SOLVING A NATION: ECONOMIC RECOVERY THROUGH STATE POTENTIALS UTILIZATION

SOLVING A NATION: ECONOMIC RECOVERY THROUGH STATE POTENTIALS UTILIZATION

The Nigerian economy has been undergoing fundamental structural changes over the years, with a list of socio-economic programmes/ policies, like Economic Reconstruction, Rehabilitation and Reintegration (3R’s) (1975), Operation Feed the Nation (OFN) (1978), Shagari’s Green Revolution (1980), War Against Indiscipline (WAI) (1984), Directorate of Food Roads and Rural Infrastructure (DFRRI) (1986), Mass Mobilization for Self Reliance, Social Justice, and Economic Recovery (MAMSER) (1987), Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) (1988), Vision 2000, Universal Basic Education (UBE) (1999), National Economic Empowerment Development Strategy (NEEDS) (2000) and  Millennium Development Goal (MDG) (2000), Vision 2010, Vision 2020, Sure-P , just to mention but few, and still there is evidence, however that the structural shifts in the economy have not resulted in any appreciable and sustain economic growth and development because Nigerians still see themselves as a subject of a failed economical institution,  deprived from fundamental economic benefits like roads, affordable food, electricity, education, health care and good working enumeration.

As I ponder on what the solution to the problems of Nigeria’s economic frustration could be, I tried a flash back study on how the country’s economy boosted in the oil boom of 1973/74.

 

“ . . . However, the oil boom of 1973/74 brought a new dimension into the economic activities of the country. The sharp increases in oil revenue from N735 million in 1972 (Ibid.) had a pervasive effect on the Nigerian economy. This was because the increase in revenue led to large increases in public spending designed to expand infrastructure, non-oil productive capacity, human, capital and to heal the wounds of the civil war that ravaged the country between 1967 and 1970. In other words, the performance of Nigerian economic growth during 1975-1985 periods has its antecedent in the quadrupling of crude oil prices in 1973-1974. The resulting large windfall gain enabled the country not only to expand the public investment almost three folds over the subsequent years but also to build up its foreign reserves. But many of those investments were carried out without sufficient attention to their economic viability” (Oyejude, 1991)

Extract from a paper written by Dr. Dappa Dappa Tamuno-Omi Godwin and Daminabo Dagogo titled - DEREGULATION OF THE NIGERIAN ECONOMY :THE THEORETICAL MILIEU, being a Proceedings of the 1st International Technology, Education and Environment Conferenc      

“ ….. Consequently, with the sharp fall in the international oil price in the early 1980s, early 1985 and late 1986, Nigeria’s economy was almost at the verge of collapse. This led to the country’s built up of large fiscal and external deficits and other macroeconomic imbalances which ensured. To address this problem, government introduced several policy measures which started with the Stabilization Act or 1982, budget-tightening measure of 1984 and finally the ‘Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) of late 1986. SAP was aimed at laying the foundation for a self-reliant and dynamic economy. The corner stone of the SAP is the deregulation of the economy in other words called privatization of the economy.”

Extract from a paper written by Dr. Dappa Dappa Tamuno-Omi Godwin and Daminabo Dagogo titled - DEREGULATION OF THE NIGERIAN ECONOMY: THE THEORETICAL MILIEU, being a Proceedings of the 1st International Technology, Education and Environment Conference

By reasoning with the authors of their research document in which the above extracts came from, it could be deduced that the country enjoyed a level of economic boost in the late 70s and early 80s through its activities in the international oil trading. Also to be noted is “. . . But many of those investments were carried out without sufficient attention to their economic viability” (Oyejude, 1991). This I guess was where corruption found its way into the Nigeria system. Also worthy of note, is how various economic technics has been deployed tactically with view to safe the falling situation but without success and at a rapid growing rate of corruption the virus of the fall. Anyway, without sticky to rhetoric, I would like avoid political bias of blaming any particular government on this crunch that has made Nigeria “a wealth of no Nation”.

I have been opportune as a Nigerian to visit a number of States, Local Government Areas and communities in the Nation. As much as I can testify to the impoverishment of Nigerians across the Nation, I must still confess to the vast abandonment of a wealth of potentials and resources either waiting to discovered or laying careless without proper utilization. Though successive governments have employed professional economists who have in turn deployed various economic techniques in finding solution to the problem as being faced by the people, yet not much has been achieved as these economists mainly concentrates on the capital development of the economy without considering the effect of Human development in a best described as a multi-camera Nation.

     
In my hypothesis of the Nigeria States, I state that “Nigeria is a constituent of States or ethnic divide with different human, material and political potentials (resources), which requires differential approach towards achieving their sectoral economic development”.

To further expand on this hypothesis, I would like to highlight some States, defined them by human and material resources and I would go further by suggesting economic recovery modules that could be applied in this States to achieve long awaited economic revival required for this areas.

States under-review shall be Edo State, Delta State, Bayelsa State, Lagos State, Oyo State, Rivers State, Ekiti State, Kogi State, Plateau State, Nasarawa State, Kano State and Kaduna State. On this review I shall also be acknowledging areas at which individual State can tolled a relative economic path. One would wonder why I am not mentioning the Federal structure on this task of economic development for the people knowing fully well that the 1999 constitution empowers the FG over all Natural resource as described by the Land use decree/ act 1978. This economic approach is a bottom-top approach, thus solving the economy from the bottom while the top serves as the capital market.

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