Chief Olu Falae
Nigerians have bemoaned the country’s slow growth and development at 54, DAYO OKETOLA and FISAYO FALODI write
Some prominent Nigerians have decried the poor state of Nigeria’s development 54 years after the country attained its independence from the British.
They expressed the fear that the country had yet to tow the path of progress despite the availability of human and natural resources that abound in every part of the country.
The concerned Nigerians, who identified corruption by leaders and insecurity as part the major challenges confronting Nigeria, agreed that the nation might soon become a failed state, if no drastic measure is taken to bail the country out of its current woes.
They agreed that Nigeria might witness a major calamity if the high rate of corruption being perpetrated by those entrusted with leadership position was not tackled.
One of them, a former governor of old Kaduna State, Alhaji Balarabe Musa, who spoke with Saturday PUNCHin a telephone interview during the week, said that with the arrays of the socio-political woes confronting the country, it could be safely claimed that the country might soon fail totally.
The elder statesman also bemoaned the lack of political will by leaders to tackle the challenges so as to facilitate the development of the country.
According to the former governor, the poor state of infrastructure across the country coupled with the insecurity that appears to have defied solution requires determination by a leader with political will to address.
He shunned the belief by some people that Nigeria was not ripe for independence at the time the country attained it, stressing that all concerned stakeholders should be pushing efforts that could bring the country out of the woods.
He is, however, of the view that the rate at which corruption is being perpetrated by those entrusted with leadership position could break the country if the menace is not checked.
The view of the founder of the Oodua Peoples Congress, Dr. Frederick Fasehun, was not different as he said that Nigeria had not made any appreciable progress since the Southern and the Northern protectorates of the countries were amalgamated by the British 100 years ago.
He said, “Nigeria has failed to develop. There is no difference between what the country was 100 years ago and what it is now. Nigeria has lost in everything, including culture. The country has not developed in education; it has not moved away from illiteracy and superstition and the citizens are still suffering from hunger. So, Nigeria may fail totally if all the issues posing challenges to the country are not addressed.”
Fasehun, who decried the continued abduction of the over 200 schoolgirls kidnapped more than five months ago by the Boko Haram terrorist group in Borno State, flayed the insecurity confronting the country.
He said, “A country that failed to defend the security and lives of its citizenry, of course, is a failed state. Over 200 children were forcefully removed from Nigeria for over 160 days now and the country has no will to find out whether they are dead or they are still alive; the country has failed to rescue the children from their abductors. Obviously, Nigeria is fast becoming a failed state.”
Recalling some powerful empires fell in the past because of perpetration of social vices, especially by their leaders, the OPC founder urged concerned stakeholders to always rise against the menace.
He said, “Impunity, lawlessness, confusion, chaos and corruption are the landmarks of Nigeria’s polity. And since nobody is ready to take any major step against these terrible characteristics, the end result in any nation is always calamitous. Even the old Roman Empire fell because of corruption; that is why people are campaigning against it. Instead of the menace reducing, it is reigning supreme. There is no one in the position of power that can beat his chest and say he has not been corrupt and when you have corrupt leadership in any polity, the nation is bound to fail.”
Though the former Minister of Finance, Chief Olu Falae, did not agree that Nigeria is a failed state, he decried the leaders’ failure to rectify the woes confronting the country.
Falae, who expressed concern that Nigeria was laid on a faulty structure, queried a situation whereby all the mineral resources in the country were monopolised by the Federal Government.
He said, “The structure of Nigeria is faulty. One of the reasons we went to the National Conference was to rectify the faulty structure of the federation. How can you hope to achieve success with a faulty structure? A situation where a lot of potential for development are monopolised by the Federal Government, how can there be development?
“Take solid minerals, like bitumen in Ondo State, like gold in other parts of Nigeria, like iron ore, like coal, like uranium and various potential all over the country; now the constitution made the development of those minerals the exclusive responsibility of the Federal Government, which has done nothing about them for more than 50 years. Even if leaders are angels, they could not have developed those minerals because the states and private sector are excluded from their development.
“So, by putting everything under the Federal Government, the nation pre-empted its opportunity to develop. Though leaders have their share of the blame, the problems of the country were caused by the faulty structure. For example, Nigeria had three regions at independence, one of which in terms of territory was bigger than the other two put together, which does not make the country a balanced federation.
“Soon after Independence, two of the regions formed the Federal Government and ganged up against one region and destabilised the region with a declaration of the state of emergency. So, the Nigeria’s structure created a situation whereby stability could not be sustained.
“There is corruption on the part of the leaders. The nature and sharing of power of the constitution; the fraudulent census exercises that provoked a lot of controversies; intolerance on the part of the leaders and among Nigerians themselves all combined to create crises and instability in the country. So, how does a country develop if all these issues are not addressed? “
The former minister, however, expressed the belief that implementing the recommendation of the just concluded National Conference would go a long away in addressing the challenges confronting the country.
He said, “Delegates to the National Conference have done their best and we believe that since the President took the initiative to organise the conference, he meant to change Nigeria for the better and the report of the conference is a consensus blueprint for re-engineering and re-launching Nigeria because there is something good for everybody in the report. With the implementation of the report, the states can undertake the development of those mineral resources to create jobs for the development of their people.
“In a rational society, there will be a lot of pressure to implement the National Conference report because it contains the impetus for the development of Nigeria.”
The Secretary-General, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Dr. Joe Nwogu, begged one of our correspondents to be left out of the issue, claiming that he was busy preparing for the Igbo Day which comes up on Monday, September 29, 2014.
He said, “I request that I should be left out of the issue for now; I don’t want to be distracted as I am preparing for Igbo Day.”
The Vice-Chancellor, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Prof. Hilary Edeoga, further decried Nigeria’s woes as he said only 40 per cent of the country’s 80 million hectares of arable land is cultivated.
Edeoga, who was represented by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University, Prof. Dominic Okpara, stated this on Thursday at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
He spoke during the annual conference of the Crop Science Society of Nigeria with the theme: “Crop Production and Youth Empowerment in Nigeria”.
Edeoga urged community leaders to encourage the development of the country, especially in the area of agriculture by making land available for interested youths who wanted to go into crop production.
He said, “I don’t think it is a good development that only 60 per cent of hectares of arable land are not cultivated.
“The nation’s youths should also be assisted with micro credit covering two to three years of repayment.
“Most farming practices in the country should be mechanised by ensuring that tractors service is accessible to all farmers so as to make agriculture attractive to the youth.
“With adequate investment in crop production, majority of unemployed youths roaming the streets will be engaged,” he said.
Edeoga stressed the need to subsidise planting materials such as seeds, fertilisers and herbicides to help farmers to get bumper harvest.
“Irrigation scheme should be revived to enhance dry season farming as well as reduce idleness during the season.
“Provision of subsidised and improved planting materials will help farmers to produce more food.”
The VC called for the establishment of processing industries in the 36 states of the federation to enable farmers dispose perishable fruits such as oranges, pineapples, tomatoes and mangoes.
He said, “There is the need to minimise post-harvest loss by establishing local and regional markets that will help farmers to dispose their produce.
“The establishment of crop processing industries will provide millions of jobs for youths as well as help to reduce post harvest loss.”
Posted by , Published at 4:08 PM and have
