Nigeria: The Path to Inclusive Growth

21 June 2016
opinion

I am a sucker for clarity of thought, and especially conceptual clarity, which has important implications for public policy. Clarity in the way we understand things matters for public policy because the policy space determines our wealth or poverty as a nation. If we understand concepts, issues and challenges clearly and accurately, we are more likely to act in ways that actually address these challenges effectively. Provided, of course, that we have the political will. And provided, in addition, that ideology does not impose blinkers on our ability to think and act on a rational and pragmatic basis. Muddled thinking and hazy understandings, when inflicted on economic policy, can keep a nation poor when it has no business in the poverty leagues.

Thus it is important, especially for Nigeria as Africa's largest economy and most populous country, to apply wisdom and understanding to its economic future and avoid the policy mistakes of the past. We can easily make the same mistakes over the subject of inclusive growth, the absence of which is understood to be at the heart of our development dilemma. One can already see how this can happen, with our thinking and rhetoric veering off decidedly into "inequality" and social protection, all of which are nevertheless valid issues in their own right.

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