Growing the Economy Through Human Resources Development
From Cletus Akwaya in Abuja
Human resources experts, government policy makers, and captains of industry who converged in the Hotel Presidential, Port Harcourt, September 22 - 24 were unanimous on one view: That the development and effective utilization of the nation's human resource was a necessary pre-condition for the growth of the economy and the country's overall development .
The gathering was the 16th annual conference of the Industrial Training Fund (ITF). It was a forum for a critical review of human resource development policies with the view to articulating an informed position for action in line with the Federal Government's reform programme tagged National Economic Empow-erment and Development Strat-egy (NEEDS).
The Conference theme "Human Resource Develop-ment, Response to Industrial Growth and National Develop-ment: An Assessment" was not only appropriate in terms of the country's contemporary economic challenges, it provided the right ambiance for speakers to bare their minds on a wide variety of developmental issues outside the immediate boundary of human resource development.
And to do justice to the theme was a galaxy of policy makers and experts including the Minister of Industry, Ambassador Magaji Mohammed, former Justice of the Supreme Court, Adolphus Karibi-Whyte, Economic Adviser to the President, Prof. Ode Ojowu, Governor of Rivers State Dr. Peter Odili and University of Benin Don, Prof. Mike Obadan.
Others include Dr. Peter U. Kragha, Head Corporate Education, Shell Petroleum Development Company, Mr. Tunji Daodu, Executive Secretary, West African Management Development Institutes Network, Mr. J. K. Bello, Director of Training, ITF and Prof. G. O. Ajayi, Director-General, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA).
As it is customary, the Government policy makers took the staff in the opening ceremony on the first day of the Conference. Director General of ITF, Prof. Olu Akerejola set the tone for the day's discussions in his welcome remarks when he said the city of Port Harcourt was gradually gaining population for hosting intellectual gatherings like the Senate Retreat, which held earlier in the year. Akerejola explained the choice of the various speakers and the assigned topics, which he said were deliberately chosen to agree with the new focus of the annual Conference to focus on developmental issues apart from human resource development.
In a keynote address, Minister of Industry Ambassador Magaji Muhammed spoke about efforts by his Ministry to revitalize the manufacturing sector, which he said had a low capacity utilization of between 20 and 30 per cent by 1999.
Magaji said however, that he was with progress recorded as Industrial Capacity utilization had gone pass 60 per cent in the last few months. Specifically, the Minister recalled that in the week he was sown-in as Minister, media report had indicated that 16 textile, companies were about to close shop noting that all the factories were to various ways production. And to further boost industrial production the Minister explained that the ban placed on importation of certain items, which are produced locally was away of protesting the local industries.
In realization of the challenges posed to human resource development as a result of increased capacity utilization, Magaji said his Ministry has set out to re-organise the ITF to cope with current challenges. A Committee set up to review operations of the fund, he disclosed, has completed its work and turned in its report, which will soon be presented to the Federal Executive Council.
The opening session was not without fireworks as retired Justice of the Supreme Court, Adolphus Kanbi-Wyhte took on the Government policy makers for placing emphasis on human resource development without a corresponding attention to creation of job opportunities. He said a situation where graduates remained without any form opf employm,ent for over five years after graduation was not good for the economy.
Karibi-Whyte further blamed the Government for the "brain drain" which the country has witnessed for some years and attributed suggesting that deliberate policies be put ion place to curtail if not, check the incidence of brain drain.
In a lead paper, Economic Adviser to the president, Prof. Ode Ojowu decried the waste of earnings from oil especially from 1970 - 1999 saying the huge revenue of about $300 billion realized from the sale of oil during the period has not translated to improved quality of life of Nigerians as all the social indices pointed to poor quality of life.
For instance, he said in 1999, over 70 per cent of the populations were living below the poverty line with per capital income of less than $300 a year.
"External and domestic debt amount to 70 per cent of her GDP. Life expectancy is a mere 54 years, infant mortality of 77 per 1000 and maternal mortality of 704 per 100,000 live births are among the highest in the world" he stressed.
In order to come out of her poverty situation, the Economic Adviser said Nigeria needed to develop her human capital in terms of "Strengthening her overall aggregate economic variables or the path of provision of the basic needs theory".
He said the transformation of all the critical sectors of the economy like agriculture, SMEs, extractive solid minerals etc were all dependent on the quality of human resources.
Ojowu spoke on the theme " Resolving development Dilema:From Visiuon 2010 To NEEDS" maintained that ITF and all Human Resources Development Practitioners could only find relevance in the emerging economic scene by contributing their quota towards achievements of the objectives of Vision 2010 and NEEDS.
Two academics, Prof. Mike Obadan former Director General NCEMA and currently with the University of Benin and Dr. Ayodele Odusola of NCEMA in a joint paper on "Political Crises and the AIDS Pandemic in Nigeria: Implications for the National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS)" bemoaned the incessant outburst of political violence and conflicts in parts of the country. The duo recalled that in recent times the country has witnessed eruptions in places like Zango Kataf (Kaduna), Jukun/Tiv ( Taraba & Benue States), Ife/Modakeke,(Osun) Ijaw/Itsekiri/Urhobo and ethnic militia uprisings over resource control, Aguleri/Umuleri/Umuoba-Anam (Anambra), Plateau, Adamawa and Oyo States among others where Fulani cattle keepers and farmers have clashed in recent times.
These crises, the duo submitted were caused by a multiplicity of factors including competition by the component parts of the country for state resources, lack of trust among federating units and strong feelings of margnalisation.
They noted that, the multi-faceted crises if not checked, had tendencies to discourage foreign investment affect economic planning macro economic stability, e.g. public revenue while taking a toll on productive human capital mostly youths who are often drafted as major actors in the crises. The also said the crises had tremendous capacity and indeed have undermined family kinship.
"Economic and social dislocations caused by internal conflicts impact negatively on the economic well being of individuals and businesses in various ways:
Such conflicts often lead to loss of lives of principal income earners in many a family, or destruction and loss of major assets such as houses or land or businesses;
Through deaths, they reduce the human capacity for wealth creation and development management;
Those not displaced from conflict areas often thereafter face reduced and inadequate infrastructure and other facilities needed for decent living," the academics noted.
As for HIV/AIDS, the academics painted the shocking picture of its spread over the years saying at least 3.5 million. People were at the moment living with HIV/AIDS, just as they said about 850,000 died of HIV/AIDS in 2001 alone. This situation they said had adverse social, economic, labour and educational implications on the nation. Other consequences of HIV/AIDS the academics mixed include deepening of poverty, decline in production capacity, and depreciation of family values.
In view of the threat posed by these twin problems to the actualization of the NEEDS objectives, the speakers called for "committed efforts to bring about political stability and adroit control and management of the HIV/AIDS pandemic".
To round up the Conference, Dr. Peter Kregha, Mr. 'Tunji Daodu, Mr. J. Bello and Prof. G. O. Ajayi took turns to speak on sub-theme - 'Enhancing Human Capital for Sustainable Industrial Growth; NGO, Government and the organised private Sector; Partnering for Industrial Growth and National Development; Democracy, Good Governance and Ethics; Imperatives for NEEDS' Success; and ICT Imperatives for Proactive Response to Industrial Growth and National Development" respectively.
In all the sub-themes, the speakers stressed the need for developing the right human resource base through collaborative efforts of the OPS, government and NGOs to bring about growth in the various industrial sectors.
The 16th National conference was perhaps one of the most successful in the history of the ITF in terms of the sheer number of participants and the quality of speakers.
Akerejola in an interview with THISDAY expressed optimism that the conclusions and recommendations of the conferences would help ITF to plan her programmes in the remaining part of the year and the next operational year.
The exhibitions from the ITF Skills Acquisition Centre Lagos left no one in doubt about the organisation's competence to add value to the nation's human resource through skills acquisition to meet the needs of the industrial sector.
An elated Minister of Industry, Magaji could not hold back his feelings as he directed the ITF management to create more awareness about the activities of the Skills Centre " so that the public should know the good work you are doing.
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