As with counter-terrorism, we must always walk the talk. According to President Goodluck Jonathan, Nigeria is no longer a country that consumes and produces primary products, but one that can manufacture, build and add value.
This has to be taken with a pinch of salt. The country is still littered with a myriad of “tokunbo” (second-hand) goods and is still very much import dependent. Whatever the seemingly glossy statistics after the rebasing of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), we are still a long way off.
What needs to be done is obvious and often stated. We have to redirect capital from recurrent expenditure (consumption often of a mindless type) towards production. Massive investments have to be made in the physical infrastructure. This should include prioritising the construction of power stations and basic industries. To do so the political will must have to be summoned. Then we will really be walking the talk.
In addition, our burgeoning pension funds must have to be channeled towards funding infrastructure. And finally, this cannot be the time to privatise the nation’s development finance institutions. What is needed is long term funds to develop and strengthen the manufacturing sector. We are certainly not going to get it from institutions obsessed with the level of the next dividend.
