26/11/2020
Aptly captured and highly recommended for the consumption of every progressive Nigeria.
This article encompasses all the sectors seeking Reformation in Nigeria.
There is still hope!
NIGERIA AT 60; THE PAST, THE PRESENT, THE FUTURE
Nigeria was predicted to be one of the most developed Nations in the world twenty years after independence in 1960. By implication, Nigeria was predicted to be a first world economy by the year 1980. Many years after independence, what has been our story so far? Is our story that of a developed economy or a story of a continually dependent third world nation?
Thirty seven years ago (1985 precisely), a song was released by a formost Nigerian musician Sonny Okosun, tittled 'Which way Nigeria'. As at that time Nigeria haven't experienced the kind of hardship and economic unrest we are experiencing today; hence, one won't be mistaken to say that the song makes more sense now than ever.
Prior to Nigeria's independence in 1960, our economy was diversified. If one hears about groundnut pyramid, the Northern part of Nigeria comes to mind, the West was known for massive cultivation of cocoa and the East known for palm plantation that yielded massively. Every region had something to bring to the table, healthy competition was encouraged, Regions maximised their potentials and pay tribute to the centre, that era was an era of purpose and a clear-cut ideology in our economic sector, in the international scene and in policy making generally. In fact the nation was on the path of properity, progress, healthy competition, equity, justice and fairness. The prestigious university of Nigeria Nsukka was built and funded with proceeds from the palm plantation that the East was known for. Under the Leadership of Dr Michael Okpara, the then South Eastern Premier, the Economy of the South-East grew by 42% each year, an economic growth that most nations have never witnessed. Nigeria was warming up to take their place in the international community until the discovery of Crude Oil in a commercial quantity in the year 1965 at Oloibiri, Bayelsa State.
With the discovery of oil in 1965, we thought that we have been blessed in addition to the blessings we have gotten already (the independence and food sufficiency), few years down the line we also got our big break financially, we had a lot of money that the then federal government did not know what to do with the money we got from our newly found ecomic base (Crude oil). All attention was diverted to our 'new found love' (Oil), we abandoned what we were known for in our different regions and became a mono economic nation. The then head of State Gen. Yakubu Gowon had enough money to throw around. One of the mistakes he made was that he didn't use the monies gotten when we had our big break prudently, in fact he single handedly financed the formatiom of ECOWAS with little help from Gen.Gnessingbe Eyadema who was the then Togo's military head of State. The Nigerian civil war came and affected us financially and relational wise, the little investments made by previous admibistrations was ravaged by war across the country, the war also affected our relationship across Nigeria that we no longer have deep trust for each other, rather we developed trust that is based on interest. After the war in 1970, Gen. Yakubu Gowon led Government subsequently declared his famous "no victor, no vanquished" speech, and followed it up with anamnesty for the majority of those who had participated in the Biafran uprising, as well as a program of "Reconciliation, Reconstruction , and Rehabilitation ", to repair the extensive damage done to the economy and infrastructure of the Eastern Region during the years of war. Unfortunately, some of these efforts never left the drawing board.
60 years down the line, major reforms and programes were embacked upon by administrations, yet no major progress have been made. Today in Nigeria, we are still battling with epileptic power supply, non effective or functional health care system, unemployment has increased by 27.1% at the second quater of 2020. Meaning that about 21.7 million Nigerias are unemployed. We have been told by senior citizens how companies usually go to higher institutions to interview prospective graduates after their final exams, and even pay people that participated in the interview for inconveniencing them. People had the oppotunity to choose from multiple opportunities offered to them by companies and institutions. Today, Nigeria has been identified as the poverty capital of the world, vices and violence have become the order of the day, if Herds Men does not catch up with you in your farm, Boko Haram will do that even in your closet, if bandicts does not rub you on the high way, Islamic State in West Africa (ISWA) will. Today, Nigerian governmet have borrowed so much from virtually all the financial institutions and developed countries of the world without proper investment or a well detailed plan on how to pay back, we do not even know if this generation can be able to pay back the monies that Nigerian government have borrowed from 1999 till date.
THE WAY FORWARD
If we as a nation wants to break free from our misfortunes and set this nation on a path of prosperity, all hands must be on deck. Every leader first came from a family, he or she was a child before he or she grew to become a leader. The family has a greater role to play in the formation of a child before other institutions of the society. In order to sustain the positive change that will be made in the new Nigeria, a generation that will stand for truth and justice, an incorruptible generation must be bred deliberately and meticulously.
1. ETHICS AND VALUE SYSTEM; Any nation that must make a sustainable progress must have a well planed value system and national ethics, value system and ethics upholds a nation through thik and thin. Nations like USSR, Troy etc. existed before now but they have been erased from the world map. Countries like America, Britain have stood the test of time because of value system and Ethics, though it has been dwindling over the years. Our religious and academic institutions must take a lead in this aspect and discharge their responsibilities because how well a nation does is dependent on them.
2. ECONOMY; Nigeria has the potential to become Sub-Saharan Africa’s largest economy and a major player in the global economy by virtue of its human and natural resource endowment. These potentials have remained untapped, and if current trends continue, Nigeria runs the risk of long lasting recession (depression). The government has a great role to play in building our economy, citizens need support from the government to thrive in their businesses. The kind of support Small and Medium Enterprises need from government is not handouts, in fact any government that gives handout to citizens for the purpose of building their businesses and ultimately building the economy is clueless on how to build a national economy. China for example realized that the mejority of their citizens are business minded, and that made them set a road map to lift 800 million people out of poverty. It is time to stop implementing economic policies and plans that are developed by arm-chair economic experts. Our economic policy makers should always engage those they are making policies for and equally assess the situation of the area before providing economic policies or plans.
China’s rise from a poor developing country to a major economic power in about four decades has been spectacular. From 1979 (when economic reforms began) to 2019, China’s real gross domestic product (GDP) grew at an average annual rate of nearly 10%. According to the World Bank, China has “experienced the fastest sustained expansion by a major economy in history—and has lifted more than the 800 million people they initially proposed out of poverty.” Nigeria can still do same by providing enabling environment for new businesses to thrive, there should be tax waver for SME's, grants from government should not be given without training and monitoring of the receipiants.
We should always stick to what works for us and maximize it for our growth. Agriculture was the main stay of our economy before the discovery of oil in the 60's. There should be a state of emergency approach in that sector in other to increase our GDP. Best practices from around the world should be adopted. For example, Israel does not have a fertile ground like Nigeria, yet they are sufficiant in food production and even export some of their products. We should look inward and also colaborate with those nations that has proven to be self sufficient in food production for effective harnessing of our agricultural potentials.
3. THE STRUCTURE OF NIGERIA: It is not in doubt that we are practicing predidential system of government in paper, while we practice a unitary system in the actual sense. Our mode of policing is obsolate, it is a pointer to the kind of government we practice, there is no where in the world where a centralized system of policing have ever worked. Therefore, for the entity called Nigeria to work, the whole system needs to be overhauled, starting from the structure, the constitution and to the entire system as a whole. States should be allowed to manage their resources and pay tribute to the federal government, the governors should be allowed to take full charge as the chief security officers of their States instead of being the Chief Security Officers on paper. Police recruitment should be done in the community level, that way police officers that knows their community, culture, custom and almost all the members of their community will be employed for effective policing and maning of their boarders, that way there will be healthy and effective policing instead of governors crying to the centre for security. If the structure of Nigeria is looked into and positioned in an effective manner, healthy competition will be enthroned instead of every arm of government, institutions and agencies depending solely on the federal government for almost everything with some States lazying around while resting on a very productive environment.
4. ACCOUNTABILITY IN PUBLIC OFFICES: In as much as we need strong institutions to help check corruption and improve the well being of the masses, people of strong character is needed in our polity. The notion that politics is for thugs and touts is a very wrong one, since we have been allowing them to occupy our leadership positions what impact have they made? It is time for technocrats and men of good will to declare interest in politics for effective leadership and productivity. Some times the electorates are to be blamed for the misfortune that befall this nation, the statement that 'The Masses Deserve The Kind Of Leaders They Get' is true in our clime. People mortggage their future for peanutes during elections, they prefer money bags than those that have something to offer. The fundamental duty of members of the National Assembly is to make laws, but the masses do not care about that, all they care about is money, they don't care about the body of laws these people make and the impart it has on them.
5. REVIVIFICATION AND SETTING UP OF NEW INDUSTRIES: There were palm plantations in the South-East during the first republic, there was also cashew plantations coupled with coal mining which gave a boost to the Eastern Region's economy that increased by 41% each year. The West funded their educational programs from the income generated from their local investments as a region. We had Aba textile company, Niger-Cem, Kaduna textile company, the steel company in Ogun State, South-West. These companies and agricultural investments existed and generated hug sums of money for the government and also created employment for thousands of persons across the nation. If Nigeria must overcome economic downturn, we must revive those companies and build more. The government should get people off the streets if we must stop banditry and insurgency in our society.
6. EDUCATION SYSTEM: Our education system has gone bad from Primary to Our Tertiary institutions, our curriculum in Nigeria is obsolete, we produce unemplyable graduates because they do not posses the skills needed by employers of labour for formal employment (affter-all institutions do not need people to pay or spend money on, but people that will help their organization grow and make more profit), often, this is attributed to the Nigeria's education system. The course content of most tertiary institutions in Nigeria lack entrepreneurial contents that would have enabled graduates to become job creators rather than job seekers.
7. INFRATRUCTURAL DEFICIT: One of the issues Nigerians face is infrastructural deficit. A road that cost N900 million in recent years, the tendency that it will cost more in subsequent years is extremely high; that is basic economics, but it is unfortunate that most of our policy makers do not pay keen attention to this fact, that whenever they spend less on roads that they are meant to spend more for gain purposes, that road will dilapidate in the nearest furure and it will be costlier than the initial cost when it is considered for fixing. Not just that; it will slow productivity down as long as it remains unfixed. Second, if our railways are fixed in such a way that it connects most of our commercial cities, it will further enhance productivity and growth. If the roads are good and power supply constant, the nation will be open for economic boom, it is high time our government started giving our roads and other dilapidated infrastructures a maximum attention so that the nation will be economically viable.
5. EFFECTIVE INTERNATIONAL PARTICIPATION: It has been argued among scholars of political science and international relations that the reason Nigeria is not taken seriously in the international community is because we do not have a clear cut foreign policy. Africa is the centre piece of Nigeria's foreign policy since 1960, but the question is; how has our foreign policy so far affected us, our interest as a nation and our economy positively? rather, we have been dispised by those we spent a lot to liberate from economic bo***ge, apartheid and colonialism. The argument is not for Nigeria to abandone other African nations, the argument is for Nigeria to put our interest as a nation first, then others can queue behind. We can not be benevolent outside and allow our citizens suffer both at home and in diaspora. Second, there is need for the implementation of the United Nations Cridit Unit Programs in Nigeria, which has the potential to create 38,000 jobs in the agricultural sector alone within a year, 50,000 skilled and unskilled jobs in the real estate project, the pharmaceutical project can absorb over 1000 pharmercists and marketers. Further more, the Credit Unit will partner with Nigerian Universities for the training of Nigerians as credit professionals, sponsor seminers and conferences.
CONCLUSION
Nigeria undoubtedly is the most populous black nation in the world, with enermous mineral resourses deposited beneth its soil. Nigeria's individual achievements is mind boggling both at home and in diaslora. Our entertainment industry is one of the best, infact it has absorbed thoudands of people, it has given Nigeria a name in the international community. Our individual sucesses have debased State-centric conception which states that States are the major actors in the international community. Today, Nigerians in diaspora have continued to show that they are competent in all areas, be it politics, emtertainment, medicine, law, as diplomats, in the international business community, ecademic e.t.c. Of recent, out of nine Nigerians that contested in the just concluded United States Of America's Congress election, one of them (Oye Owolewa) won. He is an indigen of Kwara State. Oye is not the only politically active Nigerian in diaspora, we have so many of them in Canada, UK and other parts of the world, in the legal filed, we have prominent judges in US and UK. We have capable hands to handle our economy and other areas in this nation, all we need is for these people to identitfy with their own and build the nation with their fellow country men. In as much as they need to come and aid the building of Nigeria, the atmosphere should be made conducive for them to come and contribute their quota, that way, we will build a nation were peace, prosperity and justice shall reign. There is hope for Nigeria!
By Eziagu Victor Agozie
