Here’s a Powerful Nation That Understates it by... Tunde Ajibade

Every nation should have its set of values. Such gives a sense of direction. It enables each segment in national life to know exactly what the country stands for, and conduct its affairs accordingly. This puts things in their neat places; success can’t be far away from such a nation. It’s because every nation that defines where it wants to go, identifies what it needs to get there, and operates accordingly arrives at its destination. Germany is an example, and the German national football team encapsulates its values best. Compact, focused, disciplined, working as one, it never says it’s over until it’s over. It’s the reason those of us here call the players “German machine”. We clap as we watch the machine, admiring it, holding it with respect. For us, this is where it stops. We admire but overlook the values, the principles that power the German machine. If as Nigerians we’re going to get anywhere as one nation, we need to imbibe the values that guide the nation we admire, we must stand for something.

The preceding lines of thought were the outcome of the visit by the German leader, Angela Merkel, to China in June. Merkel had stood on a podium next to the president of the world’s most populous nation, one that had, like Germany, dragged itself out of nothing to become something also by using a set of values. I was equally struck that time by the fact that we hear the noise of China in Asia over all kinds of controversial issues, including the South China Sea. But we hardly hear the voice of Germany although it’s everywhere. Germany rarely flexes muscles, thereby understating its power. Sometimes, I suspect that following its defeats in two great wars, and suspicion trailing its every move, Germany chooses to pursue a national policy that emphasises a soft power approach, utilising means other than force in the pursuit of its national interest. Merkel symbolises this. Female. Unassuming. Tactical. Diplomatic. No wonder, writers have surmised that the new German has no need of weapons to impose its will on other states. Yet, Merkel leads in Europe, while her presence almost goes unnoticed. Germany imposes its values on others, bailing out from debt fellow European nations even. For me, Merkel also symbolises something else –  a nation that envisions where it wants to go, and pursues exactly that. Through nations such as Germany, we know that success in national life can be pursued with almost mathematical precision; that’s if leaders don’t say one thing and do another under the table.

At the time Merkel was in China, her country was the most powerful nation in Europe. By 2013, Germany was the third largest exporter and third largest importer in the world. It has the largest trade surplus as a national economy, and it’s the largest economy in Europe. In 2014, Germany recorded the highest trade surplus worth $285 billion, making it the biggest capital exporter globally. Its service sector contributes around 70 per cent of its total GDP, industry 29.1 per cent, and agriculture 0.9 per cent. Exports account for 41 per cent of national output. The top 10 exports of Germany are vehicles, machineries, chemical goods, electronic products, electrical equipments, pharmaceuticals, transport equipment, basic metals, food products, rubber and plastics.

It’s noteworthy that 99 per cent of all German companies belong to small and medium-sized enterprises which are mostly family-owned. Comparatively, this hasn’t been the case in Nigeria where banks are so spoilt that they won’t give viable loans to help the private sector grow. Undisciplined past administrations had fed banks with easy government money, and now that easy cash had dried up news was that Nigerian banks had lost 80 per cent of their annual profits.

As for Germany, of world’s 2,000 largest publicly listed companies measured by revenue, 53 are headquartered within its borders. It’s interesting to note that the Industrial Revolution in Germany had come a century later than in England, France and Belgium. This was because Germany became a unified country in 1871, following the victory of Prussia over France’s Napoleon III which had marked the end of French hegemony. This country (an empire really) presented Europe with a new imposing, populous and industrialising polity. Germany’s birth was like the birth of the United States of America a century earlier which had announced to the world the arrival of a new nation poised to dominate.

By 1900, Germany had overtaken Britain and the US in steel production. The country was helped by its population boom of 35 million in 1850 to the 67 million it had by 1913. Between 1895 and 1907, the number of workers engaged in machine building doubled from half a million. By 1913, industry contributed 60 per cent to Germany’s economy. Its chemical industry was the most advanced, and by 1914 Germany was producing half the world’s electrical equipment. It was no wonder that Germany was strong enough to wage a war against the rest of the world in 1914. It was crushed. But by 1937 Germany had become so strong once again that  countries which conquered it had had to pacify it as it planned to invade neighbouring European nations. It rebuffed entreaties, and by 1942, France the strongest of the mainland European nations had come under the feet of Adolf Hitler’s Germany. It was defeated in 1945. The victors gave Germany aid to build its economy. They also decided it was to repay $1.1 billion of the aid. The last repayment was made in 1971.

I don’t focus on the evils of the 2WW here, rather I’m fascinated by how Germany has been able to recover each time it’s brought to its knees. It’s been argued that even without the initial economic boost as well as the modernisation of infrastructure provided by an externally-induced economic recovery plan, Germany would have struggled to get back on its feet. Why? The nation had the needed resources, and its people imbibed values which made national success inevitable.   What are those values?

Some 91.5 per cent of Germany’s 81 million people are Germans, with Turks being the second largest ethnic group at 2.4 per cent. The rest is made up of people of Greek, Russian, Italian, Polish, Serbo-Croatian and Spanish descent. Germans embrace the values of thriftiness, hard work and industriousness. They place a high priority on structure, privacy and punctuality. Studies show that Germans are most comfortable when they can organise and compartmentalise their lives into controllable units. Time is managed carefully; schedules and agendas are respected. Germans are stoic people. They strive for perfection and precision in every area of their lives. It’s said that they don’t admit faults, and they rarely hand out compliments.  They may seem unfriendly, but they have a sense of community and social conscience with a strong desire to belong. The desire for orderliness influences the business life of Germans. Surprises and humour aren’t welcomed. Everything must be carefully planned and decided upon. According to the German Business Culture Guide, changes rarely occur among Germans after an agreement is reached. Germany’s business has respect for hands-on expertise, so most companies are headed by technical experts not people from other fields. And I like this the most: Workers are judged by their competence and diligence, rather than interpersonal skills.

The reader knows that the reverse is the case in our clime; here the worker who’s able to polish the ego of the boss gets ahead, while the staff that’s dedicated to duty stagnates. I’ve heard foreigners saying that we spend more time here going about offices to greet people than we sit behind desks to do our jobs. The results are there for us all to see, of course. As for Germans, communication with co-workers as well as outsiders tends to be direct and not always diplomatic. These are a few of the principles, the values that have seen Germany ever rising from the ashes to be a force to reckon with since 1871. As Nigerians, we always announce our aspiration to be up there where nations such as Germany are. But I ask: When are we going to define our values, adopt principles that can guide every sphere of our national life and follow them accordingly, rather than muddling through everything as we do at the moment?