The current state of the Nigerian
economy and its infrastructural leanings is unfathomable. Thanks to years of
neglect, corruption and nonchalance by the despots that masquerade as leaders
since independence.
With a staggering population of 175
million (2013 est.), our human resource and propensity to develop is and should
be unrivalled but the glaring and unfortunate reality shows clearly we are
micromanaging our potentials.
In Nigeria, bringing up good reforms
in key sectors of the economy from Agriculture, Health, Education and Power has
never been a challenge. In fact, it’s as routine as coffee breaks. We get lost
in the process due to the sabotaging efforts of our self-seeking and
politically minded leaders.
Of note is the Nigerian education
sector. Since the return of democracy in 1999, the country has had ten
Education Ministers with each of them introducing supposedly good policies.
Just as the seeds begin to blossom into a flower, the administration is
changed, the policies have not had the capacity to run on autopilot and we
begin to undulate in a cyclic twist of ineptitude.
When Dr. Obiageli Ezekwesili, the
immediate past World Bank Managing Director for Africa was Nigeria’s Education
Minister, she did curate a couple of policies by reinventing the country’s
Education framework from 6-3-3-4 to 9-3-4. Six years after, the ripple effects
of policies like these are at an abysmal low.
Classrooms from Primary to Tertiary
institutions of learning in the country are an eyesore; other physical
infrastructures that actually make learning comfortable like furniture are dilapidated.
There are no books in the libraries and if they are, it’s outdated. The curriculum
and instructional guides are not pedagogical and to crown the insolence, the
graduates that are churned out of the system can’t compete for jobs in the
industrial age, more less this information age.
I’m not in any way swerving towards
pessimism, in fact, I’m an eternal optimist. In the midst of this madness,
there seem to be some few flashes of brilliance. For the past two years, The
Nigerian Agriculture Ministry has been managed by a technocrat who sees the big
picture.
Nigeria’s agricultural output for two
years now has consistently been northward bound. The Minister has an eye for
detail and he’s quite prescient in managing the people and the processes in the
ministry.
Prior to 2011, Nigeria loses 66% of
its agricultural produce just from the farm to the market. The entire value and
supply chain wasn’t seamless. Dr. Adesina, the man at the helm of affairs
adopted and implemented strategies that were sine qua non to sustainable development.
For instance, the Nigerian fertilizer
distribution chain was reeking with corruption prior to his arrival. The real
beneficiaries, the farmers have been constantly force-fed with a constant diet
of half-truths and whole lies regarding the status of their fertilizer needs.
The real case scenario at the point was that the elites where diverting the
subsidized or near-free fertilizers into the commercial markets.
As soon as this gaping hole was
closed, agricultural output in 2012 had an increase of 42% and was the highest
contributor to the GDP only after the Petroleum Ministry. That’s the power a
maverick wields in making developmental agendas work. For development to have a
place of permanence in our polity, those in the position of authority like this
must stick to be transformational and not transactional leaders.
The reform for development in key
areas is imperative and long overdue and I’m of the opinion that we
consistently need to drive ourselves towards perfection. The key policy wonks
must put the qualified people at the right places so we would hasten up the
pace of development and make our society become that last best hope, for all
those who are called to the cause of freedom, who yearn for a life of peace
and who want a better future.
As we approach 2015, it’s propitious
of us to revisit the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which is an acceptable
international benchmark of development and ask ourselves stern questions on
what we did right and where we went wrong for progress to be entrenched. There
sure wouldn’t be development without the people and this would in turn make the
citizens of the country regain believe in themselves, putting away the
complexes of the years of denigration and self-abasement.
