Prior to the end of 2022, the World Bank has predicted a 3.3 per cent to 3.2 per cent drop in Nigeria’s economy for 2023.
Also on the global stage, the World Bank Group President David Malpass in a report, warned nation’s of the world to prepare for a global recession following reoccurring increase of interest rates.
As it is at the moment, the nation’s economic realities does not look anything near good, daily, the purchasing power of the majority keeps reducing drastically while the exchange rates does less to help the situation.
The last yuletide celebration was one which further reminded many Nigerians that we are in a dire situation which requires urgent attention. It leads us to a bigger question, for how long do we have to continue like this?
The key to solving our national economy woes lies in our ability to create a sustainable growing economy for ourselves and this can only be heralded by creating a revolution which will see us look inward to creating sustainable wealth for ourselves.
It’s high time, we one and for all stop the blame game, we have spent the last few decades blaming past colonial leaders among other factors as the reason for our recurring economic woes.
Right around us lies the answers to our solutions, at the earliest stage of our education, as little children during our primary education, one of the first things we were introduced to, was the peculiarities attached to each state in terms of mineral/natural resources.
Then we were taught, gold, lead/zinc could be found in Abia State; that Enugu was the home of coal; the vast amount of Bitumen that could be found in Ondo; and the wealth of gold which could be unearthed in Zamfara among other resources found in other states of the Federation.
This realities implies one thing, and that is, why we suffer daily, while our children remain jobless and the dearth of our lack of infrastructures become more worrisome, we go to bed each day sleeping on a earth which houses great resources enough to fully change our lives.
It’s hard to explain this as our story could be likened to the proverbial son of the cloth merchant who wears nothing but rags.
More worrisome is the dearth of our human resources which we could have gainfully harnessed to leading an industrial revolution which is capable of rewriting our history.
It’s high time, we take the initiative to looking inward, using our indigenous resources to creating wealth, it’s time for the North to add value to agriculture and animal raring. There are researches and valid templates which we can engage to push this.
It’s high time we as a nation look beyond crude oil to seeking valid alternatives to developing our economy wits.
The solutions are all around us, vast majority nowadays seek political power, however I am highly confident that we as a nation would do better if we see more emergence of industrialist and economic power holders.
Failure to do the needful will only see us fall back into another decade of failing economic realities which will no doubt spell doom for us and the generations to come.
Dr. Femi Akinkuebi
Managing Director
Ore Industrial Park
