One, the problem is not really the surging population; China is by far more populous than Nigeria and yet more prosperous. In fact, China arguably leads the world economy. Also, from an export perspective, the problem is not a lack of diversification in revenue generation. To think of diversification in terms of broadening the national export spectrum is a wish for a worse economic disaster. Though no single nation can boast of being truly economically independent, every developed nation tends to be treading that path. The primary purpose of industrialization is to produce products and services for the domestic consumption of a nation. Most times, it’s the excess of the produced products that are exported abroad. The idea of banning some import goods in certain countries is an economic approach to eliminate competition with similar goods produced domestically. This, in turn, is expected to increase awareness and patronage of their homemade goods. Even though the timing and manner of implementation are misconceived, Nigeria has recently placed an embargo on certain import goods, such as rice, for the aforesaid reason.
But I’ve always argued and still maintain that the real problem with Nigeria’s economy is in its education sector. Understandably, the simplistic and unconventional answer given is not what a pumped-up Nigerian will be ready to accept as the root cause of the regressive state of the national economy. Because on the surface, it doesn’t appear to be so. What is obvious is that the nation is broke, and corrupt politicians are believed to be the natural cause.
But then, what is the notable, pervasive effect of this economic regression? My answer is an increase in the price of food items. The undesirable change in the prices of virtually all the food items on sale is having a subtle ripple effect on certain services, such as a hike in school fees. The point is that every working-class person would offset the increase in the cost of food items wherever they have economic control and power. So predictably, if there was a significant drop in the price of food items, it would have a positive impact on the prices of some services. This understanding is necessary for comprehending my unfolding argument here.
Furthermore, given the habitual components of a Nigerian budget, at any level, most Nigerians should not have “felt” the impact of the government being broke had it been the costs of food items were unaffected. Nigeria is not like any developed country where the government spends a significant percentage of its recurrent expenditure on social welfare and any other support system that will improve the quality of its citizens.
For example, recently, President Barack Obama proposed to spend 1.1 billion dollars to help heroine victims overcome the effects of drug addiction and abuse. Whereas IDPs in Borno are not getting enough government aid, relief, and support, let alone some people suffering from drug overdoses. Salaries, pensions, arrears, bonuses, emoluments, and the rest are about the only “benefits” of Nigerians from the government, and it’s even for those who are privileged to be employed by the government. Rarely do you hear of bursaries being given to indigent students. Subsidies are rarities. Basically, the Nigerian government has no serious financial obligations or commitments to its citizens. Bad roads are commonplace. Malaria is killing poor people by the thousands, almost daily. And lots more. All these are brazen facts.
Now, let me shed more light on my stance that poor education is the cause of the current economic woes in Nigeria. To expound on this point, it’s of the essence that I clarify the general need for the ever-scarce U.S. dollar first. For the nation to fulfill its ever-growing daily consumption obligations, importation is not negotiable. Most of the commodities consumed in Nigeria are imported, and the U.S. dollar is the most commonly used transnational trade currency. And that is just in the aspect of consumable products, whether in raw or processed forms. There is also the problem of technical services. Most of the IT and infrastructural contracts the Nigerian government issues are paid for in U.S. dollars. They are outsourced to technocrats abroad. So basically, per capita GDP is almost nonexistent in Nigeria. GDP is practically defined within the context of products and services.
Every known developed country in the world has gotten one thing right. The country has successfully developed its human capacity to such a level that it can rely on it for quality product and service delivery. I grew up to know Ofada rice (one of our domestic brands of rice) as a good rice with the only challenge of stone granules. I’m about three decades old now, and the problem with Ofada rice sadly still remains. No doubt, Ofada rice is cheaper than most, if not all, imported rice. But it should not be expected that this stony rice would be commercially successful with all the health implications attached to it. Yet with the aid of science and technology (education), the stones and other undesirable particles in Ofada rice can be sorted out. The questions of how to increase our agricultural production capacity and their subsequent preservation can only be answered by education. The nation is suffering for its poor education. Nigeria is a country where manual labor is deployed to do what technology would efficiently do. The ability of science to produce and innovate technology is one of the results of quality education, which we don’t have in Nigeria. Sadly, today, technology is almost the driver of developed nations economies.
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