Professor Chinedu Moghalu |
He
made the call as the distinguished guest lecturer at the 5th Goddy Jidenma Foundation Public Lecture held at the Nigerian
Institute of International Affairs, Victoria Island, Lagos. Joining other
influential leaders, the former United Nations official emphasized that
Nigerians should stop underestimating the sheer scale of the challenge to the
country’s economic growth.
Themed
‘The Challenge of Economic Growth in Nigeria’, the public lecture was organised
by the Goddy Jidenma Foundation (GJF)
to celebrate the legacy of the late Arc
Godwin Nwaolisa Jidenma.
He
said, “Nigeria has failed to achieve intensive and
effective economic growth because the country’s economy is managed mostly on an
ad-hoc, reactive basis. It is a ‘survival’ economy in which most governments
have had no real economic vision or a strategy to execute such a vision
successfully. Most damaging, there is little interrogation of either received
wisdom based on global economic policy “fashions” or of the country’s own
policy assumptions that are consistently long on populism and short on
substance.”
He
further reiterated that Nigeria’s fundamental conundrum lies in striking a
balance between the role of the state and the market in a quest for sustainable
economic growth and development.
“Our path to economic growth is challenged by the failure to build
the necessary foundations for prosperity in a liberal capitalist economy.
Nigeria moved into financial liberalization without achieving the required
minimum threshold of industrialization — which is what drives economic
transformation. Finance does not play the optimal role it should in Nigeria’s
economic development and the three factors of production – land, capital, and
labour are out of synchronization in our economy,” Professor Moghalu
emphasized.
The
Goddy Jidenma Foundation Public Lecture, which is meant to elevate public
speaking, includes other activities to promote ethical leadership initiatives
and self-discovery among Nigerian youths, including thought-leadership
discussions that would contribute significantly to the socio-economic
development of Nigeria and Africa. (Guardian)
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