WEDNESDAY COLUMN BY USSIJU MEDANER
info@medaner.com, justme4justice@yahoo.com
I am writing with absolute confidence that we are nearing the end of the dark tunnel as a nation. We have been through a lot physically, emotionally and economically. Our quests for solutions and desired changes, albeit in the wrong places, have overtime pushed us deeper into despair and a range of reactions that further destroyed the capacities of the country to turn the bend much easier in good time. Continued fixations on the problems, searching for scapegoats and institutions to blame, and generating for emoluments of different negative dimensions; and emotional interpretations of issues and events have diverted our attention from the need to seek genuine solutions to the challenges plaguing us.
It is time we let go of our many pains, precipitated hatred and disjointed interpretations of the issues bothering us, and individually, and collectively, seek working solutions and walk the paths that lead to The Eldorado for Nigeria. This is a path we must walk together, or else we will fumble again and again. Would this suggest that we forget about our challenges? No! It merely suggests that we recognise that the only way to solve the problems is to agree to allow systemic changes and transformative policies that would cumulatively present permanent solutions to every one of our national problems.
We won’t be the first nation to be plunged into problems either mistakenly or by cumulative non-performance or wrong performance of its leaders over time. There are so many countries that were in that shoe in the past, but they are today riding high among the committee of prosperous nations. How did they do it? Definitely not by pointing fingers and profiting from the downfalls of their countries. They came together and took positive actions that have since transformed them into what and where they are today.
China is a great example; coming out of the ruins of the decadence of decades, if not a century, to become one of the top nationsons of the world. That country was once a dumping ground for a number of developed nations. America, United Kingdom and Japan, for instance, were mass producing for the overtly imports dependent China. Poverty, and crime was the order of the day in China among the list of woes of the now mighty nation. Today, China produces all sorts of goods and services for almost all other countries of the world, and is not hiding its desire to topple the USA as the new successor world’s most powerful nation. How did they do it?
It is time we follow the same path these nations followed to achieve transformative and revolutionary changes. Whatever it would cost us, must be a price we must accept to pay, for the sake of posterity and the future generations of our great nation. Our problems are few, but appear to be many and diversified. We would take them one by one, agree where we missed it and return the country to the path of greatness, until we have solved all our challenges.
While we may not know, our major challenge as a nation is that despite all talks, we remain a non-productive nation apparently depending on many other nations for too many essentials, until we handed over the control of our economy to forces outside our shores and have no other choice but to flow with the tides of events as dictated by the nations that feed our desires. This is the singular reason our Naira value is bastardised compared to other currencies and the reason inflation continues to rise across commodities in the country.
We produce nothing and import everything we ordinarily have the capacity to produce domestically. We got to this point where we continue to need more and more dollars to satisfy our urges for foreign commodities. Yearly, we import over eleven billion naira worth of agro commodities that we can seamlessly produce domestically. We have no business importing a grain of rice; no business importing red oil, sugar, and many others that we import today. We have no business importing to the tune of eighteen billion naira petroleum products and other minerals that we can literally access within the country. We have no business pursuing dollars and other currencies to import commodities we can competitively produce domestically and still export the surplus.
So what is the solution to this menace? The solution has always been with us. We only need to return to where we came from. What were we doing right in the 1960s and early 70s when our currency was quite strong and competed with world leading currencies? We need to return to it. It is not counter mathematics, and it is not magic. We must return to boost the nation’s productivity with mass cultivation of cash crops; which represents our strength. We must again build our system to reenact the groundnut pyramid in the North; we must once again return to the cotton plantations, to the cocoa farms of the West, and the palm oil plantations of the South among others. That is the way and the only way.
We should remember there was a time when we controlled 45 percent of the global palm oil market. We had the capacity, and we still have it only if we would focus our resources and strength at the commodity again. That market today would have been fetching us as much as 38 billion dollars annually. If we really want to see the naira appreciating sustainably against all other foreign currencies, we should get the local and state governments across the Southeast and Southsouth to restore the same level of engagement in palm oil vegetation of the 1960s, in collaboration and with support from the Federal government.
Is it possible to restore the groundnut pyramids of northern5 Nigeria, and once again turn it into a mainstay of Nigerian foreign income and job provision for the teeming population of the region? Of course yes. Is it possible to restore the cocoa industry of the West? Yes, this is very possible; and are the country’s best bet, including other viable potentials to address the weaknesses it currently faces in the global community. We must begin to bring things substantially to the market to be effectively reckoned with.
Returning to agriculture singularly has the capacity to strengthen the naira to the tune of as much as N800 to $1, all things been equal. In 2023, our net agricultural import stood at N2.281 trillion. The commodities involved include sugar, fish, milk, wheat, and rice. These imports simply increase the demand side of the naira-dollar relationship as we are bound By needs to acquire dollars to make those purchases. We can choose to end the importation of 2.1 metric tons of rice annually into the country. We should set the target and create and empower clusters across the states and local government areas of the country. We can do the same thing with sugar, fish and even milk. We can do the same thing with wheat. Currently, we are only 10 per cent self-sufficient in wheat production, but we can decide to build the entire Capacity to produce wheat for Nigerian local consumption. We have about 68.7 million hectares of land, broken into 36.9 million hectares of arable land. 6.5 million hectares under permanent crops and 25.2 million hectares under permanent meadows and pastures. We must put this vast land to the utmost use. We must mandate the production of everything we eat locally without exception. We must fully exploit the country’s capacity for animal production and associated commodities.
To address insecurity impacting agricultural activities in rural areas, we propose establishing a strategic security buffer zone around key agricultural regions. This buffer zone would involve deploying security personnel and surveillance technology, such as drones and monitoring systems, to detect and deter threats before they reach farming communities. Collaborating with local authorities and community leaders, the zone would also include early warning systems and designated safe areas where farmers can access resources, training, and support on secure farming practices. The initiative aims to not only protect rural livelihoods but also foster stability and encourage increased agricultural productivity in these vulnerable areas.
With the same energy we are to follow up on the ongoing Federal government policy executions, we should, in particular, declare a state of emergency in the national agricultural sector and declare an ‘operation feed Nigeria.’ The national and sub-national governments must prioritise full return to agriculture with set mandates to meet preset production targets for listed items. When we do this, and we can do it because we have all needed resources in abundance, and even being wasted. Taking prompt actions, we will not only feed Nigerians, but will also in the first instance, substantially drop the naira quest for dollars and reset the exchange rate correctively and continually in favour of the naira. Secondly, going through the stated path would be equivalent to opening up sustainable job opportunities for a very large population of Nigeria, opening up rural settlements once again, addressing the high state of insecurity and crime in the country, and more profoundly, restoring citizens’ trust in the country and its leadership.
The consideration above is only for the reawakening of agriculture; but if we can replicate such across all the primary sectors, inclusive of mineral resources, refined crude products and successfully build self-sufficiency in steel on the back of our rich endowment, this country would not only become big, but would compete with the strongest of nations globally. With our increasing population, projected to reach 400 million by 2050, self-sufficiency across board through conscious commitments by all stakeholders is necessary to strengthen the national economic system, and build a fresh foundation to build a stronger and livable Nigeria for Nigerians and for the emergence of a highly competitive Nigeria among the committee of 21st century nations.
