The Nigerian Non-Oil Conference, Exhibition and Awards (NNECEA) 2010, were held in Abuja Monday 25 to Wednesday 27 October. It provided as usual an opportunity for all stakeholders and producers in the sector to discuss the nitty-gritty of enhancing attitudinal and policy change that can enhance commodity export from Nigeria, with a view to taking Nigeria back to its past glorious days of international repute for Non-Oil exporting capacity pre-1970. That is when the country got enmeshed in the current near mono-product economy, depending solely on the oil boom since turned into doom, especially for the blessed but over-bled and long abandoned Niger Delta region.

 The annual forum attracts stakeholders from the non-oil sector such as micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME), top exporters, bankers, shipping lines, insurance companies, chambers of commerce and industry as well as government entities, major among which is the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) one whose Directors, Mrs. Omowunmi Osibo chaired several scintillating sessions including one on opportunities in Agric commodity export addressed by Alhaji Borodo, current President of the Federation of West African Manufacturers Associations. Borodo expressed concern about the fact that the Protocol on free movement of people, goods and services within ECOWAS is not being respected, while stressing the need for Nigeria “to add value to its local resources.”

You ask the Convener, Koinonia Ventures Limited’s boss Femi Boyede, what his driving motive is, and he is quick to quip: “Passion! It was, it is, it will continue to be the driving force for everything I do. It’s a passion for change, a passion for realization of innate potentials, for actualization of what are meant to be. If you like, it is a fury at the refusal to be creative. Yeah! Because it is there, before our noses, before our eyes and within our reach, the possibility of Non-Oil resources actually addressing all our socio-economic needs. It’s there for everybody to see, but nobody seems to doing it the way it is supposed to be done.”

Boyede warned participants of the dangers of asking for drastic policy changes at short notice, as according to him it takes about 18 months for a policy to be reversed once it has been adopted. He was responding to a suggestion that the total ban on Cotton export be lifted and to extend the Export Expansion Grants (EEG) to more indigenous commodity exporters. So, you ask to  know from the Convener, which is tougher to change between attitude and policy, since this is all about attitudinal and policy change for the enhancement of non-oil commodity export, which another Resource Person, Eze  Chidume Okoro said can earn Nigeria N3 trillion per annum from agric commodities alone, if properly harnessed.

Says Boyede: “Attitudinal change takes a longer time to come about. And well, we are talking about non-oil export here, but I tell you my company is a Human Capital and Business Development consultant, and we did attitudinal change for a government agency in August – September last year, and since then they never stopped calling us. About 40 of the General Managers, very senior, I think Levels 15 and 16 guys, and people began to understand that where they are is not where they are supposed to be.

“So, first you change the individual, which means you are going to change his attitude to work on his desk, and that way the nation begins to move in a different direction. Left to me, what we have done here is theoretical, is strategic, but more importantly, I would rather have a hall full of bureaucrats for two days and not tell them anything about these opportunities, but tell them the way they are harming this nation; because by not being where they are supposed to be, by not understanding that one’s very existence depends on what he/she makes of his/her environment, they are not doing that and everything is upside down. You assume that there is a cake somewhere.

“You leave home every morning with the idea of how much of that cake you can bring home for yourself and family today. So we do the exact opposite of the famous Kennedy quote about thinking “not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country.” So, what about what can I give to my country?

That is why I say that attitudinal change is more important than all other considerations.”

So if he was President, would he abrogate or amend in part(s) the now controversial Land Use Act? He says: “I would first understand what the implications of the Act are. And my attitude to that is as a leader, you should not pretend to know everything. Find out why the Act is the way it is, what are the implications for socio-economic development, and then where it is important for to own land, government does. But no absolutes; flexibility based on realities and collective comfort, is what I will follow. I will not just repeal because everybody says so, no. It will be study-based.”