SOLVING THE ECONOMIC CHALLENGE

SOLVING THE ECONOMIC CHALLENGE
Patrick Osadebamwen

Nigeria as a country has enormous reserve of human and natural resources. Nature, favours the country’s climatic condition and geography. Unfortuantely, the nation has been crippled by lack of focused leadership. The sixth world largest producer of oil is plagued by poverty. Inspite of her abundance, poverty has taken a strong grip of Nigeria’s population. Her men and women have employed various guise to beg on the streets of it capitals to make enough for food. It will be totally wrong to conclude that all these able bodied youths who besiege us daily on the streets for assistance are lazy. Some may be, but a significant number of them are not; they are frustrated law abiding members who wouldnot submit themselves to the abhorable act of crimes. They prefer to suffer the humiliation of being seen as begger than to be criminals.
The consequence of this situation is replete across the country with waves of violence that have dominated the landscape in recent times. Angry youth, who cannot withstand the pressure of lack in the midst of plenty have unleashed various degrees of violence on the nation as a means to draw the attention of government to the inherent deprivation which we all suffer. Militant acivities in the Niger Delta region rage, while religious fanaticism in the north takes a new turn rejecting western education. These actions have caused untold hardship to victims taken unawares in the imbroglio. For the angry youths it vents their level of frustrations suffered in the hands of the system that ordinarily would minister to their needs through job creation and other social welfare services. Many of those caught in between these fightings are innocent citizens, who bare the same brunt of the hardship but choose to be law abiding. Their offence at such unpredictable moment of unleashed aggression was that they were out on their respective legitimate business activities.
Experts and public commentators have connected the gamut of these problems to the impact of poverty and the consequence of hunger. One can easily be swayed to this line of argument. Hunger thrives in the land of plenty. Admittedly, Nigeria is not the only country with the challenge of poverty, as poverty is not peculiar to Nigeria. It occurs in many countries of the world. However, it must be noted that Nigeria’s earning from oil offers her citizenry great economic advantage. Yet, dearth dominates the struggle of the masses, whose wealth has been cornered by a privileged few atop the social ladder. This development bred an army of poor people, rightly or wrongly statistcally represented at 70 percent of the population. It makes her share a place in the world of the poorest of the poor nations. Concerns, over the need to cater for the needs of the poor population of the world dominated world summits and conferences in the 1990s.
Sequel to this, the world came together in September 2000 to combat the scorge of extreme poverty as part of the various faces of development challenge that faced the globe. Nigeria was among 147 countries of the world that signed the document that is generally refered to as the Millenium Development Goal, MDGs, to be achieved by 2015.
The eigtht line of action was led by the need to Eradicate Extreme Poverty and hunger. The others are to Achieve universal primary education; Promote gender equality and empower women; Improve maternal health; Reduce child mortality; Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; Ensure environmental sustainability and Develop a Global Partnership for Development.
As popular as the MDGs has become in the lips of government officials, the effect is yet to be felt in the lives of Nigerians at the grassroot for whom global partnership was initiated by the United Nation. Five years ahead of the 2015 target for attainment of the target, Nigeria can still make an impact, if it focuses on the two critical sectors that would trigger successful achievement of the Goal one of the MDG with positive impact on the entire goals with significant impact on goals 2, 5, 6 and 7.
No one contest the importance of the power sector in a modern economy where Nigeria hopes to play an active role. Adequate power generation and stability would trigger the growth of many businesses that depend on power supply. Producers and manufactures would reduce their production cost especially those incured by hours of powering generators to have electicity to produce or manufacture their products. Labour for these various business outfits would be needed thus creating employment. Our streets would be free of social menace because idle minds and hands are tasked to work to earn a legitimate income and proudly earn a living.
With the power question being answered agriculture too should be developed along side power. While the nation is has electricity to power its factories agriculture would provide food and raw materials for the manufacturing sector of the economy. Excess food production which has characterized farm produce annually would attract business men to set up factories that would add value to the various farm produce that have been produced to waste due to excess production without processing machines to add value to them. Agriculture has proved to be the major source of raw materials for industrial production. The fact that agriculture does not require much skill like other fields it would easily absorbed the army of unskilled youths, who would readily find a place in this area. Commercial farming would service the various factories with raw materials for production and expand the employment opportunity for the youths.
The federal government would benefit from this development. Tax opporunity would expand when new factories are built to respond to various products and service demand in the economy. This will expand the tax revenue for the Federal Inland Revenue Service. More revenue would translate to more economic boom for the federal government to attend to social services, in the areas of health public utilities and Infrastructures. This may not be acheve in one swoop. All that is needed is some level of commitment from the leadership to commence the project. Any genuine execution of this plan would undoubtedly yield some visible results. It will show the path to development. Nigerians would be inspired by any such moves that points at tru development. There will be no need for media campaing for mobilisation to join hands on the new initiative of growth. The desire for development will originate a sense of patriotism which would move action. Nigeria subscribes to the content of the MDGs. What the people have read about the MDG and it planned target of 2015 may be unrealistic here in our clime. There seem a wide gap between media publicity and project design and implementation. At least am an unemployed adult seeking just enough to eat. This, demonstrate failure of my government to adequately address goal one of the MDG; eradication of extreme poverty. How difficult is it for the PDP and government of President Umaru Yar’adua to achieve this?