. We arrived at 12:15 a.m. today, Tuesday, 20 October. By 9:30 a.m., we were at the European Parliament, where we held a series of constructive meetings with Members of the European Parliament representing various committees. Our engagements continued until 6:00 p.m. Throughout these discussions, I reiterated that Africa is a continent of immense potential, the world’s second-largest continent by both land area and population, richly endowed with natural resources and blessed with a vast, youthful population capable of driving production, innovation and economic transformation. I called for stronger European support for Africa’s development, particularly Nigeria’s, through partnerships that promote good governance, strengthen democratic institutions and protect the integrity of our electoral processes. Africa needs leaders with the vision, competence and integrity to unite our people, confront corruption decisively, tackle insecurity and reduce inequality. These are essential foundations for building prosperous, stable and inclusive societies. Africa must not be seen merely as a continent of needs, but as a continent of opportunities, solutions and possibilities. Nigeria, in particular, has the human and natural resources to play a significant role in global development. Our future must be built on responsible leadership, productive partnerships and a shared commitment to human dignity and prosperity. A better Nigeria is POssible. A New Nigeria is POssible! -PO

Data and Statistics Are Tools for Effective and Good Governance Data and statistics are indispensable tools for effective and good governance. They enable us to assess performance, measure progress, identify challenges, and learn from the experiences of others. Although the next World Statistics Day will be celebrated on 20 October 2030, I have chosen to commemorate it today because it is usually celebrated on 20 October, and to encourage our people to appreciate the importance of statistics in national development. It is globally known that nations grow and develop by learning from others. In Nigeria, we learnt or adopted almost everything about our governance from other nations. While we got our presidential system from the US, other aspects of our socio-economic and governance systems were adopted from the United Kingdom, flowing from our colonial heritage. These include our legal, educational, banking, health, communication and agricultural systems, etc. As individuals, we also recognise that life is a process of learning to improve, develop and grow. That is the natural process through which we all became medical doctors, economists, engineers, bankers, lawyers, mechanics, painters and professionals in other disciplines. Moreover, we always want to learn from comparable experiences and similar people. This is how we interrogate nations with visible progress and achievements that are verifiable through data and statistics, generally referred to as evidence. Good governance principles are anchored on global best practices, which entail acknowledging, borrowing and adopting what works best in other climes. Global best practices are also parameters and benchmarks for comparative politics and performance. The problem with our incompetent and corrupt APC-led government is the confusion of hubris with leadership. This stems from a lack of patriotism and a total absence of commitment to a better Nigeria. This is why the government lacks the required humility, patriotism and disposition to learning and is fixated on governing our richly endowed nation with corrupt, ineffective and reactive policies, which inevitably produce poor and retrogressive outcomes. Verifiable data and facts confirm that Bangladesh is a developing country with a population of about 178 million people. Undisputed and verifiable statistics affirm that Bangladesh achieved significant poverty reduction between 2010 and 2022. This lifted about 34 million people out of poverty and reduced extreme poverty rates from 12.2% to 5.6%. It is not by accident that indexes such as the Human Development Index (HDI) and Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index are sources of evidence on human progress. It is also widely known and confirmed that the significant poverty reduction was achieved through five key pillars: agricultural growth, export-oriented manufacturing, microfinance and NGOs, social safety nets, and human capital and infrastructure. As the above pillars through which Bangladesh significantly reduced poverty are not too difficult to understand, the appropriate thing a patriotic and effective government would have done is to learn humbly and diligently how Nigeria can also significantly reduce its embarrassing and shameful poverty level. Moreover, just as it is in Bangladesh, so it is with the remarkable leadership in Vietnam, Rwanda, Morocco, India and many other developing nations. Unfortunately, the disingenuous, incompetent and corrupt APC government cannot give what it does not have. It is limited in its global worldview, unwilling to learn and deeply consumed by its inclination towards state capture through the corrupt control of our national resources and bad governance. That is why Nigeria, a richly endowed and blessed country, is now classified as the poverty capital of the world, with a poverty rate of about 63% and over 140 million Nigerians living in multidimensional poverty.