By 
A don, Prof. Damian Mbaegbu has said that in spite of Nigeria’s significant challenges, the nation could thrive economically through political will and transparent leadership.
Mbaegbu stated this while delivering the 26th Inaugural Lecture of the Igbinedion University, Okada in Edo on Thursday.
The lecture was titled, “The Incidence of Mass Poverty in Nigeria: A Case of Self-Inflicted Injury on the People by the People.”
He identified policy inconsistency as the bane of Nigeria’s development, noting that developmental plans encompassing industrialisation policies was a compass for poverty eradication.
According to the inaugural lecturer, a good public policy framework is a sine qua non for the country to operate and develop in all sectors.
“We have had Vission 2020, NEEDS (National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategies) and SEEDS (States Economic Empowerment Strategies) as strategies for economic development.
“There are threats that oil may not command respect at the international market as electric cars are being produced.
“Nigeria should make proactive plans for this. Are we ready? If nothing is done, we may have to drink the oil we produce in the near future,” he said.
Mbaegbu, a renowned professor of business management, asserted that to make industrialisation the arrow head of diversification and sustainable development, Nigeria must try those strategies again based on cost-benefit analysis and transparency of officials.
“There is a need to woo big time foreign investors, including Nigerians in Diaspora, with good quantum of capital to invest in large scale industries.
“This should be with big push advantages such as petroleum refinery as Dangote has done in Lagos, Petrochemicals, vehicles assembly, cement manufacturing in all the states of the Federation and reduce import dependence.
“There is also a need to woo small private investors both local and foreign to establish small industries at designated layouts in all the states.
“What is required to woo investors is the provision of an enabling environment, particularly the ease of doing business and power generation.
“Independent Power Plants (IPP) should supply electric power exclusively to the industrial layouts. The IPPs are already in Port Harcourt and Lagos. They have to go round to other states,” he said.
The university lecturer cautioned Nigeria against swallowing international trade theories hook, line, and sinker on a false notion of comparative advantage and forever be import dependent.
According to him, the trade liberalisation theories of milton-Friedman and associates of the 1950s have failed the developing countries.
He pointed that if Nigeria had continued her industrialisation with the policy objectives of the various development plans since l966, the country would not have been depending on oil alone for revenue alone till now.
“Unfortunately, the plans were jettisoned, and without plans and priorities, they (our leaders) ruled the country,” he regretted.
Earlier in his remark, the Vice Chancellor of the university, Prof. Lawrence Ezemonye described the inaugural lecturer as a widely published academic, recognised by Google Scholar, Amazon, Web of Science, and other search engines.
Ezemonye said Mbaegbu was also a member of several professional bodies, including the Nigeria Institute of Management, Chartered Institute of Personnel Management, and the Academy of Management, Nigeria, among others. (NAN)
Comments