|
Influence is not a function of the availability of resources (at one’s disposal) but in the effective utilization of those resources to meet social ends. This buttress the Yoruba axiom that “an active penny is worths more than a useless pound”. Therefore, increase in income is directly proportionate to the combination/application of both human capabilities plus available resources to the production of goods and or services for the benefit of those in need of them in return for money.
Before the discovery of oil in 1956, Nigeria was famous for her agrarian economy through which she exported cash crops like palm produce (oil and kernel), cocoa, rubber, timber, groundnut, hides and skin. So great were the outputs of the Nigerian agricultural produce than that dictum, “the groundnut pyramid” was attributed to Kano State. Worthy of note is the fact that proceeds from the exportation of these agricultural produce helped Nigeria in taking gigantic strides toward her economic growth. This helped in putting up a lot of structures like hospitals, colleges, and universities-first was the university college now University of Ibadan and later Ahmadu Bello University (ABU).
At the discovery of crude oil, there was a boom on the economy as it accounted for over eighty percent (80%) of Nigeria’s foreign exchange earnings. The discovery to some extent assisted our economic prosperity, but it has now become the bane of Nigeria’s economic growth. The fact being that money comes in with less than little effort through petroleum, the agricultural sector was quickly abandoned. Like the proverbial saying, Nigerian government killed the goose that was laying the golden eggs. The agricultural sector was neglected only to be sustained at the peasent level. Due to huge revenue from export of crude oil-thanks to OPEC that fixed high price per barrel, Nigeria’s economy due to neglect of agriculture, gradually metamorphosed into a mono-cultural one.
Rather than making a wise investment of the revenue accrued from the downstream sector, our leaders indulged in the profligacy attitude and expenditure oriented programmes motivated by “money-is-no-problem”, ideology thereby, thoughtlessly embarking upon uneconomic projects that cost several millions of naira. The rate of corruption too began to soar higher and higher as those who have access to the corridor of power house scrambled for a piece of the “national cake” without the interest of the nation at heart.
Affluence- as mentioned earlier, is not created by the presence of resources but lies in the effective utilization of such to provide necessities and to improve the standard of living. Is pathetic for a country like Nigeria with endowment of vast fertile and arable land with good climatic condition, instead of being a producer has become an importer of food. As long as we decline to utilize our land and minerals as means for our agricultural and industrial production, then the socio-political option left to us would be to depend on the IMF stringent modalities of giving soft loans indefinitely. A better alternative is that Nigeria should start to be self-reliant by developing other sectors like industries, tourism among others, and fully utilize other available resources to meet as many of our needs as possible.
For us to experience development, we must make deliberate, conscious and continuous effort to checkmate corruption (like the case of ICPC) and wasteful spending. People must be educated to understand the potentials implicit in the elementary factors of economics: land, labour, capital and entrepreneur with savings and investment and consciously seek to explore these and harness them effectively for our economic development. We must improve the husbandry of resources at all levels. Efficient utilization of resources should be aimed at by placing excellence in management at all operational levels and this will require unbiased reshuffling of the system, swapping of officials and dropping off some who are irresponsible, selfish and lackadaisical where necessary to ensure effectiveness. Besides, Nigeria as a nation should translate her aspirations into reality in consonance with her own geniuses.
A premium should be placed on both public and private sectors on capital maintenance all over the country, especially in the public sector.
Good for Nigeria that petroleum was discovered, bad that it cannot be eaten and worse still is the fact that it being our major commodity for export, placing Nigeria as the sixth biggest oil exporting nation of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, (OPEC) has distracted us from discovering and exploring other resources that nature has endowed us with as a nation. If countries like Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and Cote D’voire who purchased oil palm seedlings from our Patriarch Nnamdi Azikiwe, are now exporting proceeds from its production, then it is unfortunate. Presently, Malaysia is the largest world producer of palm oil in the world; we can do same with millions of improved seedlings developed by the Nigeria Institute for Oil Palm Research (NIFOR).
Rather than abandoning our traditional diet and local produce, we should internalize new technologies from foreign lands to improve on the quality, nutritional value, storage and other dietary value to elongate the duration of storage\our agricultural produce in order to save for the rainy export the excesses.
Our manufacturing sector should be developed. No matter the therapy of economic development that one postulates, the manufacturing sector holds a strategic role in development process because it creates employment opportunity; it promotes technological know-how and also gives rise to more innovations and invention leading to exploration of unused resources at the long run. With this, the manufacturing activities after meeting the present needs could aim at making provisions for future needs.
Government should promote small-scale and large-scale industries. We should start tapping our available but long-neglected resources to develop our economy. It is high time we stop looking “outward for help” from a set of predators who only aim at exploring and exploiting our resources with little benefits for our economic development Nations like India, China and Korea has, within a few decades, come under intense socio-economic mobilization which has yielded good returns. India in particular has intensively mobilized agricultural and entertainment industries and the result is simply tremendous. Nigeria too can do the same, developing the entertainment industry and other tourist centres all over the nation will very well payoff in economic returns.
The only answer to improving Nigeria’s economy is the harnessing of our resources to meet our needs and others in order to get income in return for our products.
With about 70 tourist’ sites scattered all over the country, it will be better to develop them into international standard to get a good bite of what has now become the global pie.
By Bola M. Abegunde
Mass Communication Department Kadpoly.
NEXT... |
|
