Ever since January 1971 when Klaus Schwab, an intellectual and then prof of Business at the University of Geneva in Switzerland assembled some 400 fellow intellectuals, investors industrialists, CEOs of Multi-national Organizations in Davos to attend what was initially called the European Management Forum(EMF), the World Economic Forum (WEF) has come to stay with humanity.
Very regularly in the last 55 years or so, this event, the World Economic Forum, has always held.
However, it changed its name from European Management Forum to what it is today- the World Economic Forum, in the year 1987.
To say the Forum has grown in leaps and bounds is to state the obvious. In recent years the 5-days long meeting brings together some 3,000 members and selected participants who are mostly investors, business leaders, economists political leaders, celebrities and journalists to discuss many global issues. Thus Davos has become more than just a city in the mountain resort of the Alpine Region of Switzerland. Instead, it has become an annual show case of economic, trade and industrial event that promotes co-operation among business men, investors, governments and also civil societies. The high profile attendance of the meeting by presidents, prime ministers, other political leaders as well as Chief Executives of Multi-national Organizations, makes it an annual hub for world business.
The just concluded one, was one I developed interest in because of what l wanted to hear from Donald Trump, the US president. Consequently, l took time to follow it comprehensively on Television.
CNN International as a broadcast channel made it possible for many of us in Nigeria, to follow that world event. One man who made the following of the event even more of a super attraction was a broadcast journalist called Richard Quest. Mr. Quest is a prominent British Journalists who lives in New York and is the CNN International News Editor-at-Large. He is that Cable News correspondent who covers regularly global, finance and travels.
As a 64 years old and rather energetic news man, Richard Quest presents “Quest Means Business” or CNN. His fast-paced style of presenting news reports has a tendency to simplify complex business and economic stories for a general audience.
Mr. Quest is known for his often theatrical delivery style and sharp insights into global markets. This makes him to appeal a great deal to his audience including my humble self.
As is his style, Richard Quest shifted base from New York to Davos last week all through the summit. In the different editions of his program “Quest Means Business”, Mr. Quest engaged a number of the top participants at the summit in one-on-one interviews. His guests included Prime Ministers, Heads of Government, Ministers in charge of Trade and Investments. They also included the CEO’s of several multinational companies, Investors, Intellectuals; the Director-General of the World Trade Organization and the President of the European Union Bank.
At the end of the interviews he had with each of his guests, Quest wittingly asked them to write on the board he provided, one word that would give HOPE to the world in the near future.
I got very incusitive and so became interested in what each of them would say, especially because they are all big men and women who traverse the world like the Colossus that they all are individually. The request from Mr Quest was that they each wrote a single word on the board in the colours they preferred. I couldn’t count the single words those men and women wrote in all, as to have been able to think of how many such words got written. But I am sure they could have been fifty or even more.
Some of those words they wrote included the fellowing that I could easily remember: Co-operation, Trust, Multi-lateralism, Strength, Leadership, Faith, Relationship, Innovation, Ability, Delivery, Courage, Purpose and Resilience. Others were Energy, Peace, Competence, Technology and History. There were also many more single words such as Digitization, Love and Understanding.
Three people caught my attention more in what they wrote. But I will digress a little before coming back to those three and what they wrote down. Before then it is important to first of all cherish the inspiration Mr.Richard Quest had in requesting those great men and women he interviewed to write down in just one word what could give hope to the world we live in. Looking at what many of them wrote, only what Christine Lagarde the president of the European Central Bank and former Chair, and Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) came out as not having been relevant for the moment. Perhaps the 70 years old grand mother, forgot that great hope she had always had for the world as a financial expert. She chose to rather settle on her grand children. May be she did not get the Quest question very well. She had written “My grand children” and went on to add the emoji for love to those three words she had written.
Now let us look at some of those one-word of hope that many of these very important leaders of the world wrote down for Richard Quest. It is what they felt could bring hope to the world we live in.
Let’s look at words like ‘co-operation’, ‘multi-lateralism’ ‘trust’, ‘strength’ and a word like ‘leadership’.
Doesn’t the world suffer from the lack of those amongst humanity? Do we trust ourselves not to talk of our leaders? Is there sufficient co-operation among nations and even among people?
Are our different nations strong? Where is our faith in ourselves, our courage and ability to persevere or even show resilience? Let us ask ourselves a few questions more. Are we courageous as a nation? Why can’t we take strong decisions which we known will bail us out of our challenges? Why are we afraid to take them?
As Nigerians do we trust ourselves? Do we show purpose in all that we do? Are we resilient? Do we persevere? We could go on asking. History is good but in our country it is easier for government to come out with a policy that throws out history as a course of study from our school curriculum without eyes blinking in doubt. Therefore, our children find out too late that they can’t even understand their country had a past they could be very proud of.
As a process, Technology and Digitization go hand in hand. Our youth do want to have them because they know the two words are closely related for growth and development which is their target. Somehow, our youth have no source of electricity to drive their ambitions to be digitally compliant. Oh what a shame that in the supply of electricity, our national grid collapses two times in four days! Now, what about peace? Terrorism has taken peace away from us. In the place of peace, we have banditry arson kidnappings and all manners of “kill and go” people gallivanting about.We are no longer tolerant as a people. We cheat as leaders and also as followers. It looks like “everything don scatter!”
As a nation, we should ask ourselves how far we can go with all these baggages we carry? Where is the hope that the non availability of all these can or would inspire the up-and-coming boys and girls who should take over and remoulding our world?
Here in our land we appear to have gotten it all wrong. But then the larger world is also getting it wrong especially with presidents like Valdimir Putin and Donald Trump turning themselves into policemen of the entire universe which our father in Heaven created for us all.
Now let us get back to the three other “hopefuls” whose writings struck me and brought hope in me. One of them is the prime minister of one of the countries in Eastern Europe. His name suggests so. He just wrote on the board “Commons Sense”. This is a word or better still, a theory that can bring the entire world the hope that has kept eluding it. “Common sense” tells us not to steal, not to rob our fellow human being, nor deny him of his legitimate rights. Common sense tells us we cannot and must not invade another person’s or country’s territory as Trump did to Caracas in Venezuela, let alone threaten to take over Greenland by all means. Interesting, two Nigerian ladies at Davos’ 26 had their hope in the word or name called Nigeria. Very creative it sounded. Dr Jumoke Oduwole our country’s Minister of Trade, Industries and Investment was the first between the two ladies to write. She wrote down NIGERIA in green colour as the one word that should generate hope for the world. Her host, Richard Quest did not initially appear to have understood her. But when that lady reeled out the hope that statistics available show or present, the CNN journalist bought in what she was saying.
Much later on with the same man called Richard Quest, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iwuela, Nigeria’s former Minister of Finance, and currently Director General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) came on the “Quest Means Business” show to add the word resilience to Nigeria. The resilience of the people of Nigeria to her, must give hope to the world she had said as a parting shot.
These two great Nigerian women, one elderly, the other much younger, attracted and also imbued confidence in their country. We must not take that for granted. Rather we must respect and acknowledge the nationalistic pride in them to show case Nigeria, their father land to the global world. They are two fantastic women we can and must be proud of anytime any day in our nation-building drive. In life, Loyalty is not always solid. It could develop some measure of fragility especially when tested as Babatunde Raji Fashola a Senior Advocate of Nigeria once told us on national television during his clearance by the Senate for a Ministerial appointment.
Against a background like this, Okonjo-Iweala and her younger country woman, Jumoke Oduwole deserve to be commended for the confidence and hope they still have in their country Nigeria, which to many of us citizens, continues not to get it right. This is because, twenty-six years into the new millennium, many of our over 200 hundred million citizens still live in poverty. This is unacceptable given our human and natural resources.
Smolette Adetoyese
Shittu-Alamu
