The Buhari
government should not borrow money to spend on infrastructure because mere
erection of roads and bridges does not translate into real growth and
development. The government should abandon the thinking that inflow of FDIs
into a nation promotes true growth and creates employment. Rather, the Buhari
government should focus attention on things that promote true growth and
increase a nation’s manufacturing capabilities – education, adequate training,
acquisition of relevant competences, and promoting industrialisation.
All Nigerian
national plans since 1960 including SAPs, NEEDS, Visions 2010 and 20:2020, have
all been based on the assumption that mere capital investments promote SEGI.
Second, Nigerians believe that FDIs (technology transfer) are central to
Nigeria’s industrialisation. Third, Nigerians believe very strongly that mere
foreign investments will enable Nigeria to realise maximum benefits from the
Oil and Gas Industry (OGI). Fourth, most Nigerians believe that Nigeria can
establish a reliable infrastructural network including a regular electricity
supply system through mere capital investments. Fifth, Nigerians believe that
the private sector is the engine of growth because it has a lot of capital to
invest. These beliefs have no scientific bases. That is why Nigeria has been
achieving growth without development and stagnating at the same time.
The World
Bank (1998), in its “World Development Report,” stated that technological
knowledge means know-how; those countries which possess less of it are caught
in the poverty bracket. Poor countries, the bank continued, and indeed poor
people are not able to compete in the global system not because they do not
have capital, or other material resources, but because they have less
knowledge. I agree with the bank that the difference between the
agricultural-economies in Africa on the one hand and the technologically
advanced economies in Europe, America and Asia on the other hand, is a matter
of difference in the level of knowledge. The pertinent questions here therefore
are: What did Europeans, Americans and Asians do to possess the knowledge that
is the basis of their highly competitive positions?
During the
period of almost 2000 (two thousand) years, the productivity of the people in
Britain was characterised by primitive tools like hoe, axe and draught oxen
(Davies, 1969). The productivity was very low and seemed unchanging for many
centuries. Adam Smith (1776), in his book, The Nature and Sources of Wealth of
Nations, had described England as a nation of shop-keepers, because virtually
everyone sold one thing or the other but no one manufactured anything. Britain,
however, achieved the first modern Industrial Revolution (IR) in the period of
1770-1850 (Gregg, 1971). By 1900, England had become industrialised and most
people worked for weekly wages.
The research
works of Charles Cobb (a mathematician) and Paul Douglas (economist) in 1928,
Douglas (1948), Abramowitz (1956) and Solow (1957) showed that capital
contributes very little to achieving SEGI. Gerschenkron (1966) examined the
Western industrialisation experience and concluded that capital investment was
not a prerequisite to it. Our scientific research in Obafemi Awolowo
University, using equations and graphs also showed that mere capital investment
does not promote SEGI. Nigeria has been achieving growth without development
because Nigeria’s planning is premised on the faulty premise that mere capital
investments especially FDIs promote growth. President Buhari can and should
reverse the downward trend and save Nigeria.
All persons
are born as crying babies. The baby soon begins to babble (learns how to talk),
acquires the competences to talk and talks (Ogbimi, 1990). The baby who could
not babble grows up to be a dumb adult. Talking or speaking is a skill
(Hurlock, 1972). The child must also learn how to read and write, otherwise, it
grows up to be an illiterate. No one or nation is born with the skills to
produce.
Our
scientific theory suggests that the five variables that should guide planning
for industrialisation or determine the level of industrialisation are: 1) N –
the number of people involved in productive work or employment in a nation; 2)
M – the level of education/training of those involved in productive activities
in the economy and of the people of the nation; 3) L – the linkages among the
knowledge, skills, competences and sectors of an economy; 4) r – the learning
rates or intensity in the economy and especially among the workforce; and 5) n
– the experience of the workforce and the learning history of the society. All
the variables are related to the learning-man and learning-woman.
Moreover,
the higher the values of the variables, the better is the economy. The private
sector does not develop the relevant variables that determine the manufacturing
strength of a nation – M, N, L, n and r. Hence, the private sector cannot be
the engine of growth of an economy.
Let Nigeria
initiate a rapid industrialisation process by setting up the framework for
training all graduates of educational institutions, especially the scientists
and engineers, to acquire complementary practical skills in the economy outside
educational campuses. The educated and trained graduates should be challenged
to build and maintain the infrastructure Nigeria needs. (Guardian)
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