National President of the Nigerian Economic Society (NES), Tamunopriye Agiobenebo (Prof) has called on government to activate the Eastern Ports in order to ease the congestion and gridlock being experienced at the Apapa Port in Lagos.
The NES President made this call on Sunday during a media briefing preparatory to the 60th Annual Conference of the society, which will be declared open by President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday in Abuja with the theme ” Economic Policies and Quality of Life in Africa”.
He lamented that all the ports in Eastern part of the country are idle stressing, that if the Port system is decentralized, it will go a long way in reducing the gridlock in Lagos ports and create more jobs in the country.
“All the Eastern Ports are idle, if you decentralize and activate them, Port Harcourt Port alone will give not less than 6,000 direct jobs. Eastern importers will use the Port Harcourt Port and Eastern rail line. We are not doing that and so Apapa Port is gridlocked,” he said.
He noted that military rule was a disaster to Nigeria arguing that the military men changed the nation’s economic trajectory with their method of governance. He added that the oil wealth sharing mentality has introduced the wrong incentives
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He said the discovery of oil would have changed the development narrative of Nigeria, but lamented that Nigeria developed wrong incentives associated with the sharing mentality.
“We have the wrong incentives, this sharing mentality does one thing, for the states that are not having any cost but going to Abuja to share, their marginal cost is zero.
“The condition for equilibrium in Economics is marginal cost equals marginal benefits. If marginal cost is equal to zero, then marginal benefits must be zero. So, all we are doing is obeying that law by debasing our assets. That is what has happened to us.
“You might think it is an oil-based redistribution, but it is giving the wrong signals both in market and institutions. There used to be cattle tax, they are gone. Now, they are trying to revive it, but it’s difficult. So, our incentive systems is wrong,” he said.He also called on Nigerians to patronise made in Nigeria goods, saying, “Our shoes are as good as Italian shoes, except for the glue. So, if they can make up for the glue, our shoes will be good because they cost less than 50 per cent of Italian shoes. But when somebody wears our shoes, we classify him as poor. If we all leave what we produce, who is going to buy them?” He asked.
Innocent Odoh, Abuja
