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Renowned Peruvian
economist, Hernando De Soto, has urged Nigerian leaders to focus on
utilisation of the nation’s resources to build a system of Rule of Law
for the country.

Mr. De Soto, who
was the lead discussant at the second annual Bola Tinubu Colloquium
held at the Muson Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos yesterday, also asked
Nigerians to come together and find a common ground to define a system
that will work for everyone.

Speaking on the
topic: ‘This House Must Stand! Pulling Nigeria back from the brink’,
the president of the Lima-based Institute of Leadership and
Development, which is revered as one of the two most important
think-tanks in the world, described the rule of law as an opposite to
anarchy. This, according to Mr. De Soto, “is not chaos” as “anarchy is
a situation where different types of laws operate.”

Mr. De Soto, the
author of a best seller, The Mystery of Capital; Why Capitalism
Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else, explained that
formalisation of the nation’s resources from human to material
resources gives value to resources which then will enhance the world to
relate with it.

Comparing the
development of the West to the poor regions of the world, the economist
wondered that despite the technology and education bestowed on the poor
nations over the last five decades, “they remain the same.”

“We have refused to
learn how they formalised their economy to make it work for them over
the years. Formalisation is getting things under the Rule of Law, which
is invariably securing things. Rules fall into place and make people
that do not know each other deal with each other. The Rule of Law is
needed for people across the globe to work with each other.”

Femi Falana, a
member of the panel of discussants, however demanded that the concept
of the Rule of Law must be redefined globally. Mr. Falana argued that
the concept must be redefined from the way the West has defined it and
called for a new international economic order which he referred to as
“a just rule of law.”

“The Nigerian house has fallen and we are trying to re-build the house by the Rule of Law,” Mr. Falana said.

Middle class action

Maryam Uwais, who
was recently appointed on the Presidential advisory committee to the
Vice President, called on all Nigerians to “focus on a larger picture;
we need to think beyond the fragments that divide us.” Babatunde
Ahonsi, a former senior program officer with the Ford Foundation, said
that Nigeria’s problem is a twined crisis of government and
development. He argued that for the Rule of Law to work in Nigeria, the
middle class must jettison the habit of ‘siddon look’, which he said is
an attitude that ignores the happenings in the nation. He also called
on the middle class to connect with progressive members of the elite
who are interested in making Nigeria great again by “using what we
have, by coming together to form a vanguard that will let Nigerians
come together and rebuild the nation.”

The annual colloquium is organised by a committee of friends to mark
the birthday of the former Lagos State governor, Bola Tinubu, to
discuss topical issues affecting Nigeria.