USA Africa Dialogue Series - Fw: WHY NIGERIA LAGS: FOLUSO PHILIPS AT MAY DAY LECTURE

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From: maggie anaeto <maganaeto@yahoo.co.uk>

Date: Mon, 6 May 2013 14:48:04 +0100 (BST)

To: <ayo_olukotun@yahoo.com>

Subject: WHY NIGERIA LAGS: FOLUSO PHILIPS AT MAY DAY LECTURE

WHY NIGERIA LAGS: FOLUSO PHILIPS AT MAY DAY LECTURE   Ayo Olukotun   "Who do our leaders fear? Who are they truly accountable to that can mete out some form of sanctions for poor performance" – Foluso Philips, Chairman, Nigerian Economic Summit Group        On May 1, the Silver Knights, a group of intellectually minded professionals based in Ibadan organised an anniversary lecture with the title: "The Imperatives of an Economic Paradigm for Nigeria's Transformation". Held at the International Conference Centre of Lead City University, Ibadan, the guest lecturer, Foluso Philips is the Chairman of the Nigeria Economic Summit Group (NESG) while Foluso Okumadewa, a Professor of development economics who works at the World Bank and Professor Oladapo Afolabi, former Head of Service of the federation facilitated the lecture in the role of discussants.      To set the mood for what proved to be robust interventions on the state of our economy and national condition, Afolabi showed to the audience a much discussed and moving video clip "The Real Nigeria", which narrates lucidly the circumstances in which the Nigerian contraption was contrived by the departing colonial authorities, with systemic deformities all too obvious.      Philips then took the stage and prefaced his intellectual voyage with the sobering statement that he used to believe as a private sector operator that we could ignore the politicians and just get on with the business of minding the economy, hoping that the politicians would leave us severely alone.  He has however learnt better because, in his words, "I now appreciate that politicians determine the state of our political, economic and socio-eco-system within which we try to manage our economy."  That of course situates Nigeria's development arrest within the matrix of our persisting leadership  question reminding us that national economies cannot be jumpstarted or turned around in the absence of clear headed, imaginative and focused leaders who can walk the talk about reforms.    Two concepts, according to Philips mark out countries in top league positions in the global economy, namely, the clarity of their value proposition which maximises their domestic energies and signpost them globally; as well as the concept of national competencies which speaks to skills, knowledge and capabilities.  Value propositions are formulated from competencies and therefore interrelated; while competencies are developed from the ability to harness natural resources, and create civilisations powered by the mastery of nature and innovative acumen. Relating these seemingly abstract reflections to Nigeria, Philips explains that our once thriving agricultural economy provided us a basis for developing competencies and creating value chains in textile industries which used agricultural products; agricultural financial services in the shape of banks which catered to farmers and middlemen; agricultural research institutes set up to evolve high yielding varieties and rudimentary transportation networks to move around farm products.    This evolving transformation was rudely snapped with the discovery of oil, a gift of nature which did not engage the population in production and which created a windfall without us having to work hard to earn money. An imaginative political leadership Philips says would have employed oil proceeds to complete the process of agricultural transformation and to power our ascent to industrial status.  But this was the road not taken.  As he put it, "To make matters worse, successive governments failed to invest the oil proceeds in agriculture where we were already building a nationwide array of competencies. We did not invest in the vertical or horizontal valve chains to create additional competencies." Consequently, he maintains, the opportunity for private sector development, for building a maintenance culture, for deepening our transportation grid and evolving decent infrastructure was lost. We became instead a nation of consumers, lacking in an easily identifiable national competence which will also express to ourselves and the world a national value proposition. In other words, just as colonialism disarticulated the opportunities for self reliant and balanced growth;  our use or rather mismanagement of oil created an enclave which did not relate to the wider economy in any significant sense even as the nation trapped itself in the rudimentary stages of manufacturing and industrial growth.       That is not the only problem. Borrowing an insight from American public intellectual, Dr Fareed Zakaria, Philips argues that the political economy of oil created a situation where, to quote him again, "a nation that does not depend on its people to survive will not care about its people."  This speaks to the destruction of a culture of accountability and responsible behaviour induced by taxation as well as the emergence of a rapacious political elite with a take the money and run mentality. All hope is not lost, however. Democracy has created more vistas for interrogating our wasted years and holding leaders accountable; new technologies fast track the dissemination of information and offer us a foothold in globalisation.  Similarly, privatisation is unleashing new possibilities for growth.  If these developments must be collated however, we must in Philips' pertinent view, throw up leaders of integrity with sound pedigrees who possess a strong action orientation and who can produce results.  Also, the culture of waste must be pruned by drastically reducing conspicuous consumption, duplication of irrelevant political offices as well as embrace performance evaluation standards at national and sub national levels.      The technocrat alluded to the practice in Botswana where revenue from mining is specifically set aside for capital projects and infrastructural development while the civil service and government machinery are run mainly by taxes. This re-echoes the longstanding debate in Nigeria about the unsustainable cost of the political apparatus and the inability of the government to make required changes, despite repeated promises.      Professor Okumadewa amplified Philips's lively analysis by highlighting the paradox of non-inclusive growth by which he suggested that GDP growth in the country which remains good in recent times is not impacting on the welfare of Nigerians; is restricted to the service sector; while local value addition and Nigerian participation in many sectors remain low.    Buttressing his point statistically, Okumadewa highlights the 2012 IMF ranking of Nigeria as 36 globally, based on GDP but as 153 by the UNDP's Human Development Index; and 127th in the Global Competiveness Ranking of the World Economic Forum.  In other words, Nigeria may be getting richer, while the majority of its people are wallowing in abject poverty.  Pinpointing regional disparities in development, with the North increasingly left behind, the World bank researcher iterated renewed focus on human capital development, fixing our infrastructural deficits, tackling the alarming increase in youth unemployment as well as looking beyond the oil-driven economy as mandatory measures to see us out of the woods.  Professor Afolabi rounded up the stimulating and rewarding afternoon with a proposition that Nigeria will remain in the wilderness, for as long as its citizens remain apathetic and do not seek avenues to make changes by meaningful participation in governance.  Well canvassed ideas; but as Professor Jide Owoeye, Chairman of the Governing Council of Lead City University remarked, the value of the lecture will be determined by the extent to which it can impact the policy arena and bring about lasting reforms in the economy and other areas of our national life.  Is anyone listening?   Prof Olukotun is Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Entrepreneurial Studies at Lead City University, Ibadan. ayo_olukotun@yahoo.com 07055841236