OPINION: Global Socioeconomic Outlook In 2016

Posted by African Examiner Featured Contributors/Columnists, Latest Headlines, Prof.R.A Ipinyomi Saturday, January 2nd, 2016

By Prof. R. A. Ipinyomi, University of Ilorin, Nigeria

We would like to wish all our readers a very Happy New year with increasing individual and corporate prosperity. But we must question ourselves and enquire whether we will be living day to day with too much to do and yet with the higher and higher anxiety that goes along with it. What type of society are we raising for 2016 here in Nigeria, Africa and globally? The society is becoming rapidly insane. There is a big gap between our life at workplace and our life at the home place. The target is to find means of soaring our work output but still be calmer at home, government to fix all the broken places but soaring up national Gross Domestic Product, to increase the security on the streets and get the people less frightening.

Perhaps the speculated 2016 global economic growth, described either by the IMF, Forbe, or others can be used as a point for discussion. In their efforts their analysis looks at the new year outlook as it relates to Europe, United States, Asia with particular attention to China, others and comparing their growths and performance. Their analyses expect European countries to do a bit better, Asian countries staying where they were in 2015 or dropping just a bit, and natural resource-based economies like Nigeria looking much worse. No forecast is expecting any significant growth in any African economy given the high rate of population growth in our region. The growth may be flat, at best, after adjusting for population growth.

At the individual level we find each person making new resolutions and saying, “I’d like to become a better Christian during the coming year, but how can I make it happen? Every year I make the same resolution, but when I look back at the end of the year it doesn’t seem like much has really changed”. Do we have answers for them, as no one is exempted both from making resolutions and for following them up? The first step is to realize that, for those of us that are committed Christians for instance, God wants us to grow closer to Him and become more like Christ. God doesn’t want us to stand still or grow stale spiritually; He wants to change our lives! For example, Apostle Paul who dedicated his life, not only to telling others about Jesus but committed to his own spiritual growth, was never satisfied; he knew he needed to become an even stronger and more faithful Christian. He said, “I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me” . Hence the key to our spiritual growth, or fulfilling our resolutions this year, is to make use of the resources God has provided for us. Just as we need food to grow and become strong physically, so we need spiritual “food” to grow and become strong spiritually. And God has provided that “food” for us, by giving us His Word, the Bible, and prayer, and fellowship with other believers. Our world cannot improve if we continue to distant ourselves from its Creator, fail to learn the purpose for which the world has been created, or be rebellious as if we are on our own.

At the international level the world leaders are in a h “conference of confusion”. Haven’t harmed our world so much by all categories of lawlessness and bloodshed leaders now converge at what they term “global warming”, “economic conference”, “security council meeting”. They prefer to put aside the consequences of their actions and inactions, the consequences of evil living and injustice, bad laws and all evil governance. Their narrow conclusion is that the carbon dioxide emissions coming out from you and I is heating up the atmospheres, polluting the soils, killing lives in the oceans and may wipe us out soon. Their alarm is coming louder from those we consider as presidents of the Synagogue Church of Satan. Unfortunately people like President Obama and his cohorts, rich people like Bill Gates and his colleagues, those who simply make names through ordinary charity giving, are championing this wrong cause of global warming. The world they polluted by wrong judgement and injustice cannot be cleansed by another wrong approach.

The second school of thought is much straightforward and more cost effective. We need to and must accept that our sins have made the atmosphere bad and we all simply have to repent, respect each other and living a godly life. Nature has its own way of fighting back. In Africa natural common law, we know that shedding innocent blood may lead to generational curses, that injustice will be repaid; these are natural laws and our society had been guided hitherto. The innocent blood they shed in the Biafra war (1967 -1970), the ongoing wars, eg, Boko Haram (2009 to date), the Syria war, I ISIS, ISIL, Al-Quada, etc, kidnapping, armed robbery, child trafficking, Sodomized living, etc, are more than enough to pollute and heat up the atmosphere to inconvenient us. The theory of preferring to pass the blame of the consequences of natural events to ordinary science, and making public donations for wrong world priorities, will prove more catastrophic. If the Bill Gates of this world who should have invested in food production in Africa land but instead they donate to global warming there will be zero or negative returns, if an Obama who should create a more just environment but he prefers to please a few celebrities because they have a loud noise there will also be a negative return. It is true that our forests have been cut down, our rivers have been over dammed, arable lands turned to cities and highways, but science can still optimise the sad episode.

I was gladden when one of the popular Nigeria pastors was making his 2016 world outlook. He was quoted as saying that, “Natural disasters, floods, fires, earthquakes are likely to get progressively worse, until governments realize that these are part of Divine Judgements against those who pass ungodly laws. If a government will repent of disdaining Christ and His Church, He will help them win the fight against terrorism”. I also believe that Christ can help us win the war against global warming, food insecurity, corruption, and all the rest. Now we find a significant number who will believe their “prophets” but fewer of them will believe the result of their “research and observations”. What is good in what this popular Nigerian pastor has said is giving “reason” and acknowledging a “Divine” intervention as opposed to those meeting in Europe and attributing all to themselves as if “all depends on world leaders”. I think all depends on them but not the way they see things.

Prof. R. A. Ipinyomi