By Bayo Ogunmupe
Recently, President Muhammadu Buhari was quoted as saying that the
quality of education is the key to Nigeria's industrialization and
development. Represented by the former vice chancellor of the University
of Ilorin and the current registrar of the Joint Admissions and
Matriculation Board (JAMB), Professor Ishaq Oloyede, the president said
it at the 44th convocation ceremony of the University of Benin, Edo
state. But the idea that university education is the bedrock of
industrialization isn't correct. This is incorrect because technology
and globalization have shifted the industrialization scales from our
current traditional educational curriculum to skills acquisition,
creativity and learning by doing.
Moreover, the linchpin of the present inchoate industrialization are
self educated apprentices, not college educated entrepreneurs. In the
world today, those icons who gave civilization a leap forward have not
been university graduates. Of the five that come to mind only the winner
of the 1921 Nobel prize in physics, Dr Albert Einstein was a university
graduate. People like the Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Steve Jobs,
Mark Zuckerberg and Aliko Dangote never had university degrees. It is
our misplacement of economic priorities that has cost us membership of
G20 which will be meeting at Buenos Aires, Argentina between November 30
and December 1, 2018.
Sadly part of the cause of our economic backwardness is our penchant
for anything foreign. And this is stifling the Nigerian economy in
general and local industries in particular. Even sadder is the craving
for foreign goods and services by our leaders. This has put undue
pressure on our foreign exchange market. A drain pipe of our foreign
exchange earnings is medical tourism. Earlier this year, the minister of
state for health, Osagie Ehanire said that Nigeria lost more than $1
billion every year as a result of medical treatments in the U.K, India
and the USA among many other countries.
All of these were at the connivance of the federal and state
governments who approve these tours. Indeed, despite several calls for
government to disclose how much Buhari's treatment abroad cost Nigeria,
the authorities are still refusing to comply. Thus, politicians are as
dishonest as the society they politic in. There has never been an honest
society and there never will be. Perhaps a more worrying manifestation
of our penchant for foreign products and services is Nigerians going
abroad to advertize Nigerian products for the Nigerian audience. This
is implemented through pre -production, shooting and post production of
advertisements executed abroad where the models are foreigners, the
production crew are foreigners. The Nigerian client or his
representative then travels abroad to supervise and bring back the
products to Nigeria.
In addition, the Peoples Democratic Party, the party that promises to
eliminate unemployment in Nigeria come 2019, has contracted a U.S
lobbyist Brian Balland for $90,000 per month (N31.5 million) as
communications consultant ahead of the 2019 general election. However,
as far as economic history goes, import substitution has always been the
breeder of industries throughout the world. Import substitution was
responsible for the German economic miracle after World War 11. In the
same vein, Japan, China, India and South Korea used import substitution
and export diversification to become industrial giants they are today.
We cannot become what we want to be by remaining what we are. So,
Nigeria must craft an import substitution strategy to grow. Life isn't
about waiting for the storm to pass, it is about learning to dance in
the rain. But beware, the messiah might not be a Buhari who is hailing
our slave producing and lawyers without goals universities nor Atiku
Abubakakar, the generator importing icon and purveyor of education as a
business. "We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we
used when we created them,"so said Albert Einstein. Ever heard a fringe
party winning the presidency in the English speaking world? That is why
the contenders for the 2019 presidency lacked the wherewithal to solve
Nigerian economic problems they jointly created decades before.
Thinking the 2019 presidential aspirants can help will result in
insanity which is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting
different results. To pursue the diversification agenda is to broaden
the export base. The balance of payments series from the Central Bank of
Nigeria (CBN) shows that products other than oil and gas represented
just 7.7 percent of merchandise exports in 2017. Therefore, we must
expand the net to include all current account receipts. Thus, oil and
gas provided 61.1 percent of total current transfers; non oil products
just 4.7 percent.
The top five exports in descending order may come as a surprise:
petroleum products, cocoa,urea, sesame seeds and tobacco. The same
source has a table with the leading exporting companies as British
American tobacco, Olam and Indorama Eleme Fertilizers and Chemicals.
Government should do more to promote export diversification. They could
start with the settlement of arrears on money due under the export
expansion grant. These claims are subjected to an independent audit,
amounting to N1.2 million according to the local media. The exporting
sector like the rest of the economy will benefit from fast turn around
at the Nigerian ports; improved road network, and increase in power
supply.
Certainly, someday,we shall come upon a visionary leader who would
dredge the Niger river from Lokoja, Kogi state to Kulama or Akassa,
Bayelsa state so that we can travel from Lagos by sea to Akassa and go
up by waterway to Lokoja. Which is why we cannot depend on the perverse
thinking of the current presidential contenders to liberate Nigeria.
While import substitution means requiring importers to manufacture their
goods locally within two years, export diversification will involve
more. Exporters must process their raw materials in Nigeria to generate
employment.
The president of Ghana, Dr Nana Akufo- Addo put it better: Ivory Coast
and Ghana together account for 65 percent of global cocoa output,but
together earn $6 billion yearly. Whereas the international chocolate
industry turns over $100 billion yearly. The gains in employment,
incomes, skills transfer and government revenues as a result of local
processing are obvious. Nigeria's palm oil producers are serving the
domestic market above all, but they should be aware of the European
Union's stance on sustaining production and related import policies.
Indeed, import diversification should not detract from adequate
allocation of government resources, time and incentives from import
substitution. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, imports of
Agricultural goods and oil products amounted to N890 billion and N2.67
trillion respectively in 2017. The challenge in making savings on
imports is far greater in agricultural goods than in oil products. This
is because there have been substantial investment in Lake rice: being
grown by Lagos and Kebbi states and supported by the CBN anchor
borrowers programme.
New local brands of rice are developing and imports of rice from
Thailand have crashed. Yet, estimates from the U.S Department of
Agriculture suggest that Nigeria will be the second largest importer of
rice globally by 2019. However, smuggling from our neighboring countries
has soared, since the smuggled product is cheaper than the local
brands. The domestic fish industry has similar stories to share. This
underpins the argument that government should allocate more money and
incentives to import substitution industries. Government should end
these years of neglect and indifference by funding and regulating import
substitution. We cannot become the industrial giant of our dreams by
remaining as we are. Nigerians cannot expect to be led into prosperity
by nepotistic leaders and leaders whose companies don't pay tax to the
government.
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