Victor C. Ariole
9 October 2008
opinion
Lagos — There is an Igbo adage that says: "He who throws someone down in a wrestle fight and sits on the person, is also sitting on his own time; both the loser and the winner remain grounded till the winner frees the loser." It is indeed on this note one wishes to appreciate Professor Festus Iyayi's presentation at the Northern Nigeria Economic and Investment Forum. He is indeed the author of "the paradox of plenty". The South is on top quite correct, but the South goes nowhere until the North is made to wake up.
Profession Iyayi is worried that the quest for democratic dividend by the current fractured North in the name of spreading the booty as against a unified North controlled in the manner of the late Sardauna of Sokoto, is the bane of the current North. Hence, he was paradoxically advocating the shrinking of the current federation structure of 19 Northern states. In effect, Iyayi believed that within the 19 Northern States, some of the states are dragging others down. So, according to him, any statistics reeled out to buttress the point that the North is one of the poorest corners on the earth is quite debunkable. Hence, he disagrees with the "young man at the CBN" (sic) and the keynote speaker from Pakistan, the former prime minister of Pakistan.
The keynote speaker reiterates also the paradox of plenty in Nigeria. He feels Nigeria is better placed to ride on globalisation than any other African country. The demography of Nigeria is excellent, the human resource: quite abundant, the location in the Gulf of Guinea: competitively unchallengeable; external reserve: mouthwatering; hydrocarbon: excessive. So, it baffles anyone that Nigeria has no in-country programme, no in-country implementation to proclaim an in-country success. He advocates public private partnership to drive the economy of Nigeria.
However, just like Iyayi does not agree with such position, the Emir's speech toed the line of Iyayi's. According to him, economy is basically production and, having the production latched on investment and consumption; shikena! It is absurd to hand over the wealth of a nation to some individuals in the name of public private partnership.
That approach reminds one of Mabid Ali Al-Jarhi's position on Islamic banking. According to Al-Jarhi, the leader must finance entrepreneurs with equity and must participate in the profits obtained in the emerging market equilibrium. The leader is not interested in excess profit but on ethical investment that keeps returns record at par with the market. So, no breakneck competition for unbriddled acquisition.
Indeed, it is evident that whoever made Iyayi the head of Nigeria economic monitor must be aiming at an advocate of anti-market economy. To him, there must be a leader of "headmaster" status that must compel people to produce and, must also decide the production ratio for investment and consumption.
In effect to him, what the North should be thinking about is how to lead the current 74 million people in the North keep a survival pace that will boost the expected demography of 148 million mark in 2033. By such analysis, it seems the contention is more of having human beings in quantity as against quality.
The paradox lingers on as Prof. Iyayi in a slip of tongue wanted to proclaim his paper and academic presentation, but restrained himself from doing so in order not to incur the wrath of Professor Ibrahim Gambari who was chairing the session. Indeed, it is quite paradoxical that Professor Gambari could term any unimplementable talk shop an academic exercise. He really emphasised that it was not intended for academic exercise. One quickly disagrees with him on that.
It is quite appalling to hear academics think of their intellectual production as an unimplementable exercise. In effect, no plan, decision or recommendation works on a priori basis. It must have been subjected to some level of academic probe before being made available for public consumption. So, one wonders the wrong notion of the cliché, academic exercise.
The statistics Professor Gambari reeled out to buttress the point that the North was backward were certainly academic production. The Finance Minister, Shamsuddeen Usman, reeled out more of such statistics to prove that the North was indeed at the bottom of all indices of development. The Finance Minister, Usman, correlated rate of education and rate of poverty; number of children out of school; redundant rich retirees and lack of economic activities in the North, to make a clarion call for a big push and catch-up economic models.
According to him, those who ought to be at the forefront for risk taking in economic ventures are those shying away in the North; the retired generals, retired engineers, retired civil servants, etc. He pleaded that they geared up for action so as to have more "Adenugas" in the North, as well as not complaining when the Barth Nnajis take over the energy production advantages abundant in the North. Those were his words and they make good for competitiveness in Nigeria. Indeed, wind energy can be coordinated along Katsina, Kano, Borno axes. These are areas the Sahara Desert advantage comes in. In fact, the Sahara Desert is grossly unexploited.
There are indeed strong indications that the North is capable of greater wealth potentials than the South. It all boils down to what the keynote speaker from Pakistan said: the need to avoid greed, arrogance and bad management and, not being in tune with global happenings that crippled the world financial managers. It should not be replicated in Nigeria. The state governors are to take note.
To allay the fear of Iyayi on the dissipation of energy on democratic dividend yield, it is high time each state floated investment companies such as TRANSCORP and use it to showcase its investment potentials upon which investors take up equity shares. It must not be the issuing of sovereign bond. It demands electing businesslike governors and not greedy ones. When such is done, Nigeria could possibly gain the confidence of highly Islamic minded investors as segmentation refers. According to Munawar Igbal, Malaysia is currently enjoying such confidence with more than 65 such Islamic funds operating there. These are funds that are involved in risk sharing, emphasis on productivity, moral dimension, wider set of products and closer link between monetary and real sectors.
Note that in Malaysia, almost all the world religions are present, and they celebrate more holy holidays than Nigerian, and such diversity does not negate the progress of the country. The more the merrier. No creature without a potential. A good leader must spark the potentials in his people. Indeed, we need a buoyant North for Nigeria to take-off.
-Dr. Ariole lectures at the University of Lagos, Akoka
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