Patriotism With Usman: Between Economic Growth And Development, The Patriotic Option
Economic growth can be referred to as a quantitative increase or change in the overall economic indices of a country. Basically it means more of the same goods and services which can be influenced by a rise in population and rise in products per labor force at sustained levels.
A country can witness economic growth without necessarily witnessing development. This is because the market value of all the products and services produced by a country in a year, which is a country’s Gross National Product (GNP), may increase simply with a rise in price of her exports even when no change may have taken place in the conditions of her citizenry.
Development on the other hand can be defined as a qualitative change in the economy of a country. By qualitative change it is meant positive change that improves the standard of living of the people. Actual development is reflected in the structural transformation of the social, economic, political and cultural aspects of the citizenry.
It is possible for a country to have economic growth but may not experience development. This is because majority of the citizens may still be living below the poverty line with high unemployment figures and low per capita income.
Economic growth enables the economy to produce more goods and services over time, not necessarily serving to increase living standards. It can occur in an
economy but can be marked by high inequality where the growth of capital may not extend to majority of the population. In a situation like Nigeria where there is a high population, economic growth may not lead to development. The present scenario where our major export commodity (Crude oil) has crashed to all time lows in the international market, there cannot be economic growth talk much less of transforming the growth into development.
Nigeria is richly blessed in material and human resources. Apart from mineral wealth of which oil and gas resources are more prominent, it is blessed with rich agricultural lands capable of sustaining a wide variety of crops. With a population of One hundred and seventy million, it has a great domestic market potential.
Despite the tremendous growth in the economy in the previous years due to the high prices of crude oil, poverty and underdevelopment only increased. The main reason for this was that the strategies adopted in Nigeria for development have faced a history of corruption and lack of dedication on the part of the leaders.
Thus we find Nigeria in a situation of “refusing to develop” it can probably be said that the leaders think of development in terms of economic growth without much emphasis on the improvement of the people’s standard of living. The implication of this being the dwindling of all institutions in the Nigerian society.
The strategies adopted in Nigeria with the hope of transforming economic growth to development have failed largely due to political instability that characterized the history of the country. In addition, development programs like the green revolution, operation feed the nation, DFFRI, Structural Adjustment Program, vision 2000, Family Support Program (FSP), Vision 2010, Poverty Alleviation Program, Poverty Reduction Program, Poverty Eradication Program, Sure-P, You Win Program among others, have not made the desired impact on the masses of this country as a result of corruption and lack of dedication on the part of successive leaders.
A look at the past and present will help us understand the implications better. At independence, Nigeria was more of an agrarian economy with the exportation of cocoa, groundnut, rubber, cotton, palm produce, hides and skin accounting for the bulk of our foreign earnings. Apart from these, export of minerals such as tin, columbite and coal played important roles in racking in revenue for the nation.
With the commencement of exportation of crude oil, the country’s export and revenue profiles were greatly increased. Oil became the most important export commodity accounting for over 90 percent of all revenues accruing to the country leading to increased growth in the economy. The sad thing about this was that all other commodities which hitherto provided the export earnings became gradually neglected in the stead of being used to augment our income generation capabilities.
This surplus growth (income) in the economy was not invested and the agricultural sector was abandoned for the more vibrant oil sector.
Today, the international price of crude oil has fallen to below US$30 a barrel. The country has therefore run into serious problem because of the dependence on one commodity to the detriment of the abundant resources deposited under our soil. The government has no other option but to come up with alternative ways of increasing the revenue profile of the country in order to finance the 2016 budget.
Already some steps such as the implementation of the Tresury Single Account (TSA) and the fifty Naira (50) stamp duty on all deposits in excess of one thousand Naira seem to be coming to the rescue. The fight against corruption and the plugging of leakages in the system have also come to the rescue. Adequate measures such as these are the only remedies preventing the country from becoming one of the poorest African countries. Already the per capita income is below US$200 yet the price of the dollar is steadily rising in the alternate market.
These clearly aren’t the best of times for our country and all these happened because economic growth was misconstrued by our leaders as development so
adequate arrangements were not made to invest the gains from economic growth.
The implications of this being
– The depletion of the national treasury along with the accumulation of huge budgetary deficits
– The reinforcement of the country’s fiscal crisis by a huge external and domestic debt burden.
– Increased social differentiation and inequality with a majority of the populace falling deeper into poverty and a minority sinking in affluence.
– Group violence in sorting ethnic and religious differences
– Reduction of the value of the Nigerian currency
– Decline in the national productive base
– Commercialization of politics
– Incessant Domestic Petroleum price hike and scarcity
– Rural urban migration yet no jobs
– Steady Collapse of most national infrastructure
– Distrust between Nigeria and their rulers
– The free fall of the Naira has in-turn undermined the industrial and agricultural base of the economy?
– Dumping of the agricultural sector and dependence solely on the oil and gas sector
– Increased crime rates
– Increased unemployment and technological dependence.
For the nation to develop, it has to translate its economic growth into development by way of improving the living standards of the people. There is need for macroeconomic stability for economic growth to translate into development or better still, sustainable development.
With an annual economic growth of about 6%, the patriotic option available to our leaders is to utilize proceeds from this growth to ensure sustainable development. This way, Nigeria will witness a massive expansion in primary, secondary and tertiary education, National healthcare, electricity, transportation and telecommunications will be expanded. Not only will increases occur in living standards of citizens, the per capita income and average life expectancy will rise and infant mortality rates will fall. Progress will also be made in the creation of a national market built on a steadily growing domestic consumer purchasing power especially as we have the population.
In conclusion, it can be said that despite the economic growth witnessed by Nigeria in the past decades, it has not been transformed into development
because of corruption, cluelessness and selfishness on the part of the leaders.
What obtained was the opposite even when they had all the opportunity to pick the patriotic option.
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