Dubai and Nigeria in Perspective – How Leadership Has Affected The Two Nations

I must admit, this lockdown had a toll on me and has made me vulnerable for a while in the sense that, I have been thinking more about Nigeria and it has made me seen the worst of the worst Nigeria has to offer. Nigerian issue is one thing I have always avoided, I have trained my mind to see the best in Nigeria. I have been doing my best trying not to let the corruptible system get to me. I have been working double hard trying not to let the corruption and the high level of incompetence within the system get to me. But with the recent activities happening within the last few days has got me thinking, this is something I have been avoiding for a long time. But I guess the lockdown has its ups and down and boredom breeds other unforeseen circumstances.

One thing I can tell you is, every Nigerian seems to know the problem of Nigeria, in fact, we all always have ready-made brilliant solutions to the problems of this country, but for some reasons best known to us, we are not just ready to do the right thing.
With the latest news coming out of Nigeria I can’t help it, they got to me deeply
a. USA returned 300 Million Dollars Abacha loot, So far they have been able to recover over $4.6 billion From Abacha alone, and there are still more. So that means, as at 1998, Abacha was already a billionaire in Dollars from Nigeria loot. Before then other military rulers had run Nigeria dry and their loots haven’t been recovered till date.
b. Nigeria has less than 500 ventilators in the entire country. that means more than half of it might not be working and some might have been stolen or never supplied.
c. How some of our leaders defiled the lockdown procedure which led to the global spread of the virus and nobody held anybody responsible for those actions.
d. And many more stories from the length and breadth of the nation.
e. How Nigeria didn’t have money and resources to fight the pandemic and how money was donated and we still couldn’t get ventilators.

All this news really got to me thinking and wondering whats the fate of a Nigerian citizen. So in other to get my mind preoccupied, I decided to travel the world via the internet.
So for some reasons, I have been researching about Dubai, maybe because I was bored or I had planned to visit Dubai before this Pandemic, I still plan to visit once this pandemic is over. So if you’d like us to go together, do not hesitate to send a message. So I decided to research the places I will visit in Dubai. I got so excited I decided to write about the beautiful places to visit in Dubai once this lockdown is over. See the post here.
Halfway through my writeup, I felt teary, I was almost weeping viewing the beautiful images of this modern city. I am hardly emotional. I read how the Dubai visionary leadership have contributed immensely to the development of this great city and one thought keep coming through my mind, I kept asking what have we done to deserve the kinds of Leaderships we have in Nigeria?
I decided to take a break, I can’t be caught crying. I decided to compare this great city with the giant of Africa.

Similarities Between Nigeria and Dubai (UAE)

1. They are both colonized by Great Britain
2. They both have petroleum
3. They are both a religious country

Where Nigeria has more advantages

1. Dubai doesn’t have fertile lands (it’s located in the desert) Nigeria is blessed with fertile lands
2. Dubai does not have natural rivers, lakes, streams etc everything they have is almost man-made, Nigeria has natural seas, oceans, rivers, lakes, lagoons etc
3. Dubai barely experience rain out of the 365 days, Dubai experience less than 25 days of rain whereas in Nigeria alone this year, there is a report that there will be over 260 days of rain
4. Dubai does not have other major raw materials most of them are imported, Nigeria have virtually every raw materials you can imagine on earth that we don’t even know what to do with them.
5. Dubai is located in the Desert with a crazy temperature, Nigeria has a moderate temperature.
6. Nigeria got her independence in 1960, Dubai got hers in 1971
7. Dubai built her first airport in 1960, Nigeria built its first Airport (Mallam Aminu Kano Internationa Airport) in 1922 and it started operations in 1936. See lists of Airports in Nigeria
8. Oil was discovered in Dubai in 1958 while Oil was discovered in Nigeria in 1956
9. Nigeria started drilling oil by 1958 while Dubai started drilling and sold its first oil in 1960
10. Dubai is not even a state, Its, not a country it’s a city within UAE, Nigeria, on the other hand, is a country which is supposed to be more powerful than a city.
11. Dubai city covers an area that’s just about 4,110km2 while Nigeria covers an area of 923,768km2

Ten Things Dubai has Done far better than Nigeria

1. They built the tallest building in the world in just 5 years while in Nigeria we are struggling to finish the construction of Lagos Ibadan expressway since Obasanjo left office since 2007
2. They made man-made rivers, lakes, canals etc in Nigeria we have these things naturally and we can’t even maintain them.
3. Nigeria has just a few functional seaports, now Dubai that doesn’t have these natural amenities built world-class man-made harbours
4. Dubai a city has three functional seaports while Nigeria a country with 36 states has just about seven seaports with just about three working at full capacity
5. Dubai does not have natural water bodies and they have been able to build rivers, streams etc while the Nigerian water corporation is struggling to supply 24 hours water supply.
6. Dubai port of Jebel Ali is the largest port in the middle east and it was built from scratch, it is the largest man-made harbour in the world.
7. Dubai built the first rotating skyscraper in the world that is every time the building will be rotating to face a different destination
8. Now Dubai is tired of Burg Khalifa (the tallest building in the world) that they are currently building another tallest building in the world called Jeddah Tower
9. Currently, oil only makes about 5% of Dubai’s earnings while oil accounts for about 90 per cent of Nigeria’s
10. As at 2013 UAE generates 27.2 Gigawatts (GW) and they are currently planning to launch 4 nuclear reactors that can produce 5600GW they also have the biggest solar power plant in the world. Nigeria is still struggling to generate 5,000MW. Note Dubai is talking Gigawatts while we are still struggling with MG watts.
11. Dubai has one of the best medical facilities in the world, Dubai built a 5,000-bed capacity within a week just to prepare for the coronavirus while Nigeria as a country couldn’t even build such a number for its over 200 million citizens,

Things Nigeria is still struggling to Achieve

1. Nigeria can not even generate 24 hours water supply, in 2020 Water corporation cannot supply 24 hours water to just a few communities they supply.
2. Nigeria is still struggling to generate 24 hours of power supply.
3. Nigeria has one of the poorest roads in the world
4. Our Health system is in a mess

Why was Dubai Able to Do this and Nigeria is Still Struggling

As John Maxwell said, everything rises and falls on leadership. Dubai has great and innovative leaders who have the interest of their people at heart. On the other hand, Nigeria has been unlucky with good leaders who are either selfish or do not have the interest of the people at heart.

What are your thoughts on this and what do you think Nigeria can do to make a difference.