When Nigeria achieved independence in October 1960, the nation was hailed as a beacon of hope for the African continent. Blessed with educated elites and copious quantities of natural resources, the future seemed bright. Fifty-nine years afterwards, predictions of a glorious future are yet to be fulfilled. While the potential of the country has never been in doubt, the gulf between the country’s reality and its undisputed potential has never been wider.
As the nation marks its 59th Independence anniversary, it continues to grapple with basic socio-economic problems. Poverty, corruption and social injustice remain characteristics of the Nigerian state while stagnation best describes the current state of the nation’s economy. The nation is also silently straining under the weight of its debt, as the national debt stock has more than doubled in the last three years to over N24 trillion.
However, perhaps most alarming is the unprecedented rise in youth unemployment. Since 2015, the unemployment rate in Africa’s largest economy has soared, rising from 8.2 percent to 23.1 percent in the third quarter of 2018. For young people aged 15 to 35, the figures are even worse as 55 percent of the youth population are unemployed or underemployed. In addition to these galling figures, the nation continues to fail to prepare future generations for a fast-changing world, with over 10 million children currently out of school.
Such is the state of Nigeria as it celebrates its 59th Independence anniversary.
The dire state of Nigeria’s underdevelopment across six decades comes to the fore of Nigeria’s stagnation when compared to its pre-independence contemporaries. Back in 1960, Nigeria and South Korea had similar Gross Domestic Products of $4.1 billion and $3.9 billion respectively. Today, the South Korea’s is estimated to be $1.5 trillion, while Nigeria’s GDP is estimated to be less than $400 billion. The same developmental stagnation can be observed in education. Singapore in the early 1960s had educational statistics similar to that of many African countries including Nigeria. Today, Singapore is far ahead of Nigeria across various educational indices.
All of these paints a sordid picture for Nigeria. A combination of poor leadership, corruption and incompetence has resulted in a failure to develop the nation’s economy, invest in critical infrastructure and harness the nation’s most valuable resource – its people. Thus, on this independence anniversary, there is seemingly little or nothing to celebrate.
Nevertheless, all hope is not lost, and the Nigerian nation may yet be rescued.
An important first step in the process of rescuing our nation is the realisation that political will for restructuring is necessary for progress. There must be an urgent will to address pressing issues such as the nation’s reliance on oil earnings, the archaic land use act and the non-practice of fiscal federalism, all of which combine to hinder the nation from realising its potential.
In addition, the nation’s ticking time bomb of youth unemployment must be resolved through the enactment of viable job creation policies and enhancement of labour productivity. This however, will not be possible without sustainable investments in education and infrastructure development.
Nevertheless, all hope is not lost, and the Nigerian nation may yet be rescued. An important first step in the process of rescuing our nation is the realisation that political will for restructuring is necessary for progress.
Investments in education, particularly science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education, are critical in order to prepare the young generations for the jobs of the future. Besides, education and citizen enlightenment have also been proven to be effective tools necessary for the transition of nations from third to first world. Thus, there is a need for the prioritisation of sustained investment in education.
The need for infrastructure development for economic growth cannot be overemphasised. Therefore, while the federal government’s current focus on infrastructure development is laudable, the government must also realise that its resources are limited. Thus, it must encourage private sector participation in infrastructure development via public-private partnerships, concession agreements etc.
Furthermore, all levels of government must incentivise and encourage private sector participation in various sectors of the economy and infrastructure development. The government must create an enabling business environment for small and medium-sized enterprises to thrive by making Nigeria a progressively easier place to do business. Far-reaching reforms which will encourage industrial manufacturing, technology and innovation in sectors where Nigeria can develop sustainable competitive advantages must be delivered.
Subsequently, Nigeria’s ballooning debt problem must be swiftly addressed. The nation is currently expending over 60 percent of its revenues on debt servicing, thereby leaving nothing for infrastructure development which in turn leads to the government taking on more debt to fund projects. If left unchecked, the national debt stock might soon reach the level last attained prior to the debt relief in 2005. We only need to look at countries like Venezuela, Greece, and Zimbabwe to see how dangerous a public debt crisis can be. Therefore, the rising national debt volume must be tackled with urgency, perhaps starting with reducing government spending on recurrent expenditure.
Overall, fiscal prudence and investments in education and infrastructure are key to unlocking Nigeria’s potential. However, this is only achievable with political will, implementation of market reforms and creation of policies which will improve the living conditions of a rapidly growing, young population.
The future of Nigeria is dependent on this. Otherwise, 50 years from now, there might still be nothing to celebrate on Independence Day.
OLANREWAJU RUFAI
Twitter – @LanreRufai_
