25112020 - Selfish Northerners opposing restructuring, says el-Rufai

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Nigeria's poverty capital status:
Solution (2)
LAST week, I discussed the
menace of poverty which
now seems to have been woven
into the fabric of Nigeria’s
existence. I noted that as at the
'50s and '60s when subsistence
farming was widely practised,
Nigeria was segregated into
mainly two classes consisting of
the White men, the Obas and
Chiefs who were generally
referred to as the upper class,
while other Nigerians remained
in the lower class. I equally
noted that by the '80s, an
entirely new crop of societal
organogram emerged: the
super-rich, the politicians, the
tycoons, the middle class
consisting of civil servants and
professionals, the workers, the
poor, and the very poor.
Without a doubt, the steady
increase in the disparity
between the very rich and the
very poor in Nigeria has its
roots in the discovery of crude
oil. The analogy is quite simple:
when a vast majority of
Nigerians practised an agrarian
lifestyle, poverty was never an
issue. However, the discovery
of oil, amongst other related
factors, led to the emergence of
a new class, creating a parallel
line between the poor and the
rich in the society. Perhaps, the
solution to Nigeria’s poverty
crises is the re-introduction of
medium and large-scale
farming, coupled with adequate
support from government. This
will not only ensure a greater
capacity in food production, but
will equally increase the
revenue generated from the
sale and export of farm produce.
Agriculture as the mainstay
of the Nigerian economy
Before the discovery of oil,
Nigeria, which is blessed with
mineral deposits of all types
including tin, gold, coal and
many other minerals, earned
appreciable income from the
aforementioned minerals. The
tin, gold, coal fields were
abandoned following the
discovery of oil. During the First
Republic, Agriculture was the
mainstay of the economy. The
North had cotton, groundnuts
and other products. The East
and the Southwest had palm oil
and cocoa, respectively. With
revenue generated from these
products, the regional
governments were able to cater
to the needs of their regions.
They embarked upon
programmes which impacted
positively on the populace. In
the Southwest, buildings such
as the Cocoa House in Ibadan
and the magnificent structures
of the University of Ife (now
Obafemi Awolowo University)
are eternal reminders of the
prosperity of that era. However,
with the increased production
of oil and the huge revenue
which it attracted, successive
Nigerian governments and the
military ones in particular soon
began to pay less attention to
the need for sustainable
agricultural policies. Such was
the country’s newly found
comfort that an entire civil war
was prosecuted without any
external borrowing of funds.
Unfortunately, instead of
refining the crude oil which was
in high demand because of the
quality, we exported the crude
oil which was refined overseas
by European countries and we
imported the refined products
at a higher price and also
purchased the by-product of the
crude oil exported by us.
Because of the price of crude
oil at that time, we had excess
money, so much so that
government increased the
salaries of government workers
and even paid one year arrears.
There was so much money
going round among
A return to agriculture
has become imperative;
the return to an agrarian
lifestyle will, no doubt,
bridge the everwidening
gap between
the rich and the poor in
the society
government workers that the
farmers were induced to come
to the cities as labourers and cart
pullers. Government even told
the world that the problem of
Nigeria was not money but how
to spend it!!!
The cart pullers and labourers
who were attracted to the town
by easy money going around in
the town became more
comfortable than their
colleagues who remained on the
farms. That was the beginning
of the abandonment of farming
which led to reduction in
production of raw materials
and, of course, a big drain on
our foreign reserves. Nigeria
had to import food items which
we were producing before the
introduction of IMF which
further complicated matters as
naira depreciated in value.
Unemployment crept in and
poverty skyrocketed.
Consequently, the unemployed
and those who could not feed
themselves or even rent houses
started to beg. Firstly, in corners
but lately openly at burials,
weddings, chieftaincy
installations, churches,
mosques, birthday parties and
now on the highways. Recently,
the few who made money from
oil and imported goods formed
a new class of super rich. The
gap between the rich and the
poor is becoming wider by the
day. We now have extremely
rich people and extremely poor
people.
Poverty-induced societal ills
The widening gap between
the rich and the poor has
naturally come at a cost. It has,
for example, brought about with
it a devaluation of societal
values, as those without the
means of getting rich
legitimately have devised other
means of meeting up with their
rich counterparts. This accounts
for the rise in vice and crimes
such as armed robbery,
kidnapping, oil bunkering and
pipeline vandalisation, drug
smuggling, internet fraud, etc.
Every year, Nigeria is
continually listed amongst the
most corrupt and crime-ridden
countries. Many businesses
cannot hope to survive or thrive
without having to resort to
corrupt practices. Sometime
ago, a foreign investor who left
Nigeria attributed its decision
to the prevalence of corruption.
Things have become so bad that
one cannot but see comparisons
between our present state and
the words of Ayn Rand in her
novel Atlas Shrugged,
published in 1957, where she
wrote the following: “When you
see that in order to produce, you
need to obtain permission from
men who
produce
nothing.
When you see
that money is
flowing to
those who
deal, not in
goods, but in
favours.
When you see
that men get
richer by graft
and by pull
than by work,
and your laws
don’t protect
you against
them, but
protect them
against you,
when you see
corruption
b e i n g
rewarded and
honesty
becoming a
self-sacrifice,
you may
know that
your society
is doomed.”
Agriculture
is the
solution
It is
common
knowledge
that the first
profession
ordained by
God was
agriculture.
The great
countries of
the world,
including
Canada,
USA, Brazil,
Argentina,
European
Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2020 — 17
countries, Russia, China, month alone was due to the
Australia, New Zealand, etc., drastic fall of the price of oil as
give pride of place to well as the inability of the
agriculture. Most of the country to meet its production
wealthy citizens of these quota due to production losses
countries are farmers. The first arising from the shutdown of
wealthy Nigerians I grew up to trunk lines and pipeline
know were farmers. They vandalism at the various export
acquired their wealth from terminals. To further compound
proceeds from cocoa, palm oil, matters, it has already been
palm kernel, rubber, cotton, predicted that current oil
groundnut, etc. Gone are the depositories may become
days when the road between exhausted in less than 50
Ibadan and Lagos were laced years’ time. Also, with the
on both sides with cocoa advent of the COVID-19
plantation. The roads from Ado- pandemic which generally
Ekiti to Ilesa, or Ilesa to Ibadan, occasioned a collapse in the
or Ibadan to Ijebu-Ode through price of oil globally, there is an
Gambari were not left out. The urgent need to consider other
foreigners from US and Europe potent solutions, with
who visited Nigeria often agriculture being the most
wondered why Nigeria has vast viable.
underdeveloped land Therefore, for Nigeria to
overgrown with green thrive in the coming years, we
vegetation. Yet Nigeria orders must either begin serious
maize from far away Argentina exploratory activities to discover
to feed poultry farms. Nigeria fresh oil deposits or we must put
imports rice worth several in place urgent plans to
billions of naira annually. At the diversify the revenue base of the
moment it is estimated that only economy. However, even with
12 per cent of arable land in the discovery of new oil
Nigeria is cultivated, while the deposits, Nigeria will continue
remainder are not utilised. to retain a greater percentage
However, it was only a matter of the poor who will enjoy no
of time before we realised that direct benefit from the oil
we could not depend entirely discovery. This is where a return
on oil-based revenue. In to agriculture becomes
September 2015, the severity of imperative. The return to an
the situation was brought home agrarian lifestyle will, no doubt,
when N502.09 billion was bridge the ever-widening gap
received as revenue, an amount between the rich and the poor
lower than the N 601.05 billion in the society.
received in August 2015. This
decline of N99.55 billion in one
To be continued