Brazil’s miracle worker

Brazillian ex-president, Lula da Silva

By Paul Arhewe

In my last week’s piece titled, ‘Between Nigeria and Brazil’, I narrated the positive strides Brazil has attained in the last two decades to become the world’s sixth largest economy. It is interesting to note that while this tall achievement is laudable, it would not have come easily without the immense contributions of two outstanding leaders’ resounding legacies. Fernando Henrique Cardoso, 34th President (1995-2003) laid the solid economic foundation that took Brazil into the BRICS status, and for this he was named the ‘miracle worker’. His successor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, completed and consolidated the economic transformation of Brazil.

The exploits of these two well focused leaders have again established the positive correlation between quality leadership and fortunes and health of a nation. Before the rise of Cardoso, Brazil was enmeshed in enervating debt burden, she was then the world’s third most indebted country. Amidst this sorry state of affairs Cardoso as a foreign minister in 1993, brought about transformational changes by slashing the country’s average import tariffs from 80 percent to 14 percent.

 He also, successfully renegotiated his country’s huge foreign debt and built up its foreign reserves to $43 billion. He introduced an economic program which he termed ‘Plan Real’. Its implementation caused inflation to plummet from 50 percent to 1.95 percent within three months. This earned him the name ‘Miracle worker’.

Unlike his predecessor who is a professor of sociology, Lula had little formal education. He could not read until when he was 10 years old. He was a school dropout at his fourth grade and went on to work to assist his family financially. He engaged in menial jobs like shoe shining and street hawking. He even lost a finger as a factory worker, which later led to his becoming a trade unionist.

Lula’s lack of formal education was a major weapon used by his political opponents against his ambition of becoming the country’s leader. They warned that his lack of education and deficiency in English language would be ruinous for Brazil’s diplomatic stature. Having lost out in three attempts (1989, 1994 and 1998), he finally achieved victory in the 2002 presidential election.

Like his predecessor, Lula had the Midas touch; he consolidated and built upon the foundation laid by Cardoso. He is well regarded as the man behind Brazil’s miraculous transformation. He successfully transformed the world’s third most indebted country into a major lender to International Monetary Fund (IMF). Brazil paid up its debt in 2006 and by 2009 it has pledged to lend IMF billions of dollars. During his administration Brazil became the world’s fifth largest automobile market, the world’s fourth largest manufacturer of aircraft, an ethanol superpower, third largest biodiesel market, an oil superpower and the world’s food basket.

Lula built on Cardoso’s Fome Zero (Zero Hunger) policy. His administration successfully cut extreme poverty by half, and 20 million people advanced to the middle class. Little wonder, US President Barack Obama paid glowing tribute to him during a recent G-20 summit when he said of him: “Adore this guy. He’s the most popular politician on earth; it is because of his good looks.”

The future looks good for Brazil, and forecast that by the end of this year she will become the fifth largest economy in the world. This position is really attractive for a country that is the world’s fifth largest in population and the fifth largest country in geographical size.

The lesson for Nigeria is that a leader’s sincerity of purpose and absolute commitment to all that is noble and just, is what are needed to bring about huge transformation. Lula for instance, is someone from a humble background with little formal education, but these deficiencies were nothing compared to his innate abilities. A determined and focused leader would see only opportunities and think less of problems and opposition.

Nigeria and Brazil share many similarities beyond the large population both countries have. Brazil was also in the past bedeviled by demagogues and betrayed by her military. It is a highly pluralised society where stratification is evidenced and bordered by heterogeneous neighbours.

Nigeria has all the potentials that would make her make great strides similar to Brazil’s. All we need is that leader that can convert these enormous opportunities. President Goodluck Jonathan, no doubts, can still transform Nigeria and make her the envy of other nations despite the present obstacles and distractions he is facing. Nothing good comes easy and cheap. So Jonathan must make hay while the sun is still shining.