DIVERSIFICATION

Things are changing all around us but we continue as if our situation will be like this forever. No condition is permanent o!  We must change our economic dance steps to the rhythm of global reality. We must develop our human resources and diversify our consumer economy. We cannot continue to be solely a commodity-driven market and leave our destinies in the hands of others. We must have our goal and pursue it vigorously, otherwise we will suddenly find that the music has stopped and all the belles have left the ball, leaving us alone to clean up our mess with nothing to show for it.    

 Why we are so pessimistic about being a change agent? Why do we think that we cannot create the change that is required? It is the only way to go. It is something that we must do for ourselves. We must curb our appetite for immediate gratification because it blurs our vision to the path of economic growth and development. It is our addiction to immediate gratification that assumes topmost priority when we sell our God-given petroleum as crude oil and import it as finished product. It is our immediate gratification that drives us to sell our cocoa, coffee beans, wheat, cereal, groundnuts, rubber, palm oil, cashews, almonds, sesame seeds and other agricultural and mineral resources only to import them in the form of finished products at premium prices.

 This “sharp-sharp” mentality is taking a toll on us. We create jobs for people overseas by being both the producers of the raw materials required by their factories and the consumers of the products that they produce. Meanwhile these same customers are getting closer and closer to energy self-sufficiency and are producing genetically modified crops, so that the science of farming and the seed for such will be in their hands. They will take that from us too.         

 Hydraulic fracturing (also known as fracking), which is the process of extracting natural gas from shale rock layers deep within the earth, is our nemesis. Fracking makes it possible to produce natural gas extraction in shale plays that were once unreachable with conventional technologies. USA, Russia and China are said to have large deposits of such natural gas. Recent advancements in drilling technology have led to new man-made hydraulic fractures in shale plays that were once not available for exploration. Already, the US has commenced exploration using the process, and the UK and China are poised to follow suit.

 We over here have not learnt any lessons from previous drops in commodities prices and obviously are not observing oil-producing countries such as the UAE, where the income made from petroleum is used to fuel tourism development, industrial growth and retail trade. Today, 90 per cent of visitors to Dubai go as a tourist destination and centre of commerce, not for the oil. Here in Nigeria, tourism, industrial growth and agriculture can still hold the key to a diversified economy capable of getting all its citizens to work and reducing drastically the dependency on oil.

 

Instead of attracting investment, we tend to repel it. What industries there are are struggling to stay afloat because they have to put infrastructure, such as water, power, roads and transportation, in place. Having incurred such heavy set up and running costs, they end up getting penalised with outrageous multiple taxes and levies from the authorities that should be encouraging them with tax holidays. Rather than be seen as employers of men, who pay taxes, they are seen as easy targets, cash cows for revenue generation. In the FCT, for instance, where there is no industry to talk about, only recently the planning authorities raised their tariff for planning approval in the industrial estate by 500%. It will now cost circa $100,000 or N15, 000,000 to get approval to build a factory warehouse. Is this how the Federal Government and the FCT intend to attract business here?  

 Companies pay tax and are employers. Their employees will also pay tax and contribute to the nations economy. What are the implications of driving away businesses under the guise of income generation?  How will other investors receive such news? Government must understand that it must encourage the private sector. Diversification should be on the front burner and we should think seriously about what it means to open our doors to investment. All the variables are here, we need leaders who understand how to put them together.