VISION 2050: NIGERIA AS A DEVELOPED COUNTRY
Whatever happened to Nigeria’s Vision 20:2020 is a now a bygone story. Whether Nigeria becomes a developed country in 2050 or not, the Vision 2050 affords us another strong sense of direction and responsibility as to where the country is heading to and our collective commitment to it as a people for the greater success of the country.
A developed country is defined as a “sovereign state that has a high quality of life, developed economy, and advanced technological infrastructure.” In other words, in a developed country, the economy is transformed from a primarily agricultural one to a highly industrialized one. Additionally in a developed country, policies and programmes are geared towards improving the social and economic lives of the citizen, viz. a long and healthy life, educational capabilities, and decent standard of living. These altogether form the Human Development Index (HDI) that is used to measure a country’s advancement.
Norway is said to be the most developed country in the world, but some of the best economies of the world are nations who have risen from the ashes like a phoenix. Singapore is one of such examples with a Human Development Index of 0.93. Nigeria, currently on an HDI of 0.54, is a coming-of-age story; it is the phoenix that we dream to see rise from the ashes soon. How the country still dreams of joining the big leagues remains a mystery to some Nigerians; however, with the right attitudes and radical policy change, the impossible can become possible. For it is only by inculcating the right attitudes that our doubts (“Can Nigeria really be developed in 2050?”) will give way for a reality (“Why has Nigeria not developed long before 2050?”) by the time we finally get there. The best economies today, together with those aspiring to attain that, have a particular attitude to the politics, policies, and governance mandates of their country; therefore, for Nigeria to get there, we must have the right attitude to the following I consider the fundamental sectors of development in this order: corporate governance, education, information communication technology (ICT), and lastly knowledge-based economy.
A. Corporate Governance:
There is a reason the private sector in Nigeria is seemingly more efficient than the public sector. That same reason could be said to be the reason behind the clamour from some Nigerians for the privatization of public assets and/or companies. Nigeria will certainly be developed by 2050 when it is effectively run like a corporate organization where public interest supersedes personal interest, and the public service is made to be for those who enjoy the challenge of navigating complex problems or systems. In other words, being a public servant should mean working hard for a noble purpose and being dedicated and accountable to your daily work of serving the citizens. By creating and upholding the highest professional and ethical standards, systems and structures thrive.
Furthermore, every successful country has its own political culture — that is, some widely spread beliefs, norms and values that define the relationship between the government and the citizens. What is Nigeria’s? In building the Nigeria that we want to see in 2050, both the leaders and the led must look inward, create our unique political culture, and have a good understanding of the given political culture. By so doing, this will help make sense of the way our government is designed, as well as the political decisions our leaders make. Having studied successful countries and their leaders such as Ryutaro Hashimoto of Japan, Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore, Xi Jinping of China, Abraham Lincoln of the United States of America, and, back home in Africa, Paul Kagame of Rwanda, this is the core principle they used to shoot their countries up in the stars. Nigeria needs to carefully look inward to create its own ideal society based upon the principles of equality, justice, liberty, peace, and prosperity.
B. Education, the ICT, and the Knowledge Economy:
These three are all characteristics of a developed country. Because productive education births them all, they will all be discussed together as one essence. Unfortunately, no successive government in Nigeria is yet to prioritize education that is deserving of it. According to United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisations (UNESCO), developing nations must devote up to 26% of their annual budget to public education to be on the path of development. Sadly, Nigeria’s allocation to the sector is still less than 10% — while our Ghanaian and South African counterparts are devoting 23% of their budget to developing their educational sector.
Qualitative education is the leverage for national development. Nigeria may not become a developed nation any time soon with a broken educational sector where university staff annually embarks on industrial strikes. The knowledge economy that we want for Nigeria can never be achieved when our education sector is always in a sorry state, and the youth greatly underutilized. To say a little about the knowledge economy that Nigeria needs to do better at, it is focused on the essential importance of human capital development; the 21st century brought about it, characterized by rapid emancipation of knowledge and the increasing reliance of computerization, data analytics, research, scientific innovation, automation, etc. All these are potent enough to swiftly change the economy of any developing world. Nigeria needs to de-emphasize on an agrarian society to dependency on intellectual capital and skills leading to an industrialized society. This means for any government to be incessantly calling on their youths to pick up their ploughs and return to our arable farmlands, it means we are not ready for development in a 21st century and beyond.
Finally: unity and faith, peace and progress. This means to me more than any evidence-based economic policies I would ever proffer here. What is a developed economy if its citizens are divisive?
