NIGERIA AT 57 YEARS

Fifty seven years ago this week, Nigeria became an independent country following the lowering of United Kingdom’s Union Jack and the hoisting of Nigeria’s new Green- White – Green flag, the symbol of the newly independent Nigerian state.

At independence, the hopes and aspirations of the founding fathers of the country were that the country with its vast agricultural and mineral endowments and a large population that made it the largest Black Country in the world would soon be transformed into a modern nation state.

The government soon embarked on development plans that emphasised trickle down template of development and import substitution policy.

Under this policy, the country embarked on an industrialisation process that saw the establishment of iron and steel complexes, steel rolling mills, motor assembly plants, fertiliser blending plants and oil refining companies, among others.

Unfortunately, most of the projects became white elephant ventures as they suffered from outright bad management and lack of funds to either complete or successfully manage them.

The country also went through an agonising civil war from 1967 to 1969, but it came out of it stronger and more determined to be a strong, united and an indivisible federal state.

Also, at independence, Nigeria was not known as an oil producing country. Today, it has become Africa’s leading oil producing nation, accounting for over 2 million barrels of oil production per day.

Equally a success is the new vigour and attention being placed on the development of the Niger Delta Region which has suffered from decades of neglect from successive governments since independence. The region produces crude oil, the jugular of the country’s economy.

Over the years Nigeria made many strides in development. But, it has not been able to match many countries that got independence about the same time with it.

On the education front, it has moved from one University College at independence to well over 100 federal, states and private universities, and thousands of primary and secondary schools, while literacy rate has moved from less than 10 percent to about 50 percent over the period.

Nigeria also exited an excruciating $33 billion debt, thanks to a debt relief by the Paris and London clubs of creditor nations.

The debt which was a combination of accrual of trade deficits, among others, from the early 80s, seriously limited the growth of the country for over 20 years as more than one-third of the country’s foreign exchange earnings that could have been used for development went into servicing the debt.

The country has also made tremendous growth in the telecommunications sector. From about 19,000 telephone lines at independence, the country today boasts of well over 100 million telephone lines and is rated as having one of the fastest growing telecommunications sector in the world.

However, in spite of the country’s modest achievements, its aspirations for rapid development have remained unfulfilled.

Agriculture which was the mainstay of the economy was left to decline following the discovery of oil. The oil boom of the 1970s saw the decline of agriculture so much so that Nigeria became a net importer of rice, a food item that it used to produce locally.

Production of groundnut, cotton, hides and skin, oil palm, rubber and cocoa which were once the main foreign exchange earners of the country were also neglected and their production drastically reduced.

Nevertheless, major sore points in the country’s development are the pervasive lack of maintenance culture, inadequate electric power supply and the non-conducive environment for industries which have led to the collapse of many of the post- independence industries.

To make matters worse, many entrepreneurs closed up their factories in Nigeria and relocated to Ghana on account of inadequate power supply and non conducive environment.

If anything, policy somersaults and inability to faithfully implement good programmes and policies largely account for Nigeria’s stunted growth over the years.

Succeeding governments since independence have always come with its own ideas on how to develop the country and in the process, it jettisoned the policies it met in place by putting its own, thus wasting the funds already committed to the old policy being implemented.

Going forward, Nigeria, as Africa’s leading economy, must put in place policies and reforms that would enable it leapfrog to double digit development figures and match other rapidly developing economies such as South Korea and Singapore.

It must grow its oil and gas sector by ensuring that the International Oil Companies invest more in the sector.

It must also forge ahead with its policy of diversification of the economy away from the oil and gas sector to agriculture to ensure food security in the country and for Nigerians to produce agricultural products for the export market again.

A situation where the country uses its hard earned foreign exchange reserves to import those food items that can be produced locally is symptomatic of food insecurity and calls for urgent measures to increase local agricultural production.

Concrete measures should also be taken to address the increasing unemployment in the country. Towards this end, the government should leverage on the country’s areas of strength especially in the agro-allied, solid minerals, information technology and the entertainment sectors to generate more employment.

Although the entertainment industry is still in its growth stage in Nigeria, the country has become a force in the global entertainment industry. So, the industry can employ hundreds of thousands of Nigerians if it is well developed.

In addition, the government must put in place policies and reforms that would rescue the manufacturing sector, particularly the Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) including those in the informal sector to enable them provide millions of employment opportunities and wake up the country’s economy again.

Nigeria needs massive injection of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to develop her economy, but it must curb corruption which has remained a major cankerworm eating deep into the country’s fabric.

Corruption demeans the image of a country in the international arena and also scares international investors away from the country.

So, apart from the efforts of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to curb corruption in the country, every Nigerian must take a stand against it while companies must commit themselves to good corporate governance in all their dealings.

And, in today’s world where the size of a country’s foreign exchange reserves is also a measure of its economic strength, Nigeria must never make the mistake of amassing foreign debt the way it did in the past.

Having exited the $33billion debt owed largely to the Paris and London clubs of creditor countries, it must learn from the experience of China which has build up its foreign reserves to enviable levels as it develops its manufacturing sector.

Therefore, Nigeria must build up its reserves, particularly its Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) for future rainy days and for the generations of Nigerians to come.

Above all, security of lives and property must be taken more serious by the security agencies. Towards this end, the government must find a lasting solution to the Boko Haram insurgency in the North eastern part of the country.

It must also resolve the increasing calls for far reaching political and economic restructuring of the country to ensure a stable and robust development of the country and reassure Nigerians and foreigners alike that all is well with the country and for both local and foreign investors to have the confidence to invest in the economy.