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Last Updated: Oct 6, 2008 - 5:45:59 AM |
In the past couple of months this year, the North (also known as Arewa)
or simply the northern geographical region of Nigeria comprising 19
States of the federation has been the focus of national attention
regarding its relative underdevelopment and having very high rate or
the highest rate of incidence of poverty across all strata of its
population compared to the rest of the country.
In addition, it has been branded by some ill-informed and divisive
Nigerians as lazy and parasitic on the oil wealth derived from
Nigeria’s Niger delta region. For instance, very recently a number of
public officials, especially ministers responsible for finance,
national planning and economic management of the country have spoken
about some of these disturbing developments. For example, recently, on
more than one public outing, the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria
(CBN), Dr. Chukwuma Soludo attested to the abject poverty ravaging the
entire social fabric in the north.
Dr. Soludo even went to the extent of suggesting to the federal
government to declare a national emergency on tackling abject poverty
and Almajiri (Begging) phenomena in the north in the same vain as
tackling the vexed environmental despoliation and modern development
deficits in the troubled Niger delta oil and gas rich region of the
country.
Dr. Soludo’s analysis of poverty in the north drew a very large number
of public reactions in the mass media from some concerned elements from
the north. Some of the reactions can be said to be well thought,
emotional and challenging. And, equally, some of them can be said to be
contentious and more often than not, ill-informed, ridiculous and
without logical grounds. For example, as I would elaborate on this
issue below, the Chairman of the Northern Governors Forum (NGF), Chief
Servant Governor Muazu Babangida Aliyu (Niger State Governor) is one of
those who responded to this challenge, amongst others.
Chief Servant Governor Aliyu went to the extent of issuing a rebuttal
and posited that the north can survive without relaying on revenues by
relaying on its agricultural production and solid mineral resources.
The NGF went ahead and organized a Summit on Agriculture to underscore
the seriousness of the stand of the forum.
There is also renewed interest in revitalizing the New Nigerian
Development Company (NNDC) – the only surviving common heritage of the
defunct northern Nigerian regional government. The NNDC is planning to
go into the business of frontier oil and gas exploration and production
in the north.
The Northern Nigeria Economic and Investment Summit 2008 (NEIS-2008)
scheduled to take place on Monday October 6, at Abuja Sheraton Hotel
and Towers under the umbrella of the Conference of the Northern States
Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (CONSCCIMA) is
another initiative to further underscore the seriousness of the north
and to send a clear message to its traducers.
Several reasons have been adduced as to why the States in the north are
lagging behind all the other States of the federation in terms of all
indices of physical, socio-economic and political development. Some of
the reasons propounded are true and some are outright false, laughable,
outlandish and disingenuously ridiculous to say the least. For example,
some public affairs commentators have blamed the underdevelopment and
very high incidence of poverty in the north to its feudal and colonial
histories, religion and culture.
Whereas, some other commentators have audaciously blamed the prevailing
predicaments in the north to the actions and inactions of some retired
generals of the Nigerian armed forces of northern extraction while they
were at the helms of affairs of the nation. Northern elites as found in
the business and political class and bureaucratic and technocratic
levels (at the federal, states and local governments’ levels) also
share similar blame.
There is no doubt whatsoever, that, some of these factors have
contributed to a large extent to the seeming backwardness in physical
and other socio-economic developments in the north relative to the rest
of the country. However, there are overwhelming empirical evidences,
which show that the causes of poverty in the north are not different
from the causes of poverty elsewhere in the rest of the country.
The major fundamental differences are at the levels of severity and
magnitude of the incidence of poverty among the Nigerian populace. The
level of access to western education and modern employment
opportunities are also critical factors of consideration. For example,
poverty is more acute in the north compared to the south; there is more
human misery and squalor in the north evidenced by the large number of
Almajiri (Beggars) cutting across all age brackets and gender.
The north has the least percentage of educational enrolment and success
rate in national examinations in the country because of the neglect of
education by the sub-national governments.
Nevertheless, there exist a large body of empirical literature that
attribute the paradoxical extreme level of poverty, impoverishment and
lack of basic physical and socio-economic development especially in
many developing and transition countries to the abundance of natural
resources (oil, gas, timber, diamond, coal, etc) in some of these
countries.
That is to say, natural resource abundance is a ‘curse’ in some of
these countries rather than a ‘blessing’ – a sort of Paradox of Plenty
(Karl, 1997). A type of situation keeping millions of people
impoverished despite the wealth of their countries (Ngozi
Okonjo-Iweala, 2006).
In addition, the north has over the years been lampooned, demeaned and
characterized by all manners of people from across the river Niger, as
lazy bunch of people that are forever parasitic on the nation’s natural
endowment of petroleum resources (i.e. oil and gas) that occur in the
nation’s Niger Delta region.
This charge is outlandish, false and politically motivated to in order
generate geo-political discontents within the polity. For instance,
soon as one of the so-called militants’ gang leaders recently publicly
pronounced that the people of northern extraction are lazy parasites
and that the entire region is parasitic on the oil and gas revenues
derived from the Niger delta region, a flood of counter offensive
pronouncements denouncing the charges was unleashed.
For example, both the Northern Governors Forum (NGF) currently chaired
by the Niger State Governor, Dr. Muazu Babangida Aliyu (Talban Minna)
and the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) chaired by General I.B.M. Haruna
(retired) did not waste any time in condemning these charges as false,
mischievous and calculated attempts to misrepresent and distort the
enormous contributions of the abundant natural and human resources
found in the north to the overall gross domestic product (GDP) of
Nigeria in the past and at present.
Similar condemnations and rebuttals were also registered in the media
by a number of concerned individuals, civil society organizations and
some privately-owned northern media houses.
Furthermore, one of the fallouts of this discourse was the immediate
hosting of a Northern Summit on Agriculture held not long ago in
Kaduna, Kaduna State. The Summit was facilitated by the NGF and ACF in
collaboration with a private agricultural consultancy outfit.
Another similar but this time around more comprehensive event - the
Northern Nigeria Economic and Investment Summit 2008 (NEIS-2008) has
been scheduled to take place on Monday October 6, at Abuja Sheraton
Hotel and Towers under the umbrella of the Conference of the Northern
States Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture
(CONSCCIMA).
The summit is to be co-chaired by former head of state, General Yakubu
Gowon and former president, Alhaji Shehu Shagari. The chief host is the
Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar III. The keynote
addresses are to be delivered by former Pakistani Prime Minister, Right
Honourable Shaukat Aziz and Professor Ibrahim A Gambari, the United
Nations Under-Secretary for Political Affairs and Chief UN Negotiator
on Myanmar (formerly Burma).
This write up is not aimed at joining issues with either those who made
the accusations against the north or those who try to defend the north
against these false accusations. Rather, this write-up is a
contribution to the ongoing public discourse on the subject of
petroleum resources revenues derived from the export of the Nigerian
petroleum resources; with origin largely from the Niger delta
geo-political region vis-à-vis the charge that the north is parasitic
on the rest of the country (Niger delta region in particular).
Also that, the abject level of poverty in the north was/is due largely
to the laziness of its peoples. Hence, this write-up is an attempt to
throw light and to put into proper context the true position of the
contentious issues at stake – i.e., Nigerians of northern heritage are
parasites on oil and gas resources from the south and that the high
level of incidence of abject poverty in the north was caused primarily
by the laziness of the Nigerians of northern heritage.
I begin by stating that it is not only in the north, but the high level
of incidence of poverty found all over Nigeria was and is caused by the
discovery, production and export of Nigeria’s oil and gas natural
resources. Also, that, Nigerians of northern heritage are not the only
lazy ‘parasites’ on oil and gas natural resources found in Nigeria’s
Niger delta region.
All Nigerians irrespective of their geo-political extraction are
dependent on the God’s given hydrocarbon resources located in Nigeria’s
Niger delta region and its offshore maritime limits.
The discovery of hydrocarbon resources of oil and gas in Nigeria in the
late 1950s and the export of these energy resources from that period to
date are largely responsible for the past and present predicaments
facing the country.
That is to say, oil and gas discovery and the mismanagement of the huge
export revenue inflows from these resources destroyed Nigeria’s
agricultural mainstay and economic backbone.
Hence, the discovery of oil and gas in Nigeria’s Niger delta region and
the mismanagement of the huge export revenue inflows from these
resources created a wide gap in income distribution; horizontally and
vertically in the country. As a consequence, more than 60% of Nigerians
hardly survive on less than US$2 a day.
All basic social, economic and human development indices are on
unsatisfactory scale compared to other developing countries especially
those not blessed by God with abundant natural and human resources like
Nigeria.
Having made these points, I would like to draw on the body of empirical
literature to support my stand on these vexed issues. The very familiar
and much talked and written about “Dutch Disease” and “Resource
Curse”/“Paradox of Plenty” offer conventional economic and political
explanations and throw sufficient light on the past and present
development predicaments of Nigeria despite its wealth coming from its
abundant natural and human resources.
These concepts would be elaborated and applied below in explaining and
buttressing the points I made above. I am therefore not breaking any
new grounds academically, but applying and restating the truth;
separating emotions, geo-ethnic sentiments and petty geo-politics from
the known facts and realities.
Thus, this piece is about proper contextualization of the vexatious
issues raised by the ill-conceived perceptions and the misplaced
responses to the issues from both sides of the aisle in involved in
this national discourse.
Geo-Political Distribution of Natural Resources in Nigeria
Before the discovery of oil and gas (petroleum resources) in Nigeria’s
Niger delta region in 1956, Nigeria enjoyed the luxury, again, of God
blessing it with vast agricultural and solid mineral resources
endowments distributed differentially in all its geo-political regions
(now States and Local Governments) of the federation. For example,
substantial deposits of a variety of minerals are commonly found as
follows:
¬ Coal deposits mostly around the South-eastern part
¬ Limestone, tin ore, gold, granite in the North
¬ Cassiterite, columbite, gold in the south west
Also in terms of agriculture for example, Nigeria was the world's
largest cocoa exporter in 1960. The following statistical snapshots
tell the history (Note: statistics/data used in this section obtained
from the Hon Finance Minister, Shansuddeen Usman, 2007, Public lecture
at the Imperial College, London, UK):
• In the 1960s, the Nigerian economy was driven largely by the non-oil
sector, especially agriculture:
1. Agriculture contributed 70 per cent of non oil GDP.
2. Employed about 65 per cent of the total labour force
3. The country enjoyed moderate standard of living; food
self-sufficiency and was a net exporter of agricultural commodities.
However, since early 1970s, precisely as from 1974, with the first
major oil boom arising from the old-aged Arab-Israeli conflicts in the
Middle-East, the macro economic picture began to change from
agriculture driven spatial economy to petroleum driven “enclave”
economy. For example, according to official Central Bank of Nigeria
(CBN) and the World Bank’s statistics, annual production of both cash
and food crops dropped significantly in the latter decades of 20th
century, cocoa production dropped by 43%, rubber dropped by 29%, cotton
by 65%, and groundnuts by 64%.
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• Oil boom in 1970s and 80s changed the scenario to look as follows:
1. Agriculture’s contribution to GDP went down drastically:
¬ 1970s 48 per cent
¬ 1980s 20.6 per cent
¬ Last 5 years (i.e. 2003-2007) 5.6 per cent.
• Other features of the oil boom periods:
1. High exchange rate, which reduced agricultural competitiveness
2. Prolonged economic stagnation;
3. Rising unemployment and poverty and decay in infrastructure;
4. Widespread corruption-especially deleterious effect on public sector
management;
5. Protectionist policies for affected lagging agricultural and
industrial sectors and
6. Nigerian economy became more reliant on oil earnings, for example,
from 1992 to 2002:
¬ Average GDP growth rate 2.25 per cent
¬ Average population growth rate of 2.83 per cent
¬ Deteriorating standard of living – poverty level up to 70 percent
¬ Average inflation rate 28.5 per cent.
Thus, what can be seen is that, in the decades prior to the 1990s,
Nigeria developed an oil monoculture economy, in which 95 percent of
foreign exchange and more than three-fourths of government revenues
were derived from crude oil exports. Conversely, export agriculture
atrophied in the 1970s, while manufacturing and value-added services
stagnated, yielding a political economy overwhelmingly concentrated on
the distribution of oil rents from the central government.
Although the above scenario has been replicated in a number of oil rich
and exporting developing countries throughout the world and thus not
limited to Nigeria alone, there are also other countries with similar
natural resource endowments that followed a different and almost
directly opposite developmental trajectory. For example, oil rich
Indonesia and Malaysia, and diamond-rich Botswana and copper-rich Chile
are comparable examples with Nigeria (Norway is an exceptionally
different example as it had attained all the necessary conditions of
economic, social and political development by the time it made its oil
and gas discoveries) but with different developmental outcomes far
superior to that witness by Nigeria.
So if abundance of natural resources endowments equates to prosperity
and greatness as witness in Norway, Canada, United Kingdom, Botswana,
Chile, Indonesia, Malaysia, Russia, United States of America etc why
not for Nigeria? How come abundance of petroleum resources in Nigeria
becomes a curse for its peoples, its economic growth and prosperity and
its political development?
This is the fundamental question and issue that need to be addressed in
our search for sustainable economic growth and prosperity and pursuit
of political stability and peaceful coexistence as a nation.
Thus, the narrow-minded branding of fellow Nigerians as lazy and
parasitic is just one of the political games use by the Nigerian
political elites. They use their misinformed and misguided political
thugs to continue to drag the country into the abyss of continued
underdevelopment. They do this in order to continue to perpetuate their
mismanagement of the nation’s resources for their personal ends using
the instrumentalities of the existing dysfunctional democratic and
institutional arrangements.
Hence, it is in this type of situation that Nigeria’s enormous wealth
in terms of natural and human resources endowments becomes a ‘curse’
rather than a ‘blessing’; thereby missing the golden opportunities to
grow and be counted among the world’s developed economies and
societies. According to Paul Collier (2007), resource curse and trap “…
closes off the path that most societies have taken to building a
balanced form of democracy, namely, through economic development.”
The next pertinent issue is how to cure the Dutch disease and break the
resource curse syndromes. Again, in Nigeria we are following and or
pursuing the wrong paths that lead us to dead-end. For instance, the
ruling elites and economic managers are being externally tele-guided by
the ‘Washington Consensus’ ideological paradigm and internally
bedevilled with and by rent-seeking political, bureaucratic and
technocratic order and institutional arrangements.
Responses to the illogical challenges
Thus far, the responses to the challenges thrown at the north by other
fellow Nigerians from the southern geo-political divide are not that
inspiring and illuminating to say the least. I can understand the
underlying undertones; emotions and sentiments that follow their
reasoning as contained in their respective responses to the challenges.
However, as mentioned above, both sides of the aisle in this ongoing
national discourse on the following subjects: oil revenues, northern
parasitism and poverty and national cohesion are playing only to the
public gallery for political gains. For instance, the responses from
both the Northern Governors Forum (NGF) and the Arewa Consultative
Forum (ACF) respectively, that the north can survive without relaying
on oil revenues accruing to the federation account and from which they
receive their respective shares to run the affairs of their respective
domains is misleading.
It is based on misinformed and misunderstanding of the dynamics of the
present Nigerian spatial economic structure, the dynamics of oil
discovery vis-à-vis the wider productive economic sectors and its
political economy.
First of all, I agree with the position that the north is not lazy and
parasitic on the natural resources located in the southern part of the
federation. The abundant land and fresh water-based agricultural
resources and solid minerals in the north, together with those
agricultural and mineral resources in the south are still the mainstay
of the Nigerian populace and their subsistence economies.
Moreover, the revenues accruing from the export of Nigeria’s petroleum
resources are consumed by less than 30% of the populace. That is to
say, more than 100 million Nigerians do not appreciably benefit the
proceeds of Nigeria’s petroleum revenues.
Ironically however, over 100 millions Nigerians whose sources of income
are from agricultural production and small and medium enterprises have
been negatively affected by the debilitating Dutch disease and Resource
curse effects of petroleum resources discovery, production and export.
Furthermore, another point that needs consideration is that, should
there be any appreciable decline in the level of subsistence food
production in Nigeria due to the vagaries of weather and climate or
other causal factors (human and or natural), Nigeria’s net oil revenues
inflow and foreign reserves will not be enough to guarantee it more
than six months at best, of sustained food import bills to bridge the
gap.
This is because of the volatile nature of oil revenue inflows, crude
oil demand and supply fluctuations and its depleting nature. Therefore,
oil revenues are not permanent national income and or solution to
Nigeria’s development needs. They can dry up as had happened in other
climes and Nigeria will not be an exception.
Secondly, I disagree with the proposition put by the NGF, ACF and
others, that, the sub- national governments (States and Local
Governments) in the north can go it alone in reviving and revitalizing
the long neglected agricultural production sector without input of the
central government.
The reasons are not farfetched. As stated above, the Dutch disease
seriously effected on the Nigerian economy; particularly on its
agricultural sector of which the north plays a very high significant
role and contributes substantially to both the subsistence and export
components of the agricultural sector. For instance, the Dutch disease
is transmitted via foreign exchange inflows from exporting crude oil in
the international crude oil markets.
As a result of this, a country’s local currency appreciates in value
relative to or against other foreign currencies. Hence, the country
loses its comparative and competitive advantages of its other non-oil
exports. In the case of Nigeria, the agricultural export sector lost
out to the new found oil export sector.
The debilitating consequences of this twist are what Nigeria has been
grappling with in the past fifty years or so. For example, since early
1970s, the increasing role of oil revenue inflows into the Nigerian
economy made the main export commodities produced by the farmers in the
north such as cotton, groundnuts, hides and skins etc to collapse
completely.
The same thing happened to the non-oil export commodities such as
cocoa, palm oil etc produced in the south by the farmers. It only the
central government that can make and implement appropriate
macroeconomic policies that can change the existing situation as it
were.
Therefore, in Nigeria it is the responsibility of the federal
government and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) (and not the
sub-national governments) to fashion out an economic policy and
development framework to that addresses and solves the debilitating
Dutch disease and the Resource curse syndromes respectively.
Unfortunately however, for over forty years, the federal government and
the CBN have woefully failed to get the policies rights compared to
Indonesia and Malaysia, for example. There is a large body of existing
empirical literature that documents this failure by Nigeria.
Thus, .the negative impact of this shift created serious conditions of
unemployment, poverty and an army of Almajiri in the north; that are
commonly found roaming the streets of all major Nigerian towns and
cities begging for food and money to survive. Furthermore, oil
exploration and production are very high capital intensive and highly
technically skilled activities.
Hence, oil exploration and production create an ‘enclave’ type of
economy; with almost no job openings for the largely unskilled
agricultural labor force that were displaced by the impact of the
booming oil tradable sector.
Therefore, the north being educationally and technologically
disadvantaged or left behind by the rest of the country for historical
reasons, did not benefit appreciably from the few job openings created
by the oil and gas companies at all levels of operations and management
cadre. This further explains the worsening poverty level in the north
vis-à-vis the rest of the country.
Thirdly, the provocative and divisive issue of parasitism of the north
on Nigeria’s oil wealth derived from the Niger delta region is a
disinformation and propaganda ploy designed principally to further
advance the equally controversial agendas of resource control, ‘true’
federalism, and restructuring of the country.
All over the world, nature did not distribute natural resources equally
across the geological substrata. Nature has provided for every nation
(i.e. geographic space/entity) a unique pattern of distribution of
human population, flora and fauna, weather and climate, geology, land
(soil) and water etc.
To fully develop, a nation must wisely harness these resources for
sustainable growth. And it is the ability of the people to use their
God given ingenuity to harness these diverse resource endowments for
their collective benefits. It is from these collective resources of
humankind that nations and individuals derive their welfare
accordingly. Therefore, it is utterly disingenuous to brand the north
as parasitic on the south for its survival.
Those behind this rather crude, illogical and unintelligent proposition
need to rethink another game plan in their quest for achieving whatever
agenda they are pursuing. It is in light of this that I would not like
to take too much space and time here dwelling on the issue.
Nevertheless, I would like to advice the Northern Nigeria Economic and
Investment Summit 2008 (NEIS-2008), the Northern Governors Forum (NGF),
the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) and the Northern Union (NU) and
concerned individuals alike that they should not over-react to this
worthless proposition thrown principally to incite and provoke the
polity into mindless and time wasting confrontation.
The focus should be on how to escape the debilitating Dutch disease and
resource curse syndromes ravaging the country as whole; the north in
particular. That is to say, how do we move from the paradox stagnation
and poverty traps in the midst of resource abundance to growth and
prosperity wisely harnessing our God-given human and natural resources
for the common good?
This can be done as other countries, like Nigeria, have successfully
overcome similar predicaments. This should be challenge and task before
the organizers and participants of NEIS-2008, NGF, ACF, NU, CBN, the
Presidency, National Assembly, States and Local governments and above
all, all Nigerians irrespective of geo-political and geo-ethnic
configuration, coloration and extraction.
Therefore, escaping the Dutch disease and Resource curse syndromes
requires dynamism of national cohesion, solidarity and mutual respect
and collective will power and not divisiveness under any guise.
Where and how do we start? Good governance - translated to include good
implementable economic policies, honesty, transparency and
accountability is the key and roadmap to successful overcoming or
escaping the debilitating impacts of Duct disease and Resource curse
syndromes.
The good news is that we don’t have to reinvent the wheel all over
again. There are practical steps to take and smooth pathways to follow
in order to escape from the tyranny of the Dutch disease and Resource
curse syndromes.
Nigeria must liberate its Central Bank and Finance Ministry from the
shackles of the powerful ‘Washington Consensus’ bosses at the World
Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Without doing that
there will be no light at the end of the tunnel.
The world acclaimed renowned learned economists and titans of the field
such as Nobel laureate Professor Joseph Stiglitz, Paul Collier and
Jeffrey Sachs, just to mention but a few, for example, have said it all
in their earth breaking compelling testimonies as presented in their
landmark publications on these issues.
For instance, their principled anti-Washington Consensus posturing
should be eye-openers to our public policymakers (economists and
political economists), practitioners and politicians.
Nevertheless, some of the ideas espouse by the Washington Consensus
practitioners are great. But ironically, in most cases, they usually
become very unpopular because they are not pro-poor oriented policies.
The organizers of NEIS-2008, NGF, ACF, NU and concerned individuals in
the north should get organized and team up with other concerned
stakeholder groups (including the National and States Assemblies) and
individuals from the rest of the country to ensure that the Central
Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Finance Ministry are liberated from the
shackles of the Washington Consensus.
The world at large is witness to how for example; Professor Stiglitz
successfully demystified the entire Washington financial and economic
establishment through his most powerful principled arguments that have
yet been made against the World Bank and IMF and their policies in
developing and transition economies.
That is to say, Professor Stiglitz rebelled against the very global
establishments that once fed him – according to Ian Fraser of the
British Sunday Tribune Newspaper. There are a lot to be learnt
regarding these issues from world respected economists such as
Stiglitz, Collier and Sachs, amongst other anti-Washington Consensus; -
‘Born Again’ and converts!
Furthermore, the organizers of NEIS-2008, NGF, ACF and NU should borrow
a leaf from President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua (UMYA). One of his strategies
of addressing the lingering Niger delta conundrum includes establishing
a Technical Committee to distil, harmonise and present all the previous
recommendations made on how to address the problems of the Niger delta
region over the years. The government will then use the comprehensive
document to design an acceptable and implement-table roadmap or
blueprint for the Niger delta region.
I would suggest similar initiative for the organizers of NEIS-2008,
NGF, ACF and NU. For instance, in the immediate past 8 years or so,
numerous Workshops, Retreats, Conferences and Summits were
convened/organized to address issues, problems, options and solutions
to the socio-economic and political problems facing the north that have
defied solutions since the demise of the legendary late Ahmadu Bello
(Sarduanan Sokoto), late Abubakar Tafawa Balewa and their other fellow
contemporaries from all over the north.
It is only logical to compile and harmonize the outcomes of these talk
shops. Also, least we forgot, just about the current democratic
dispensation was about to be ushered some time in 1998/1999, the
defunct Turaki Committee; the precursor to the ACF and NU, produced and
printed a guidepost or roadmap for the transformation of the north.
That handbook was produced in large numbers for distribution to all
those in position to make a change for the better in the lives of the
ordinary persons in the streets of the north. Unfortunately however,
those elected into various political offices and leadership positions
in the period 1999-2007 never used it. If they did, the north today
will be discussing something different and not the same familiar
lamentations we are used to hearing over and over again!
I also agree with my elder brother, Mohammed Haruna, the veteran
journalist who, a couple of days ago, commenting in his regular column
in both the Daily Trust Newspapers and Gamji.com Website, that talking
is important but there comes a time when we should talk less and act
more.
In his own words “By all means, let’s organise seminars on how to end
poverty in the region - and by extension in Nigeria as a whole - but we
must accept the obvious fact that words alone can never solve our
problems” - Mohammed Haruna (01-10-2008).
The north should be seen to be methodically organized for the common
good as it used to be before it was Balkanized into 19 individual
States. It must revives itself and at the same time work hand-in-hand
with the rest of the country to restore the lost glories before the
discovery of the ‘devil’s excrement’ – oil.
Finally, I would seek for shelter under the cover of Jeffrey Sachs’s
conclusion of one of his numerous compelling and forceful articles to
also conclude this rather lengthy and boring write-up:
“Oil revenues need not be a curse. When properly managed, they can play
a special and important role in overall economic development in low
income countries, especially by providing the public financing for
critical investments in key public goods. As long as this is done, the
fears about Dutch Disease are likely to be exaggerated... For the
poorest of the poor, priorities will lie in meeting basic needs and
basic infrastructure… expanding access to higher education, science,
and advanced technologies. In all these cases, there will be a likely
advantage in using the oil earnings as an income to cover priority
public spending, rather than viewing the oil earnings as an income flow
to be transferred back to households… considerable care must be given
to managing the large macroeconomic risks of oil income flows, as well
as to spread the benefits of the oil earnings across generations. This
is best achieved by converting oil flows into long-lasting financial,
physical, and human capital” (Jeffrey D. Sachs, 2007, pp 173-193. “How
To Handle the Macroeconomics of Oil Wealth”, Chapter 7, in Escaping the
Resource Curse. Humphreys, M., Jeffrey D. Sachs and Joseph E. Stiglitz,
editors).
I pray that the message contained in this concluding part of the
write-up will sink in the hearts and minds of the organizers and
participants of NEIS-2008, NGF, ACF, NU, CBN, the Presidency, National
Assembly, States and Local governments and above all, all Nigerians
irrespective of geo-political and geo-ethnic configuration, coloration
and extraction.
Therefore, I repeat what I mentioned above that, the challenge of
escaping the Dutch Disease and Resource Curse syndromes requires
dynamism of national cohesion, solidarity and mutual respect and
collective will power and not divisiveness under any guise.
The north must face the challenges before it in a manner that enhances
and solidifies our cherished national unity and solidarity and avoid
joining unnecessary provocative and time wasting distractions from any
quarter.
I wish the organizers and participants very successful and fruitful
deliberations in this worthy and timely initiative.
Sunday, 05 October 2008
PS: Full details of the references cited in this write-up have not been
attached at the end.
Source:Ocnus.net 2008
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