By Ayo Akinfe
Do any of the Nigerian presidential candidates realise that they have to find a way to get annual gross domestic product growth rates of about 15% every year for the next decade
[1] Nobody will admit it publicly but we are Africans are regarded as inferior beings simply because we are not productive enough. Until we start contributing our fair share to global development we really have no moral right to complain about this treatment
[2] We are considered a burden and a nation of parasites by industrialised countries. Make no mistake about it, this will continue for as long as we remain an eternal consumer producing nothing
[3] It is not right for a continent to account for 18% of global population, yet only account for 3% of world trade and 1% of global manufacturing
[4] Does whoever becomes Nigeria’s president next year know that India for instance has plans to maintain to ensure it enjoys 10% economic growth every year. Do Nigerians even think this way at all?
[5] Given that about 70% of the Nigerian budget goes on recurrent costs like salaries, transport, building maintenance, administration, etc does not help at all. If we want to enjoy any economic growth, we breed to attract large scale foreign direct investment to get round our current stagnation
[6] As a nation, Nigeria needs an annual budget of at least $100bn to take care of her 200m people. We are currently only spending about $30bn a year, which is wholly inadequate
[7] After World War Two, Germany was in utter ruins, with her cities bombed, her industry in tatters, the population dispirited and no government in place. However, within five years, the nation was back on her feet, with both West and East Germany becoming thriving economies again. Nigeria simply has to follow suit if we want to get out of this rut
[8] We remain a mono-economy trapped by the vagaries of the global crude oil market. Our only hope of growth is economic diversification with a massive bias towards manufacturing
[9] When you do the arithmetic, you cannot but despair. We will need something like 15% annual gross domestic product (GDP) growth year-on-year over the next decade to get out of this morass. If between 2023 and 2030 Nigeria enjoys 15% economic growth every year, we will be able to recover. It is either that or we perish
[10] We do not even have the foreign reserves to prop us up as at the moment. No matter how you look at it, Nigeria needs to launch a radical and unprecedented industrial economic diversification. It is either that or we descend into becoming another Somalia or Afghanistan. With no jobs, our youth will revert to armed robbery, kidnapping, communal violence, ethnic hatred, religious bigotry and terrorism. Isis will just be licking their lips now as they have a very fertile ground to spread their hatred and indoctrination. Now is the time to start thinking how to avoid that doomsday scenario
