By Nkemdi Kanu
Political economist and management expert, Prof Pat Utomi, has said that unless relevant values of a culture of production, hard work, commitment, thorough planning among others were imbibed in the system the country will not achieve its dream of a truly great nation.
Utomi is worried that Nigeria is suffering from the collapse of culture, insisting that no society that lacks in values achieves her dreams.
Utomi spoke on Tuesday, at the 48th Leader Without Title colloquium in honour of an accomplished accountant and entrepreneur, Chief Ikechi Ezeh MFR, at 78.
He said efforts of the leaders must be channeled in setting the country on the path of real growth.
Said Utomi: “We have a crisis of values in Nigeria and you cannot do much without values, because values shape human progress. No society that lacks in values achieves her dreams. Nigeria has suffered a collapse of culture and that is sad. Today many Nigerians focus on instant gratification”.
The ebullient Professor said that as a fundamental principle, Nigeria should begin to look away from sharing to producing.
“Our economic thinking now centres around who gets what, instant gratification rather than who will produce what. But to have a tomorrow in which we would flourish, this ideology must be discarded.”
He noted further that throughout human history, societies that have sustained progress have been those that sustained whatever gains they have that is temporary and invested it in their people, in terms of the capacity of those people to produce in a continuous manner.
He said: “What has frightened me about the Nigerian experience is that we have managed to ignore the areas that are fundamental to that happening. One of those is education – that is, how equipped are we to be competitive, going forward?
“Another area is infrastructure that would facilitate production and evacuation of produce and a clear national strategy that gives people certainty that if they invest in this country, they can get the benefits of their investment. These things are important if the country is going to make progress.
“We need leaders who are obsessed with production, employment creation and the things that support it, like education? How can private capital be brought in to help develop infrastructure… ?
?Right now, people dissipate energy on a budget but the size of the budget is infinitesimal to what Nigeria needs to grow. Nigeria must create an atmosphere where investors around the world feel comfortable and can bring in their resources. When the environment is not friendly and peaceful it limits growth.”
