Redesigning the Nigerian Economy – My Reflection on ‘The Platform’

On October 1, The Platform, an initiative of Covenant Christian Centre hosted some of the brightest  minds in Nigeria to discuss how to redesign the Nigerian economy with new ideas.

Mr Gupta, one of the keynote speakers opened our minds to endless ideas and possibilities in the 21st century for a developing nation like Nigeria.

Bismark Rewane who also spoke at the event submitted that we do not lack ideas but execution and intellectual honesty.

One of the speakers that stood out for me, was Charles Soludo. His presentation could be taken as the 59th Independence lecture.

Soludo delved into Rewane’s concern by dissecting our nation to its core and proposing fundamental changes upon which Mr. Gupta’s ideas can thrive.

Soludo’s thesis was centered around unleashing prosperity for Nigerians now and the additional 400 millions to join in the next 20yrs.

This question of unleashing economic growth and opportunities has been on my mind for sometime. I have engaged different minds on this question and as I always like to coin it, “whose job is it to create job?”

One thing that is however clear to me is that, there is a mismatch between our educational system and our production system.

During the era of slave trade, there were more slave owners than available slaves to work the plantation (which means that jobs or production opportunities were more than available labour). With the abolishment of slave trade and the enlightenment revolution, we have, over the centuries shifted the curve to producing more ‘modern-slaves’ than ‘modern slave owners’.

Our population growth and the liberalization of education produce more workers (skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled), whereas our policies have not really optimally stimulated other factors of production such as natural resources exploration and utilization, land administration, capital innovation and entrepreneurship.

So as a nation, we need to go back to the fundamentals and spin the policy narrative to liberalize all production factors (land, natural resources, capital, entrepreneur and labour)

Soludo captured this excellently in his October independence lecture and here are some of the key points:

The Soludo Thoughts

“Let Zamfara keep their gold and pay taxes to the government. Let Kaduna and Kogi keep their solid minerals. Most states have their own resources. Concentrating power in Abuja won’t help us develop our resources.”

– Charles Soludo

#NigeriaAt59

#SecuringTheNation

“Abuja has sought to keep everybody in check, but has succeeded in holding everybody down.”

– Charles Soludo

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#SecuringTheNation

“If the problem is the word ‘restructuring’ let’s call it something else.”

– Charles Soludo

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“Institutions drive economic transformations. Sadly, our institutions are either obsolete or inappropriate. The current institutions need fundamental overhaul.”

– Charles Soludo

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#SecuringTheNation

“Nigeria needs to invest in the Judiciary. Our Judiciary should be part of our national brand. Let’s do what it takes to become a nation of laws. Can we at least target to have the best judiciary in Africa?”

– Charles Soludo

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#SecuringTheNation

“Abuja cannot pay its bills. We have to get to serious work. Abuja, as it is today, is choking.”

– Charles Soludo

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#SecuringTheNation

“Peasant agriculture has little future.”

– Charles Soludo

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“The future will be driven by people, our youths and technology. The next biggest earner for Nigeria will be its human capital. But we are not going to export illiterates.”

– Charles Soludo

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#SecuringTheNation

“The systems, the institutions that we have are for a bungalow. And the new economy that we want to build is a 100-storey building.”

– Charles Soludo

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#SecuringTheNation

“The world is not waiting for Nigeria. While electric cars are fast replacing petrol cars, many of our people are still building petrol stations.”

– Charles Soludo

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#SecuringTheNation

“We need a new national business model.”

– Charles Soludo

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#SecuringTheNation

“A wise man gets the umbrella ready before the rain starts.”

– Charles Soludo

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“If you want to change a persistent economic structure, change the underlying institution.”

– Charles Soludo

#NigeriaAt59

#SecuringTheNation

“What is fundamentally wrong is we have implemented all kinds of plans, all designed to diversify the economy. But we are still tied to the life-support of the oil sector. Every govt. in Nigeria has implemented its own version.”

– Charles Soludo

#NigeriaAt59

#SecuringTheNation

“Politics is too serious to be left to those who call themselves ‘politicians’. It is our collective destiny. Unfortunately our politics is broken.”

– Charles Soludo

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#SecuringTheNation

“Are we preparing enough to welcome the 400 million Nigerians in 20 years time or the 800 million Nigerians in 40 years time?”

– Charles Soludo

#NigeriaAt59

#SecuringTheNation

“In my view, sooner or later, something will give. And a new kind of politics will emerge to secure the future. Beyond sloganeering we have serious work to do.”

– Charles Soludo

#NigeriaAt59

#SecuringTheNation