Evidence abound that the country is plagued with man-made poverty, in spite of its wealth and potentials. A forum organised by the Obafemi Awolowo Institute of Government and Public Policy (OAIGPP) proffers solutions to the anomaly, reports OLUKOREDE YISHAU
The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) stands at $262.61 billion. The tale this tells is that the country’s economic profile is quite pleasing and promising. Economists say they have no reason to fault the measurement of the status of the economy through the GDP, which measures the national income and output for a given period. This has, however, raised a poser: is the GDP the best index for measuring the health of an economy?
Not a few believe that using this method, especially in a developing economy, is prone to flaws, and can lead to a distorted conclusion. The reasons for this are not unconnected to the fact that the GDP can engender a situation where a few people have an unfair share of the output of the country and not stimulate job creation or wealth.
By the recent figure of the National Bureau for Statistics (NBS), unemployment increased to 23.9 in 2011 from 21.1 in 2010. Going by a 2012 frightening statistics by the NBS, about 112 million of the 160 million Nigerians were whipped into poverty. By that figure, it means 67 per cent of the population is finding it hard to eke out bare existence.
The United Nations Human Development Index for 2013 ranks the country 153 of 186 countries. As if that is not enough, the report says further that the average life expectancy in the country is 52 years. Also, the World Bank, in its May 2013 Nigeria Economic Report (NER), said the economic outlook of the country is gloomy, saying the number of Nigerians living in poverty is increasing too rapidly for comfort.
The NER said: “Poverty rates remain high in Nigeria, particularly in rural areas. These rates declined between 2003-2004 and 2009- 2010, although not nearly as fast as would be expected from the pace of economic growth in the country. While the officially reported growth rates of GDP well exceed population growth in the country, the pace of poverty reduction does not; this implies that the number of poor Nigerians living below the poverty line has grown measurably.”
Yet, the country is to Africa what China is to Asia. The Raw Materials Research Development Council last year said there are more than 9, 000 untapped natural resources in the country.
The need to tap wealth like these and help the country out of the gulag was why eggheads gathered at a public lecture by the Obafemi Awolowo Institute of Government and Public Policy (OAIGPP), Lekki, Lagos. Entitled God-Given Wealth, Man-Made Poverty and the Rule of Law in Nigeria, the lecture was delivered by the Nabo Graham-Douglas Distinguished Professor of Law at the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, Abuja, Prof Yinka Omorogbe.
Prof Omorogbe said: “In every sense, God has blessed Nigeria. However, the promise remains unrealised, as notwithstanding these resources, Nigeria remains one of the world’s least developed countries, and a country widely perceived as being a victim of the Resource Curse.”
Prof Omorogbe was not the only one who lamented the turn of events in the country, where the majority cannot afford just one decent meal in a day, yet their country rivals China as one of two fastest growing markets for private jets in the world.
The host of the event and Director-General of the Awo Institute, Prof Adigun Agbaje, chairman, Board of Trustees of the Institute and Interim National Chairman of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Chief Bisi Akande; Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Mr. Ekpo Nta; lawyer and human rights activist, Mr. Bamidele Aturu; Dr. Frederick Fasehun of the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC); Prof Moses Makinde (who represented the Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola; and others took turn to rue the poverty level in the country.
Prof. Omorogbe says until Nigeria is founded and established on the rule of law, its survival will continue to be shaky. She said: “Succeeding years will not bring the hope that is being earnestly expected. Instead, the promise of abundant natural and human resources given to us by God will not be realised as it should, inequalities will increase, poverty will remain unchecked, and we could be faced with a continuing descent into an abyss of unknown dimensions.”
Nigeria, Prof Omorogbe said, has a sizeable portion of such mineral deposits and was tipped at independence as the hope of the black man. She said, over the decades, the story has changed.
She said: “Nigeria has been a disastrous development experience. On just about every conceivable metric, Nigeria’s performance since independence has been dismal. In PPP terms, Nigeria’s per capital GDP was US$1, 1113 in 1970 and is estimated to have remained at US$1, 084 in 2000. The latter figure places Nigeria amongst the 15 poorest nations in the world for which such data are available.”
She blamed corruption, impunity, lack of investment in human service and industrial infrastructure for the current doom.
The situation has been worsened by oil theft, with oil worth about $3 million stolen each day. She said oil as a resource has been more of a curse than blessing to the country, adding that: “Nigeria is the global poster child for that ailment. It refers to the prevailing tendency of resource-rich countries to regress rather than to grow and become prosperous. Sadly, but truly, all new petroleum producers study Nigeria to show how not to be like her.”
She faults the claims by government officials that the economic growth of a country equals to development.
The professor said: “In fact, growth often exists in places where there are great disparities in income distribution and which suffer from development deficiencies. This is the situation in Nigeria and in several developing countries. Let us disregard the cheery news and figures that are regularly spewed out by the Coordinating Minister of the Economy. She clearly knows that the economic growth being witnessed by Nigeria is not accompanied by corresponding elevations in development indicators… She knows that the increased ‘wealth’ has not and will not trickle down to those who need it most – for whom a few naira makes the difference between life and death – without concerted policies and mandatory actions by both the government and big businesses.
“Economic growth is concerned with aggregated figures, while development is concerned with discernible and measurable impacts of monies that have entered the state on as much of the population as possible.”
She said growth must be accompanied by development for it to be meaningful. In her words: “It is usually preceded by informed policy decisions and actions which must include the enactment of legislation to promote or mandate the necessary activities needed to promote he desired development objectives.”
Speaking on how to turn the fortunes around, she quoted the 2007 World Investment Report: “Government systems and institutional capacity ought to be strengthened and mineral wealth should be invested in the creation of knowledge for economic innovation, and in human, societal and physical capital formation, including infrastructure development.”
She added: “This environment of impunity – where anything happens, has led to the classic paradox embedded in what is known as the Resource Curse – where an abundantly wealthy country becomes one of the world’s poorest countries with some of the worst economic indicators in the world.
“Lack of respect for the rule of law and due process has led to a climate where ‘anything goes,’ and where all and any resources may be appropriated and utilized by an elite few, at the expense of the far more numerous masses, leading to cornered wealth and to great inequality, with stupendous wealth co-existing in environments characterised by lack, want, poverty, and an absence of basic infrastructure for modern living. This is the reason why an abundantly blessed and resource-rich country like Nigeria remains counted amongst the poorest nations of the world.”
She faulted those who blamed the country’s underdevelopment on past and present leaders, saying: “We are all leaders at one level or another.”
She explained: “The follower of one person is also a leader of some others. The follower tolerates and enforces the negative leadership skills of his boss while practising his own autocratic and often lawless leadership skills to the detriment of his followers and the institution or group that he leads. At all levels, leadership with impunity is both accepted and practised by the same people.”
Aturu, however, said all Nigerians cannot be held responsible for the sorry state of affairs. He said: “There is a sense in which one might be fairly accused of trivialising the subject if one holds responsible the messenger whose entitlement to a minimum wage of N18, 000 is still being contested by some governors for the economic woes of the country. We need to focus more on those layers that bear ultimate responsibility for the acts of omission and commission that have virtually grounded our country.” He stated that by insisting that all Nigerians are responsible for the troubles afflicting the country, the real culprits might escape punishment. And because they are not punished, the culture of impunity becomes entrenched.”
He agreed that adherence to the rule of law could help the country get out of its dilemma.
In his words: “The law fashioned by the Nigerian state is the instrument of the dominant class, the propertied class, for the protection of the interests of that class and necessary subjugation of the interests of the working class.” In his words, the Nigerian state is a rogue state. He illustrated that with a number of examples, including the security votes appropriated by the various heads of governments that are never accounted for. To him, the solution lies in creating political platforms and forums to sensitise the people and achieve an attitudinal change. He advocated the establishments of change cells in schools, public institutions, political parties, professional organisations, political parties, market associations, security organisations and among peasants.
“When people become conscious that they own all except the lives of others, they would readily do everything to resist the privatisation of social life. Governors will not be able to spend public funds without accounting for them. Even Vice-Chancellors will conduct the affairs of their institutions openly and transparently.”
Nta, who praised OAIGPP for the lecture, urged research institutes to “take up the challenge of providing social constructs that will help Nigerians enjoy their God-given wealth and reduce corruption-prone processes and ethical deficits that produce man-made poverty”. He said his commission plans to start anti-corruption studies in the universities, with the support of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
Akande said the role of the Nigerian elite must be subjected to critical analysis in the attempt to seek a solution to the various crises plaguing the country. He added that leaders must be well prepared in order to “tame their appetite and emotions and embrace discipline as a value in order to achieve effective governance and general development of their society and country.”
Will the words of these observers and experts in development be heeded?
