The general elections have come and gone. Winners are celebrating and the losers are licking their wounds. But the sad fact is that the country’s economy is in a bad shape. President Muhammadu Buhari acknowledged this at a meeting with the 36 state governors last December. The fresh mandate given to the President and the new governors means that they must all work towards changing the country’s bad narrative to one that gives hope and increased development to Nigeria in the short to
medium term.
Nigeria’s economy, since independence, has never been well managed. The cumulative effect of its bad management is that the country now has the highest number of extremely poor people in the world. With 91.3 million people living in extreme poverty, a total of 157 million toiling below poverty line and more than 21 million of its youth unemployed, the country is an indisputable giant in deep slumber.
The fact that the states are languishing in penury and in beggarly condition is an indication that most of the governors and their teams are either visionless or are bereft of innovative ideas to turn around the poor financial conditions of their states.
It is saddening that in their lack of vision of the future for their states, the state governors continue to depend on handouts in the form of financial bailouts from the Federal Government to pay salaries and to survive. It is a shame and a disgrace to the state governors that all Nigerian states are richly endowed by nature, yet they are so poor that they have to be relying on statutory allocations and financial bailouts to survive.
If anything, it beats all logic for a state to be so richly endowed by nature and yet so underdeveloped. This scenario is an indication of the retrogressive federal system that the country practises. Yet, those in governance are so unconcerned about the underdevelopment of their states.
Many countries are not endowed with plenty of natural resources but they have, through conscious efforts and determination, rapidly developed their economies. South Korea, Italy, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Belgium, Switzerland and Taiwan are cases in
point.
These countries are richer, wealthier and far developed than Nigeria that is endowed by nature with abundant natural resources. These countries have been able to successfully climb on innovation to improve their economies and also rise to enviable positions among the developed world.
Recall that South Korea was, early in the 1960s, on a par with many African countries, especially Nigeria and Ghana, and relied on the importation of natural resources from other countries to develop its economy. Today, South Korea is a major industrial country manufacturing automobiles, semi-conductors, computers, steel, ships, petrochemicals and high-technology electronics for its local and export markets.
Nigeria must change its current narrative of poor performance in major aspects of development and productivity. It must throw away its bad toga of being the global capital of the poorest of the poor. Nigerians, including those in governance and those being governed, the poor and the rich, must acquire a mindset of true change.
In the new mindset of innovation, those in governance in every state must set their states on the path of becoming self-sustaining and avoid reliance on the Federal Government for bailouts. Achieving this requires a lot of discipline on the part of those in government and the governed.
The new mindset must be futuristic and the new narrative must emphasise putting the country in the first 20 economies of the world in the medium to long term, with a highly developed manpower and high productivity in all sectors of the economy, particularly in ICT, automotive engineering, high-technology electronics and ship building, among others.
Henceforth, every level of governance, particularly state and local government, must generate enough revenue, in line with the provisions of the Constitution to keep it going. States, in particular, must look at their peculiarities and use their areas of comparative advantage to craft strategies that would adequately meet the development of their states.
To make the envisaged economic shifts to happen, a state like Lagos that does not have enough land for agriculture must look the way of ICT, manufacturing automobiles, semi-conductors, computers, steel, ships, petrochemicals and high-technology electronics, more than it is currently doing to further boost the state’s development.
On its part, Kogi must look at steel development and effective utilisation of the various minerals in the state, while Rivers, Bayelsa, Lagos and Delta states can develop their economies based on modern sea fishing, ship building, petrochemicals, among others, to build a virile economy. In all of these, the states must endeavour to get private investors to develop these resources.
Looking ahead, Nigerian leaders must adopt a mindset of reorientation that can put the country on the path of high growth, through increased productivity in diversified agriculture and development of high-technology industries, among others. Many other countries have done it. Nigeria has no reason not to join the league.
