Nigeria Economic System And Social Entrepreneurship
Capitalism as we know it, is an out modeled type of market system dedicated to the pursuit of capital, finance, profit and material factors of life. As a system of resources exploitation, capitalism worked in the days of industrialization of the 18th centuries. But the evil effects of capitalism have become calamitous, precipitating untold political, health, social, climatic, mental, environmental and economic concatenations that have presaged the almost denouncement of the human race.
Today, the future demands of us that we define our economic systems in terms of knowledge, not capital, for capital has failed. Economic success of nations or even organizations and individuals is no longer powered by capital but by knowledge, entrepreneurship and democratic corporate communities. This is social entrepreneurship.
Behind us today lies a dead or failed industrial Age and World of between the years 1760 and 2006. It was Age that lavished wealth, false wealth mammonic wealth, on a world that remained poorer and poorer. It has left a very polluted planet, quarrelsome societies blighted by terrorism and rendered several societies with empty lives characterized by pervasive manic depression and fundamental noogenesis. Ahead of us lies the information Age, the knowledge Age with the growing contours of change and surprises, due to knowledge and ICT. This is the platform of social entrepreneurship.
Social Entrepreneurship – Nigeria Economic System
Social entrepreneurship is defined in this article as a phenomenon for the empowerment of the people on sustainable bases. It empowers people by freeing them to exploit themselves rather than being exploited by others. All our social systems and institutions today exploit people. This is contrary to the spirit of social entrepreneurship. The following therefore are the identified characteristics of social entrepreneurship;
- The empowerment of people based on their natural gift, potentials and skills, for the creativity and innovativeness.
- The development of human capacities based on expanded knowledge based of people
- The creation of seamless and fluid work structures in organizations.
- Meeting and serving human needs. Human needs comes first, profits come last.
- The rejection of errors and mistakes that may affect human beings adversely.
- Living and existing on earth energized by spirituality, morality, ethics, the search for truth and love; harmony and happiness.
What is needed now is a movement, a transition and a transformation from the old order into the future of social entrepreneurship, based on the all the required features.
The Future Of Social Entrepreneurship – Nigeria Economic System
Social entrepreneurship is a child of the 21st century. It has emerged on the scene when for centuries; the industrial capitalist terrorists of the Western World had nearly destroyed the earth. The future therefore must invite a special kind of value system and thinking based on creative problems solving.
Creative problems solving or creative thinking is a struggle through a painful turbulent problem solving process that produces creative solutions. There is no such thing as a creative act without anxiety, depression, doubt, gestation, parturition or difficulty preceding it. In the process, the creative person is therefore a mediator of natural terror and must develop new ways of triumph over those periods of doubt, fear, anxiety, challenges and difficulty. According to Rollo May, in 1975, he said that one needs courage to bring anything new into the world, or to confront the “Nothingness” of one’s future and give it meaning inspiration, hope and significance. This is the power and purpose of social entrepreneurship.
A critical challenges of social entrepreneurship is therefore the ability or power to integrate competition, entrepreneurship, new markets, new technologies, and other principles of modern enterprises essential for managing complexity and corporations involved human values, public welfare and other ideas of democracy such as egalitarianism, liberty and fraternity. All these must be integrated into a new productive and harmonious whole called social entrepreneurship, in a more sustainable manner, without causing further damage to human beings, human ecology and the Earth’s flora and fauna that must continue to sustain human existence.
Social entrepreneurship must steadily move the world away from the pit falls of industrial Revolution, towards the age of Knowledge and information Revolution. In so doing social entrepreneurship shall continue to use ICT on a sustainable basis, customize products and services, satisfy needs of human beings, customize products and services, satisfy needs of human beings, help people to self actualize, reduce frustration and learned hopelessness while improving on the quality of work life (QWL) by making customers and workers partners in value creation.