Nwodo: Nigeria’s Present Political System Constrains Economic Development, National Prosperity
The Founder of XL Africa Group Limited, Charles Nwodo Jnr, argues that there is need to restructure Nigeria’s present political system, which according to him prevents the attainment of any meaningful progress towards national transformation and socio-economic prosperity. He also proposes the setting up of what he called the Nigeria Force for Good, which will negotiate a reconfigured Nigeria’s political system with President Bola Tinubu, the leadership of the All Progressives Congress and the other two main parties that constitute the Nigeria political class, for the benefit of the growing army of young people across the country. Obinna Chima and Dike Onwuamaeze bring the excerpts:
hat is your view about the current state of the Nigerian economy?
The Nigerian economy is clearly challenged more than ever before and I am sympathetic towards those charged with the management of the economy at this time, from the president and his economic management team to the teams at the subnational levels like the Governors and Local Government Chairmen. On the one hand there is huge public expectation which is understandable for several reasons but on the other hand there is the reality which is defined by multiple headwinds in the form of local and external problems with many beyond our control. Internally, we have problems in the areas of unsustainable debt service provisions, excessive and growing costs of governance, accumulated de-industrial is at ion leading to undue reliance on oil and gas export as main forex revenue source, high level and growing unemployment, and income inequality, reduced forex inflows, huge infrastructure gaps, unattractively high rates of interest and inflation, unstable exchange rates and widespread insecurity and sporadic cases of ethnic and regional agitations. The list goes on. Externally, but impacting our local environment are issues like the Russia-Ukraine war and the attendant supply chain, financial system and commodity challenges, the Middle East crisis, climate change issues including erosion, flooding, desertification, aqua-marine dislocation and the impacts on agriculture value chain, and displacement of households and communities. In the light of the foregoing, this is certainly not the best of times to be the Minister of Finance, or the Governor of CBN so both Wale Edun and Yemi Cardoso do have my sympathy. But then there is something called the Nigerian spirit that is typified by resilience, tenacity, never say never, hope in the face of hopelessness and an indomitable can-do spirit which offers me confidence that the future is bright for Nigeria and that the policies of the current administration will ultimately propel us away from the current despair to increased and sustainable socio economic development provided that the right things are done.
What do you think are the right things to be done?
First and foremost, we need to dispel the long-held notion that Nigeria is a rich country. Many of our countrymen and women and some in critical public sector positions are beholden to this view and therefore carry on without consideration for prudence and accountability in the management of delegated responsibilities and even in our private activities. Nigerians should know that we are not a rich country based upon all the acceptable indices of economic progress. Do we have resource endowments and potential for greatness? Yes, we do. But having resource endowment and a large population do not necessarily mean that we are a rich country. A Nigeria with a mono product economy that accounts for 80-85 percent of export earnings cannot be described as rich. A Nigeria without an industrial base , without adequate and stable power supply, with over 20 million out of school children , with 63 percent of the population mired in multi-dimensional poverty, with GDP per capita ranked at number 21 in Africa, with a Gini coefficient (measure of income inequality) of 35% or 11th in West Africa, is not a rich country and our citizens need to come to terms with this truth as a starting point to our redemption. Nigeria may host the richest persons in Africa, but Nigeria also hosts the poorest persons in Africa and perhaps the poorest persons in the world if we believe recent media reports to that effect. From the hard statistics about Nigeria, it is clear that to even support the current population level and fill existing gaps in national revenue and domestic productivity we must do much more than has been the case in our recent history but to position Nigeria as the economic powerhouse that our founding fathers envisioned, demands that we do the extraordinary and think outside the box in all respects. Our leaders need to familiarise themselves fully with the dire statistics on the state of our nation and I sincerely hope when they do so, the required sobriety, sanity, diligence and a sense of urgency and sacrificial disposition will be embraced by our leaders at all levels. Above all we must seek extraordinary and unorthodox solutions to dig ourselves out of the hole in which we have found ourselves. As an aside, the unflattering situation recommends that the government and people of Nigeria should celebrate with accolades all of us who set up and operate legitimate businesses in Nigeria, because believe me it is tough, very tough to operate here. When I see our leaders, especially the current president, travelling to different countries to pitch for foreign investments, I am perplexed because I think the audience for such pitches should be fellow Nigerians who have invested in Nigeria. The government should do more to improve the ease of doing business environment urgently and significantly in the realisation that it is far easier to get already invested Nigerian entrepreneurs to expand or diversify their operations for the benefit of job creation and improved productivity than to persuade foreigners to come to Nigeria and establish. I mean this is not rocket science, is it? Nigerians are some of the most enterprising and resourceful people in we the have world, found but the over situation the years, where and across it seems different that our administrations, government officials and agencies of our governments operate with the mindset to frustrate local businesses and businessmen, and this is partly to blame for some of the problems we have in Nigeria today. In my view, it is important for us (the leaders and the led) to come to come to a consensus on what needs to be done for Nigeria to achieve the kind of destiny that we have the resources to achieve at least if not for our