Nations, like people, reveal something about themselves by the company against which they choose to be measured. For much of Nigeria’s modern history, our comparisons have tended to oscillate between the unattainable and the familiar. We travel to Britain and wonder why government works differently. We admire German industry, Singaporean efficiency and American innovation.
Then, when the conversation turns homeward, we compare Nigeria with itself: the naira today against the naira ten years ago; growth under one administration against another; the universities of the 1980s against those of today.
There is nothing inherently wrong with these comparisons. Advanced economies establish standards worth aspiring to, while every country must understand its own trajectory. But neither comparison adequately answers the more important question: which countries are competing for the economic opportunities Nigeria itself needs?
Nigeria is not principally competing with Britain for the next major electronics assembly plant. It is competing with
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