Speaking on the initiative of the Federal Government, implemented in conjunction with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), we have Ms Lanre Shasore, Senior Special Assistant on Planning and Coordination, Office of the President.
According to Ms Lanre, FG ”Imagine Nigeria” study seeks a collective effort to rebuild Nigeria to an enviable height.
Coordinator, Imagine Nigeria Secretariat, Lanre Shasore, said the report was conceived as part of multi-stakeholder efforts to create a desirable future for Nigeria beyond its current realities.
According to Ms Lanre, her role supports policy broadly and basically supports and incubates high-priority projects in the office of the vice president.
She said, “It was something we worked on during Covid, as you already know Covid provided the opportunity for everyone to research, so we thought as a country this is an opportunity to think about how we want to see the progress of the country in the next thirty years.
So the idea was then to conduct this study which was a future study basically to develop scenarios in Nigeria.
What are the variables in the world today, how do we see megatrends in the world and what does that mean for Nigeria and what is Nigeria’s place in the world for the future and what are the things that we need to do as a country to ensure that our country is successful in the future?
We developed scenarios and worked with several people, conducted interviews and surveys with over 300 people across the country and globally as well and distilled five recommendations for Nigeria’s future.
One of the things that we thought Nigeria need to do in other to be successful in the future is to facilitate a national narrative.
- What are the stories we tell ourselves?
- What is the myth of Nigeria?
- Who are we?
The other recommendation is that Nigeria ought to lead Africa in other to be successful in the future as a continent. Nigeria has the will to do that, it has done that in the past, it has the tool to do that and can continue to do so.
Another recommendation is that we have got to build trust in our society. Resilient societies are those that have worked on increasing their trust not just with governments but throughout society as well.
The other recommendation was that Nigeria ought to build a culture of innovation. Who are we?
See the video below for more!
