By Christiana Ekpa
The Deputy Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, Rep. Okechukwu, has disclosed that the COVID-19 pandemic presents Nigeria with an opportunity to break the jinx of fire brigade and lottery syndromes by putting the nation on the path of development and preparing her for the next pandemic, saying COVID-19 will not be the last.
Okechukwu stated this in a keynote address themed, “Governance and Development in the COVID-19 Era: Strategies for Breaking the Jinx”, which he presented at an international conference organised by the Department of Public Administration, Nnamdi Azikiwe University in Awka on Wednesday.
The Deputy Minority Leader, in his address made available to newsmen, in Abuja noted that Nigeria’s inability to cope with the economic, health, and social consequences of the pandemic underscored a perennial state of unpreparedness marked by the absence of good governance and institutions that should support development and buffer the country in moments of crisis.
“One of the fallouts of the pandemic is that it further exposed our vulnerabilities to external shocks such as the fall in crude oil prices. The last time we witnessed a sharp decline in crude oil prices in 2016, our economy slipped into a recession.
“Unfortunately, Nigeria is plagued by the ‘Dutch Disease’ or what Prof. Charles Soludo calls the Lottery Syndrome whereby a nation spends in the spirit of the boom of today without planning for tomorrow.
“We learn nothing and forget nothing – like the Bourbon royals of France. The chicken is now coming home to roost because even though the oil prices are going up, we are unable to reap its benefits due to our inability to meet our OPEC production quota. And since we are spending 98% of our entire revenue on debt servicing, we are left with little option but to keep borrowing from local and foreign lenders”, he lamented.
Drawing the nexus of governance and development, Okechukwu decried the continued decline of Nigeria’s ranking on the Ibrahim Index for African Governance (IIAG).
