APPROACH TO RAPID ECONOMIC

A speech on the Appropriation Bill given in the House of Representatives, Lagos, on 7th April, 1960.

In determining the order of priorities, or in proposing the order of priorities, I would like to call the attention of this house to certain figures for our gross national and net national income. At the moment we can only rely on those figures revised by various people, the International Bank Mission and others. But the position today, Mr. Speaker, or as far back as 1955-56 is that our gross national income is £806.8 million. Out of this, £501.4 million is provided, or derived from agricultural and allied sources; agriculture, livestock, and fishery. In other words, at the very moment, and for a long time to come, the base of our wealth is agriculture. In my view, therefore, the first priority should be the bold and rapid development of agricultural economy in this country. The sooner the people in this house realise that I am not here to represent the Western Region but to represent the country as a whole, the better for them and for all concerned.

Now that is the first priority, Mr. Speaker, and what do we find? The government is either bold with embellishments and expressions of which the Prime minister is very full, or the government is very ignorant. The government is very ignorant, and blissfully so, that agriculture should form the first priority in our schemes for economic development in this country. It is either that or the government just could not care less!

A brief reference to the Capital budget estimates, and to the estimate itself would indicate that what the government is prepared to spend on agriculture is of the order of £400,000 this year. I am fully aware that agriculture and allied subjects are matters within regional competence. It is also within the province of the Federal Government to stimulate and foster the accelerated development of these particular fields of our activities. It is not the duty of the Federal Government to sit down and fold its arms and think that its only concern is foreign affairs, to deal with the police, to deal with the Army, and such-like. The sources of our revenue are from the land, and if the government wants to have as much money as possible in its hands to spend on the development of this country, then it must do everything in its power to stimulate the development of agriculture and other natural resources. For instance, there is nothing to stop the Federal Government from engaging in industry and in agricultural ventures – there is nothing to stop them from establishing large-scale ranches in the Northern Region. There is nothing to stop them from providing refrigerated vans and refrigerated trains to transport slaughtered cattle from certain parts of the Northern Region. The advantages of this, both to producers and to consumers, are obvious. The producers will be able to get more for their cattle than they do now, and the consumers will be able to get really good meat to eat, particularly those who live here in Lagos.

Now the second priority, in my view, is education and health. There are many people who are ignorant of economic operations and they think education and health are not to be considered in planning for economic development. I say, Mr. Speaker, that the education and health of the citizens are indispensable factors to productivity in any economic venture. There is also the political aspect of this business of education and health, particularly education, political and economic forces overlap from time to time.

Now, today the gap between the North and the South in the matter of education is dangerously wide. In the Eastern Region, 1¼ million pupils are attending primary school in a population of seven million. In the Western Region, 1.2 million are attending school. In the Northern Region, only a quarter of a million are attending school today. That is a very dangerous gap, and the Federal Government must take steps to close that gap in the interests of harmony and mutual confidence between the people of the North and the people of the South, apart from the fact that the education of the citizen of the North will also help their productivity.

In the time at my disposal, Mr. Speaker, it is impossible to enumerate all those priorities that I have in mind. In any case, for my present purpose it is enough to mention only these two – agriculture and allied occupations – and education and health. The scant attention given to these two important items and the inadequate provisions made for them in the estimate are evidence that the Government attaches little or no importance to these, the very bedrock of our economic growth. I said before that the country is poor. Our gross national income, to which I have made reference, shows it. Our budget also shows it. But a little bit of prudence on the part of government in the management of our finances, and a display of courage and vision in tackling our problems, could alter the situation considerably. In the present circumstances, it would appear that there is nothing we can do but to go a-borrowing, and go a-borrowing, and go a-borrowing! This year alone, Mr. Speaker, we are borrowing as much as £25 million in order to fulfil our capital budget of £44 or £45 million, and by the 31st March, 1962, we will have borrowed, if we are to fulfil our programme at that time, as much as £38 million. These figures are from the capital budget estimates, and also the speech of the minister of finance. Surely we cannot go on for ever living on loans and credit. Any individual who does that will soon find himself in prison, in debtors’ prison.

What do we do then to avoid this borrowing spree to various countries? I have eight points which I would submit for the serious consideration of the government. The first point is that the insurance business in this country should be completely nationalised. This is a very lucrative venture and I think that it should be possible for the government to realise substantial profit from this source. The second suggestion I wish to submit for the consideration of the Government is that the Nigerian Shipping Company should be expanded to the extent that it would carry either 100 per cent of all the goods originating from this country or 85 per cent of these goods. This would help in dealing with the balance of payments which is constantly moving against this country. The third suggestion is that the duty on cigarettes be it bicycle, pirate, et cetera, which was imposed last year, should be reduced.

And may I call the attention of the Government to certain significant facts and figures. When the Government imposed this duty, it expected to realize substantial sums of money but that expectation has completely failed. In 1956-57, 1957-58, 1958-59 the Government realised roughly four million pounds from excise duty on manufactured tobacco. For the year 1959-60 the revised estimate is 4.2 million pounds and we are now providing for only 4.2 million pounds. Did it not occur to the Government that if this duty is reduced, that is the price of a stick of cigarette is 1 d instead of 1½d, a chap who at the moment will not buy more than a stick may proceed to buy three sticks? In any case, the position cannot be worse than it was in 1956-57, 1957-58, and 1958-59. It must also be borne in mind that there is a good deal of money in circulation at the moment. Salaries have just been increased and quite a number of chaps who could have gone in for more smoking have been retarded from doing so because of this increase in duty; and I think it would be in the interest of this country if this duty is abandoned.

There is another advantage in abandoning this duty. It will enable the masses of the people to indulge in a little bit of luxury which they have been denied because of the extra duty on cigarettes. I also suggest that the recent duty imposed on mineral waters should be abandoned before it is too late. I am surprised to hear that mineral waters are described as a luxury. Mineral waters are not luxuries, they are meant for the ordinary man in the street. They are the only comfort in which the ordinary man in the street can indulge. They cannot afford to buy beer, gin or whisky.

Government should also consider the advisability of raising the duty on non-commercial vehicles. I am sure that even a 20 per cent increase on non-commercial vehicles would yield the same amount of money which Government now expects from the recent increased duty now imposed on mineral waters. I also suggest that a trade mission should be dispatched to Japan, India and to Hong Kong so that trade treaty agreements may be entered into with these countries and so that they may take more of our goods than they do now. At the moment we import from these countries goods to the value of £30,000,000 a year and they only take from us goods to the value of £1.7m a year. The Government should take steps to rectify this position to reduce the adverse balance of payments against us.

My seventh suggestion is that a revenue commission should be appointed by this Government. The Government does not require advice on spending and borrowing. I believe they are already experts in these aspects of our public finance, but I think they require advice on revenue raising.

The last suggestion, Mr. Speaker, is that a high-powered and permanent economic planning commission should be appointed by this Government to produce a five-year plan which this House can consider and approve. It is important that we should know well ahead what we are in for. This business of taking one step a time in the dark will not do for Nigeria.

CONTINUES NEXT WEEK.

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