Dogara: What Nigeria must do to end recession
Only innovation can sustain the coming rebound in this country after the economic recession,Speaker of the House of Representatives Yakubu Dogara said in Abuja yesterday. Dogara, who was the special guest of honour at the 14th Daily Trust Annual Dialogue, said for Nigeria to get out of the current economic recession, all stakeholders must put heads together in order to proffer reasonable solutions.
He said, “All hands must be on deck. Other nations have passed through Recession, Depression and even Great Depression and came out of it even stronger. We must develop a great sense of national purpose and resolve.”
Dogara also said that he believed the country would soon be out of recession with the Economic Recovery Programme measures being put in place by government.
The speaker, whose keynote address dwelled on the theme of the dialogue ‘Beyond Recession: Towards a Resilient Economy,’ said Nigeria’s post recession markets must be competitive for the country to realize her full potential. He said, “Only innovation can sustain the coming economic rebound. Innovation is so central to a competitive economy. Anyone who out-innovates you will out-compete you. Our post recession markets must be competitive if they must yield to their full potentials.”
He also said, “I am optimistic that with the Economic Recovery Programme measures being put in place by Government which I understand will soon be launched by the Executive, coupled with those planned in the 2017 budget, the economy will move out of recession not long from now. In this regard, even the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in its recent World Economic Outlook released on Monday, January 16, 2017 said that economic activities and growth projections for Nigeria in 2017 is 0.8%, based on higher oil production as well as likely improved price of crude at the international market. Therefore, it is significant that we are also looking at what needs to be done beyond the recession to put the economy on a sustainable development trajectory. I commend the organisers for their foresight in looking ahead.”
Speaker Dogara said the National Assembly had aligned with the executive arm to turn around the economy by focusing on priorities that would make maximum impact on economic recovery and respectable growth. “Undertakings must compete and must not collude. The relationship between competition and innovation is such that if you do not compete, you can’t innovate and if you don’t innovate, you cannot compete. To this end, the National Assembly will soon complete work on a Federal Competition Commission Bill, a bill I am personally promoting as the sponsor which, if signed into law, will lead to efficient allocation of resources and deliver allocative, dynamic and productive efficiencies in our markets,” he said.
Dogara said for Nigeria’s economic growth to be sustained after the recession, certain tools must be developed, saying “Over the years governments have paid lip service to the question of diversification of the economy’s resource base and especially the development of agriculture as well as solid minerals.” He said Nigeria had many good economic development plans in the past but that the leaders failed to put the country on the pathway of growth and economic prosperity. “There is no shred of evidence in our history that shows any of the governments since Lord Lugard ever planned to fail or did not plan to succeed. As a matter of fact, all the governments have always had plans and in most cases those plans were drawn by some of the best brains available. But why did we fail?”
The speaker said coming up with a plan is not hard but sticking to the plan until it is fully implemented is the main issue. “What is there in a plan if it is not fully implemented? Why do we love to waste resources to plan but hate to implement the plans? We must muster the discipline to overcome this shortcoming if we must sustain the coming economic rebound.” On attracting foreign investments, Dogara said if the government could not protect the lives of its citizens, it “cannot protect the investments of foreigners and therefore is totally incapable of attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).”
“Can we truly begin to talk of ease of doing business in Nigeria when you can be kidnapped or killed at will by mindless criminals or terrorists otherwise known as unidentified gunmen? Can we find an investor out there who is willing to do business with his life? No group makes rational choices and decisions like investors.”
Agriculture, he said, remains not only the highest employer of the nation’s workforce but possesses the greatest potential for job creation and sustenance. “The government must muster the political will to effectively deploy resources to raise productivity in the agricultural sector. A notable aspect of modernization of agriculture is the encouragement and adoption of technology enhancing approaches to make the sector attractive to young people and generate decent income and employment. Of course this cannot be achieved without the deliberate strengthening of Development Finance Institutions such as Bank of Agriculture.” He said in a post recession economy, there would be the need to have monetary policy that works in harmony with fiscal policy.
The speaker also said the tax effort in Nigeria was law and that non-oil taxation was a fairly predictable source of revenue, “which has the features of stability and predictability and is the dominant source of financing development.” He added, “At the centre of it all, we must have visionary leadership and good governance. Good governance that will tackle corruption; good governance that will diversify the economy and give agriculture, solid minerals etc their rightful places; good governance that will resolve the energy crises and jump-start the much needed industrial revolution; good governance that will eliminate the paradox of being a major oil producer and by the same breath a major importer of refined petroleum products.”