The tale of the thin cow and the fat cow: Thought on Nigeria’s economic implosion
I begin this write-up with a short tale: two men- say A and B were both given a fortune apiece; to A was given a thin cow and to B, a fat cow. Upon receiving his gift, B started reaping great rewards [from his cow], going straight into production while A took some time to assess the state of his newly acquired gift. So, while B was working his cow to give more produce, A was working on his (thin) cow, and in the course of time, A’s cow gained more weight, becoming as huge as B’s cow. Eventually, A’s production line began to take a surge while B suffered a decline in production. Here is the thing: while B failed to develop his ‘estate’, rather depending on its innate production capability, A took time to develop his venture and ended up building sustainable business overtime.
Let me bring this home; I have, on different occasions, read of how the Nigerian economy was thriving in the past. Nigeria was- and I believe it still is- so blessed that it extended a helping to other nations without having to be in debt but in no time, gross mismanagement has since the nation’s economy plummet and managing to keep its head above the water. I could recall reading about how vast Nigeria was in the oil palm production and exploration: prior to 1934, Nigeria was well ahead of Malaysia in oil palm production but in the space of about four (4) decades, the Asian country did not only overtake Nigeria in production but also became a major exporter of the crop, and this happened after British administrators- the ones governing the nation then- gifted some Nigeria’s oil palm seeds to Malaysia. Till this very moment, the oil palm sector is yet to be resuscitated as we keep watching it become a shadow of itself.
Again, in the aspect of crude oil exploration, we are not really making the most of all the byproducts obtainable from this natural resource, and this is simply due to the fact that the crude oil is processed in refineries outside the shores of the country. Furthermore, crude oil exportation has now been negatively affected as countries- Peru, Japan, United Kingdom and some other European countries- that used to be major importers of crude oil from Nigeria have found the U.S as a more fitting partner. It should be recalled that U.S itself used to be a major importer of crude oil from Nigeria [and Africa] but ever since it has been recording an improved oil production rate, there is hardly any reason to keep importing the resource from this part of the world. Plus, the idea of using bio-fuel to power automobiles is now gaining more grounds as the days roll by. Hence, Nigeria ought to wake up and start fashioning out other ways of sustaining her economy.
Where the problem lies
On the periphery, it is very obvious to see that the overreliance on crude oil has been our greatest undoing. We kept on ‘milking’ the earth of the natural substance without creating something that will be sustainable enough to hold the land in a whole piece. But more indepthly, the lack of visionary leadership has brought us to where we are today. What we keep witnessing is a scenario whereby different administrations come on board and leave some critical areas and/or resources untapped. The agricultural sector which was the mainstay of our economy [back in the 80’s] is still struggling to regain prominence; industries and government-run refineries [for crude oil] are nearly non-existent.
In seeking a lasting solution, we need not get too technical; the burgeoning oil sector should be used in consolidating other sectors that are functioning below par in order to build a ‘well-oiled’ economy that can stand the test of time. Nigeria has everything- both natural and human resources- it needs to be counted among nations with sustainable economy- it is quite pathetic to see an economy rated as the third fastest growing in the world in 2014 grappling for survival almost four (4) years later.
Though we may still have the crude oil in abundance but should the trend of overly depending on crude oil [and overlooking other areas] continue, we may end up ‘thinning out’ the wealth of the nation and have nothing tangible to fall back on in the future.