THE group of seven most developed nations, including Canada,
the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan and
Italy, guard their fortunes jealously.
The G-7 summit at Schloss Elmau in the Bravarian Alps, in
Germany, holds on June 7 and 8 this year. The G-7 nations are also
united by shared values. They are the pioneers in resolving major
challenges of globalisation. Germany, which now holds the G-7 presidency
and is hosting the 2015 summit, wishes to continue making active
contributions to the world economy.
Issues on the agenda of the G7 meeting are very germane. The
German hosts are conscious of the expectations of the developing
countries –which is why they will be focusing on the expiry of the
United Nations Millennium Development Goals in 2015.
The G-7 agenda includes support for independence of women.
This involves promoting vocational education and making entrepreneurship
more interesting for women.
Again, poor leadership must have prevented us from
qualifying for membership of such summits. Even the BRICS countries of
Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa could not suffice our
membership, though we have both the population and the oil resources.
It is only the MINT group that could accommodate us. That
group consists of Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey. Buhari now has
the onerous task of revamping the economy and creating integrity and
transparency for Nigeria.
Those nations classified above have been so classified due
to their technological advancement. They have been industrialized by
their leaders, which empowered them with a high degree of economic clout
occasioned by technological capacity.
Thus, those nations have come to wield such immense
influence and respect among the comity of nations. It is instructive
then that industrialization is the backbone of economic development of
any nation.
Nigeria’s aspiration to be among the 20 top economies in the
world by 2020 aimed at transforming from an agrarian to an industrial
society should be pursued vigorously.
Economists, like Prof. Adedoyin Soyibo of the Ibadan School
of Economics, have avowed the possibility of Nigeria attaining a
development miracle in 10 years, given transparent leadership though
this looks impossible at the moment with 170 million Nigerians depending
mainly on oil.
Besides, unemployment is rising yearly with many school
leavers being unable to get jobs. Other problems such as falling
standard of education, weak institutions, weak Information,
Communication and Technology (ICT) capacity and leadership failure,
among other factors collectively keep us stymied. However, in spite of
high expectations on the President-elect, it is pertinent to realize
that these problems have persisted for long and that all of us must work
very hard to solve them.
With the rebasing of the Nigerian economy in 2014, the
country ranked 26th largest economy in the world with a GDP of $454
billion. This performance shot the economy well above those of South
Africa, Denmark, Malaysia and Singapore.
The rebasing appeared more motivated by politics of shoring
up the image of President Goodluck Jonathan to gain cheap popularity as
the elections closed in; political because the level of poverty in
Nigeria does not reflect a comparable statutory prosperity. On the
quality of life, Nigeria cannot compare favourably with Singapore for
example.
According to the UNDP Human Development Index report of
2014, the standard of living, life expectancy, literacy, education and
quality of life show that Nigeria ranks 175th while Singapore ranks 34th
out of 185 countries so measured.
That shows Nigeria’s rating on the low end of human
development and Singapore on the high performance index of human
development. According to a UNDP report, Nigeria has not been recording
any remarkable progress in its human development index as against claims
by the president’s advisers that the country’s economy is robust and
resilient.
According to UNDP, life expectancy in Nigeria is 52 years
while 68 per cent of Nigerians live on a dollar daily. For Singapore, it
ranked second after Switzerland in the world’s top ten economies in
2014.
In fact, like most African states, Nigeria’s economy is
inert since most of our foreign reserves are spent to buy foreign goods
and technologies. Much has also been frittered away on trite issues as
constitutional amendments and the Transformation Agenda.
What it will take Buhari to triumph, therefore, is pruning
the high cost of governance, keeping electricity privatized, privatising
the refineries and setting up a national full employment programme, to
keep every Nigerian working. Indeed, the most urgent task is to restore
electrical power to its optimum capacity.
This he can do by inviting a board of experts with power to
invite and pay foreign power generating companies. There is yet another
option: Let the Federal Government buy 30 per cent equity in every
privatized state institution.
Through the 30 per cent, it could send spies into those
institutions to observe what is going on there. For the past 30 years,
Nigerians have celebrated corruption as a way of life.
The best way to deal with the scourge is to privatise every
department or agency of government wherever possible. As Adedoyin Soyibo
said in his book, Images: Prologue to Africa’s Development and Economic
Renaissance, the country can adopt the emulation strategy that advanced
development in the industrial societies of the West. Soyibo went on to
say that what Nigeria needs is trade, not aid. This is imperative when
we consider the level of trade in the world.
In Africa, trade among states is only 12 per cent. Whereas
in Asia, it is 48 per cent, in North America, 47 per cent while in
Europe it is 70 per cent. Let Buhari increase trade among African
countries to make Nigeria become the industrial hub on the continent. To
privatise the NNPC, let us look to how other OPEC members are managing
their oil companies. All Buhari needs to do is to imitate and invite
other nations for assistance. All things are possible to him that
believeth. •Ogunmupe lives in Lagos.
No comments:
Post a Comment