STEERING NIGERIA TOWARDS ECONOMIC GROWTH

Introduction

Nigeria a country blessed with abundant human and natural resources has since her independence in 1960 been suffering from chronic impoverishment and underdevelopment. The country at independence had leaders who where selfless and patriotic. Then Nigeria was healthy and functioning properly and the structure was right for economic growth and the country then was described as the shining star of Africa.

All that is history now, since the military made their first incursion in 1966 Nigeria have lost her way. Nigeria, the shining star of Africa which should show the way to the rest of the continent, is now in search of direction. Nigeria is now an embarrassment to the African continent.

The military dismantled the rule of law and the constitution making Nigeria a lawless society in the process. They also dismantled the structure of Nigeria creating states that were not economically viable and by so doing created a stronger central government. Nigeria as a result moved from a federal system of government to a unitary system even though she had retained the “Federal” adjective in her name.

Once the Federation was dismantled the military had all the control to finally destroy Nigeria. They introduced politics in the education system. This they did by starving states that were considered then to be better-off education wise of funding in the education sector while investing heavily in states that were said to be “educationally disadvantaged”.

The aim of this was to centralize education and to put every part of Nigeria at par education wise. However the military forgot that the world is not static. As expected in no time the rest of the world left us behind education wise. Universities like UI and UNN at their prime were comparable to any university in the world, today they glorified high schools.

However, despite the heavy investment in the “Educationally disadvantaged states” project all the states have remained disadvantaged. In fact today all Nigerian states are educationally disadvantaged by any objective standard. Later in this series I will link most of the problems in Nigeria to our poor education.

The centralization of Nigeria created insecurity and mistrust among the tribes as every tribe wanted to control the almighty centre. Soon there was a brutal civil war and many lost their lives. The war may have ended but the battle for the centre is still on. Since the end of the war thousands of Nigerians have died in religious, ethnic and tribal related violence and many more may still die.

The military institutionalized corruption in the country. Corruption is today identified as the most daunting challenge facing Nigeria. Today corruption is on the driver’s seat.

The military however is not entirely to blame the civilians that took over from them did not do better either. These civilians made corruption official in government. Today some Nigerians do not see anything wrong in giving or accepting bribe. Corruption makes Nigeria go round. It seems to me that this country will ground to a halt without corruption.

This is the story of Nigeria a country in search of direction. One thing is certain, Nigeria is not sustainable as it is presently constituted. There is need for a drastic change in the state of affairs in this country.

In this series titled “Steering Nigeria towards economic growth” I will share my own views on how to salvage this country. In the next two issues on this series I will show that revenue sharing is at the core of our problems in Nigeria. I will start by showing that resource control is the most fundamental reform needed in Nigeria today, even more important than electoral reform.

Then I will also show how retaining the present structure but drastically amending the revenue sharing formula can turn Nigeria towards economic growth.

In addition I will also discuss how the poor quality of education in Nigeria is contributing to our woes corruption inclusive.