According to the ‘Economist’, Nigeria displays
(truly) the characteristics of a dual economy - a modern sector heavily
dependent on oil earnings overlays a traditional agricultural and trading
economy.
During the colonial era, cash crops were introduced,
harbours, railways and roads were developed, and a market for consumer
goods began to emerge.
At independence in 1960 agriculture accounted for
well over half of our Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and was the main
source of export earnings and public revenue, with the agricultural
marketing boards playing a leading role, but today this leading role
in the economy has been taken over by the national oil company, the
Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC).
According to the Central Bank of Nigeria’s data
(2003), Oil still accounts for our major revenue (gearing towards 80%)
and almost 100% of our export earnings.
Although Agriculture (particularly forestry, livestock
and fishing) is shown to serve as the major activity of the majority
of Nigerians; it is clear that we indulge in agriculture purely as personal
survival strategies rather than as a calculated effort to warming the
engine of our countries economy.
This is really where our National economic problem
lies.
The gospel of economic salvation cannot be preached
without due regard to agricultural development. Agriculture is the major
and most certain path to economic growth and sustainability.
It encompasses all aspect of human activities - being
the art, act, a cultural necessity and science of production of goods
through cultivation of land and management of plants and animals which
creates an activity web-chain that satisfies social and economic needs.
Agriculture is the mainstay of mankind; therefore
wise nations all over the globe give it a priority by developing and
exploiting this sector for the upkeep of their teeming populations through
the earning of revenue for development purposes; as well as employment
for the stemming down crimes, corruption and other forms of indiscipline
which work against all factors of life, living and most of all economic
production.
While many nations in the world are working hard
and reaping their harvests in this direction, Nigeria happens to belong
among the few that have greatly retarded from their past glorious heights
in agriculture, down to a near zero scale of agricultural production.
Surely, this neglect is because of irresponsible
and ill-purposeful leadership.
With an expansive landmass covering 923.771km2, an
estimated arable land of about 68 million hectare; abundance of natural
forest and rangeland covering 37 million hectares.
Varieties of livestock and wide life, an agricultural
friendly climate, coastal and marine resources of over 960km shoreline,
expansive rivers and lakes covering 120,000 square kilometre and large
consumer market as depicted by National population of over 120 million
in 1991 (now estimated to be about 200million). Large regional and continental
markets, as well as the ever increasing world market exist for the reaping
of the potentials that agriculture can offer any economy.
Nigeria has great agricultural potentials that will
outpace oil and gas on the long run.
That not withstanding, the country has had a history
of agricultural prowess in the past, so, if it could work then, it surely
will work better now, if judiciously and positively articulated.
This is only possible if our oil-misdirected governments
can start looking inwardly for other sources of revenue other than oil
with an honest bid to boost agricultural production.
The importance of Agriculture cannot generally be
over-emphasised in Africa or particularly in Nigeria. With poverty having
finally taken resident permit in Nigeria in - although we were warned
against it by Professor Pat Utomi in 2003, we cannot get out of it today
by just relying on oil and gas. We cannot pretend to neglect the importance
of Agriculture in the economic forward-wheeling of our nation.
World Bank (2003) data show that more than 70% of
Nigerians live below poverty line (which is less than a dollar per day),
implying that there has been an astronomical growth in the levels of
poverty of Nigerians from Independence to today.
This is something we all should be ashamed of, yet
it is a situation that can be remedied.
Nigeria is blessed with a wide variety of agricultural
potentials, ranging from varieties of crops to varieties of animals
and plants and natural agricultural-supportive factors like forests,
waters, sands and most of all human resources that are being under-used
(or not even used as at now).
We have it all, yet we lack it all; and that is why
we are hungry in the face of plenty to eat.
How can our Nation grow well if we cannot cultivate
and manufacture our own food?
How do we intend to carter for the ever growing Nigeria
population if we cannot confidently feed them to face life’s ever
trying activities?
For instance, it is well known that the level of
animal protein consumption per individual in Nigeria is very low - the
reason being that not much of attention has been placed in this area.
With the increasing awareness of Nigerians on the
need to take at least one egg per day (with population projected to
be gearing towards 200 million) our animal protein intake per head is
grossly low.
But how many Nigerians can afford to put an egg (which
is truly viewed as a luxury good) on their tables without necessarily
opting for ‘garri’ (which truly will be more satisfying to the stomach
and is therefore viewed as a core necessity)?
Check it this way: an egg will cost an average Nigerian
about N20 (about 16% of a $1) to buy; considering that an egg cannot
be considered to be a ‘main course’ but just an a ‘value-added’
to the main food, an average Nigerian (who practically lives under N130
or $1 per day) therefore cannot afford an egg every day and must fall
back completely to ‘garri’ which provides more succour, taste and
flavour (but surely less nutritive value).
That our masses therefore cannot afford eggs to eat
is part of why we should be ashamed of our oil-bugged economy.
Our inability to have good meal is what increased
the craze for buying embalmed chicken imported from other parts of the
world (thanks to Dr. Dorah Akunyili’s war) for our meals, thereby
poisoning our systems and our mentalities. However, while the present
government wisely and rationally banned the importation of these chicken
corpses, nothing has been truly put in place to practically encourage
poultry and other kinds of farming in this country.
At times, one wonders if President Olusegun Obasanjo
thinks that the more than 3,000,000 eggs/day production output from
his Otta farm will serve the entire Nigeria.
Efforts to encourage the Nigerian farmer with finance
and other agricultural incentives have only given individuals and corporate
bodies with political loyalty to the reigning government access to exploiting
the ordinary farmers. Such incentives usually get to false-farmers who
use the fund for something else other than for agricultural purposes.
Since transparency is lacking in the system, real
farmers hardly get the incentives but false-farmers do; and at the end
of the day the economy loses the impact that such incentives were made
to create.
This happens because ours is a Nation that ignores
such primary issues as agriculture which should be a very serious tool
needed to overturn the sufferings of our masses by providing food, shelter,
employment, decorum, revenue etc., as well as to propel the general
growth and development of the nation to a sustainable level.
The truth is that the agricultural sector of this
nation is still being given ill-attention. Something needs to be done.
It needs to be resuscitated because Agriculture is truly the hen-that-lays-the-golden-egg
of any economy.
The present government came with a lot of promises
to revitalize the agricultural sector of our economy which had once
fed this nation and nations far and wide with her cocoa, groundnut,
Palm oil (not crude oil), rubber, hides and skins etc.
Almost six years now, one cannot confidently claim
that much of these promises are being kept in the Agricultural sector,
even in the face of some new ‘wonderful’ policies.
The economy of Nigeria for now is more of a literature
of controversy than a statistically reliable one.
Gross Domestic Products’ (GDP) data usually released
by the present government have been superfluous but when interpreted
or translated into the livelihood of the ordinary Nigerian, it at best
appears to be more of nonsensical economic expression that protects
the image of the country in the International scene than a true growth
in the economic Nigeria.
With GDP growth of 7.1% (2004 estimate) and Agriculture
providing 70% of labour force (1999 estimate), economists have been
warring over the truism of these estimates and many have even accused
the Government of fingering with figures to boost its face.
However, whatever the outcome, what is on ground
and well-known to all is that Agriculture has not been made a priority
in Nigeria by the government and the Nigerian poverty needs urgent attention.
The largely subsistence agricultural sector has failed
to keep up with rapid population growth thereby forcing our Africa's
most populous country (a country once a large net exporter of food)
to importation of food. The government has lacked the will of discipline
to either implement a social-oriented reform or even the much-talked-about
market-oriented reforms urged by the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
- such as to modernize the banking system (thanks to the Professor Charles
Soludo agenda), to curb inflation by blocking excessive wage demands,
and to resolve regional disputes over the distribution of earnings from
the oil industry. To achieve a stable food-economy, Agriculture must
be given its rightful place in the National development effort.
This is important due to the menace and distraction
being caused by our more than 4 trillion cum and 27 billion bbl gas
and oil reserves respectively.
Too worrying to our Nation today is even
the generally dwindling calls for the immediate revitalization of the
agricultural sector.
It is like a situation where many pro-agricultural
voices are dieing out because of frustrations from the government by
not giving enough heed to their calls in the past and present.
Agriculture, as the “engine house” of world economies
needs to be overhauled and serviced in order that the tears of the Nigerian
masses may dry up.
This can only be possible when the government starts
investing substantial capital into the sector. Also the Banks, Insurance
companies, Co-operatives and Individual, groups and corporate investors
should be encouraged to invest in this sector.
In fact the Nigerian Banks particularly cannot be
allowed to define their over-popularized and over-advertised “universal
banking system” without relating it to agriculture. Insurance firms
truly have to start picking interest in the area of agriculture to give
it some safety and confidence.
The farmers have to start having long-standing visions
that can excel in growth terms to a sustainable private and public economy.
Our legislators need to start thinking pro-actively
on ways to enact economic laws that encourage and boost agricultural
production, as well as laws that create enabling environment for its
sustainability and safe practice.
The politics of oil and profligacy and the unwarranted
I-know-it-all mentality in governance cannot lead us to economic glory
for now.
Not turning to Agriculture will imply our continuous
dependency on crude oil and unnecessary reliance on importation of goods
that could have otherwise been manufactured at Kaduna, Aba, Nnewi, Ibadan,
Port Harcourt, Kano and Onitsha and most of our fast-growing new cities.
As a protagonist of agricultural development, this
writer believes that Nigeria’s economic development can only be realistic
through the total resuscitation of our agricultural sector. This will
propel the sector to produce food and fibres to feed our people and
the industry at a rate faster than the birth-rate; yet reducing the
death rate.
The injection of vigour into the agricultural sector
will also fasten the creation of self-reliance, self-contentment and
self-sufficiency (which will be translated to National sufficiency).
Adequate supply of raw materials for industries, increased foreign reserve;
and increase in the export of non-oil commodities and improvement in
the standard of living of the masses are issues that a revitalised agricultural
system can provide.
This will encourage the growth of a physically fit
and mentally alert population. Succinctly put, the development of the
agricultural sector will generally improve the revenue generation of
our nation and discourage our over-reliance on oil and gas which has
created a ‘Dutch disease’ for the Nigerian economy.
The economic independence which the agricultural
sector can offer this nation (if developed) will undoubtedly propel
us to political and economic independence, which we cannot truly boast
of today as a debtor and borrower nation.
Rural and urban development, rural and urban employment;
and of course the control of urban migration and general development
of other sectors of the economy will be the positive chain reactions
of an improved Agricultural sector.
All these can only be possible if the Federal government
can increase its budgetary allocation to agriculture to a reasonable
level in order to aid adequate research in the sector as well as enhance
production, education and general management of the sector.
This will boost the food and science technology industry,
the chemical industry, banking / finance industry, the export business,
the agro-franchise and industries; and even enhance the Federal government’s
policy on National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP).
Nigeria, a nation believed to be one of the nations
that have potentials to be great in the world because of her endowment
with natural and human resources cannot unleash her potentialities if
the country does not gain self reliance and self sufficiency.
Our country will perpetually remain a borrower and
debtor nation in the face of the booming globalization exercise. Until
Nigeria summons courage to invest and exploit its rich agricultural
sector, our country cannot achieve economic and political independence.
More importantly, our present economically hazardous
environment should be politically repositioned in order to harness the
resources that a bountiful Agricultural sector can give birth to. Unless
we invoke the spirit of agriculture in our national economy, our country
will always remain the biblical ‘Jonah’ whose inability to
self-actualize made him think he could keep deaf ears to the words of
wisdom.
Our government is still suffering from this “Jonah
Complex” which has made it unthinkable for it to embrace agriculture
as a true solution to our economic death.
The government should embrace Agriculture with more
confidence because good agricultural policies and implementation still
is the only “big fish” that can transport our economy to the path
of recovery and boom.
Written By,
Chigbu, Uchendu Eugene
