This is the first phase I want you to look into and begin to work towards.

Dear Mr. President, the first part of my advice may have packed quite a punch but I hope you can look beyond that and see the issues raised within. Having done that, please continue reading this piece of advice I am sending you. I am calling this part of the advice the second phase. The second phase requires that you meet with technocrats and stellar business minds to see what can be done to make this a reality. They are not less important than the first phase. If anything, they are equally important.

3. Make Proper Education A Priority

You cannot overhaul the economy without proper formal education…and yes, I said FORMAL EDUCATION. In this sense, education is allowing the mind to be free and open to think up innovative ideas and not filling it with supposed ‘knowledge’. I got this definition from Innocent Usar of Innocent Minds. You should consider working with him. We need a school system that encourages innovation than that which celebrates certificates. Certificates should only be as good as they can be translated to solving everyday societal issues. With proper education, a door to infinity will be opened in the minds of the recipients. Let me tell you a story. My younger sister who is a mechanical engineer passed by a mango tree. She stopped abruptly and turned back. She stared at that tree for a bit and came back home. When I asked why she acted that way, she in turn asked what I noticed about the tree. I told her I noticed it was a mango tree with lots of rotten fruit beneath. Then she asked me if I have ever had vodka. I was pissed because she knows that I am a teetotaler. She laughed and said she wasn’t disputing that but abstinence was no reason to pass up a chance to make money. Yes…like you, I had a stupid look on my face. She smiled and asked me which country drank vodka more. I said Russia or Germany…wasn’t too sure. Then she said, ‘Do you know vodka can be processed from rotten fruit?’ Then it hit me! My Biochemistry came back to me in that instance. She said we can export rotten fruit to Russia for their vodka and make some money out it. Talk about waste-to-wealth!

Only the illumination that comes from proper formal education would have made her open her mind to the possibilities that was beyond what she saw. If schools are properly furnished and equipped, have teachers who know their onion and are willing to not just teach but learn and students are made to understand how important their collective visions are to the country, then research and development will shoot at tangential velocity until as a nation, we are a force to be reckoned with.