This is the second and concluding part of this write up. If you haven't seen the first part, leave what you are doing now and read it here to get a grasp of what I'm saying.

No one wants to take the route less travelled by

But the seemingly difficult route now became the major route for Nigerian artistes. They understood that in order to be unique, they have to do something different.

This knowledge was opened to a few of the artistes then, while some were busy sharpening their American accent for raps and songs, others went back to the drawing board to embrace local customs and traditions.

When the latter came back, they took the whole country by shock. This then began our realization of the importance of being connected to one’s root.

source

One cannot forget the impact of the Plantashun Boiz, Remedies and others for this awesome revolution.

The emergence of the local digital television also played a great role in promoting the Nigerian content.

Borrowing a leaf from music industry's good books for other sectors

Can any good thing come from our Nazareth?

Of course it can, and our music is one evidence that the world can be taken by storm. We can be anything in life given we stay true to ourselves and remain connected to our roots. Exporting you, your culture and tradition with the blend of acceptable global standard will be a stunner to the world and in that, popular acclaim can be won. This is why our music became an exportable finished product.

But could this be replicated in order areas?
But first, You wonder what exactly our finished exportable products are? I did too.

I took a cursory look at our capabilities as a nation and how we are not utilizing our capacity much.

We have to look inward

Just like what happened to the music which even seems like a harder thing to export because of its large dependence on tastes and preferences which is one of the factors that affects demand. Still, it was done.

So this lends credence to the potentials our small scale products here could have there. Take for instance, if the hundreds of thousands of Aba shoes that are manufactured every day could be developed and invested heavily into, and well labelled as our content instead of the “made in China” impression. That, I believe will gear up its exportability and thus contribute positively to the economy’s GDP

we have to look outward

Okay, this might seem like I'm playing on words here, like which one is outward again? but really it's not. What do I mean by looking outward?

Diasporans can play an integral role in the globalization of things. Just like the way insatiable desire was created for home grown songs, same feat can be replicated for physical goods. I particularly like this line of thought from Feyi Fawehinmi.So, I'm quoting him

People in the diaspora often have to inhabit multiple worlds at the same time. You have to keep in touch with your home country while being part of the country they live in. So they tend to pick up all sorts of cultural clues and see the ways in which things can or not translate across cultures.

Yes, looking outward to those beyond the shores can can have a very great boost to our local production. Imagine a situation where millions of diasporans are craving for our locally produced “kuli kuli” or our locally produced canned foods. They are better equipped with the knowledge of what could be acceptable or not. That of course relies on the beauty in looking inwards to actualize that product that will be highly sought after.

Content is everything

Without good local content the first two might seem a hard nut to crack. That's why it is important we maintain originality and and be uniquely creative with our approach. Quality over quantity adoption in all facets of production cannot be said of enough. If artistes like Asa, Tuface didn't put quality in their trade, and the producers didn't go through quality training that keeps pace with the world standard,we just might not be able to export our music beyond Niger republic.

source

Just the other day, one of our major cash crops was rejected by the US as export because they were found to be of poor quality.

Just at a time dependence on oil as the mainstay of the economy is about to be reduced.

This goes to show that our pattern of behaviour of favouring quantity over quality won't cut it for us outside there. It is important we develop within and then exude those qualities outside later.

Thank you so much for following me this far.

I hope you liked this. If this was value for your precious time, help me comment, resteem and upvote so as to make the "word" go round.

You could check an old post of feyi's here