Economic objectives (I)

Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s insightful book about Nigeria’s political and economic survival The Strategy and Tactics of The People’s Republic of Nigeria, which was first published in 1970

IT is, therefore, an extravagant waste of manpower to compel a man or a woman to retire at 55. The explanation which was given in 1968 when the government of the Western State of Nigeria reduced the retiring age from 60 to 55, was as inane as it was untenable. A spokesman of the government had stated that the purpose of the reduction was to make room for thousands of young boys and girls who were leaving school every year. Surely, it cannot be maintained that the one hundred odd men and women who retired would make enough room for the thousands – indeed tens of thousands – of young school leavers who are looking for employment. In fact, as we now know, they made no room at all. And what is more, some of the retired officials were re-employed almost immediately, in other sectors of the public service. In an enlightened society and planned economy, the remedy to the unemployment of schoolleavers is to create more employment opportunities, and not to compel the premature retirement of public servants who are at the height of their efficiency.

For all these reasons, I am advocating that the compulsory retiring age should be raised to a minimum of 65 and a maximum of 75, all depending on the types of employment.

I have not chosen this range of ages arbitrarily. At the moment, judges of the supreme court, and lecturers in our universities do not retire compulsorily until they are 65 and 60 respectively, with option of 5 years’ extension for the latter. It will be generally agreed that no. occupation demands more rigorous mental exertions than judgeship and lecturership. It is, therefore, unreasonable, in the extreme, to ask teachers in educational institutions below university level, civil servants and the like, state counsel, etc., to retire compulsorily at any age earlier than 65. Indeed, I am of the opinion that a teacher, lecturer, or judge, should be allowed to go on until he is 75, with provision for extension, in appropriate cases. If a teacher, or lecturer, or judge, for instance, is good, and keeps abreast of his particular field of speciality, the longer he remains in his post the better for all concerned.

It is within the experience of most of us that self-employed farmers or manual workers, using existing primitive tools, do not dream of retiring until they are 65 or more. No less should be expected from their counterparts in the public service. With the introduction of modern farming, and the increased mechaniza tion of manual labour, it should impose no undue discomfort on any person to continue in fanning or manual labour until he is 65 or over. More so, if the various processes or stages in farming and manual work are graded in descending order of physical exertions, and are allocated among the workers concerned in accordance with age distribution.

In the light of the points which have been made on this matter, an expert or team of experts should be appointed to consider and classify various categories of employment, with special reference to their peculiar nature, their relative pleasantness and unpleasantness, camparative conditions of work, and the physical and mental exertions demanded by them, and to determine at what age between 65 and 75 people should be required to retire compulsorily from each of the categories. Under the socialist system which we envisage for the people’s republic of Nigeria, voluntary retirement should not be permissible, save at the risk of the person opting for it. That is to say, if a person retires voluntarily at any age, he will not be entitled to any retiring benefit or pension, until he attains the prescribed age which automatically attracts old age pension. Between his voluntary retirement and this age, he will be expected to fend for himself.

6. Modernisation of Agriculture

In its report already referred to, the FAO correctly states that the tasks facing the agricultural sector in Nigeria are to provide:

(a) the food requirements of a rapidly growing population;

(b) the agricultural raw materials for Nigeria’s developing industries;

(c) the volume of exports needed to pay for the imports of capital goods;

(d) employment for the additional agricultural working population; and

(e) a substantial share of the capital to finance the development of the whole economy.

These tasks are inescapable, and speak for themselves. They proclaim, eloquently, the urgent need in Nigeria for the modernization of agriculture as well as of the storage, transportation, and marketing of farm products. Nevertheless, I would like, for the sake of emphasis, to make a few comments.

In the first place, our population is not only growing rapidly, but also it is fast becoming more and more enlightened and sophisticated. The choice open to us is clear: to modernize our farming techniques and thereby give sufficient attraction and incentive to people to stay on the farm; or not to modernize, and leave people in rural areas to continue, as at present, to migrate to urban areas, out of sheer revulsion against the present primitive methods of tilling the ground. In the second place, rapid increase in our population is not the only factor which demands greater agricultural output: the growing standard of living of our people is also a factor of considerable importance. In the third place, our efforts and drive towards self-reliance in consumer goods call for the production locally not only of all our foods, clothing and building materials, but also of the bulk, if not all, of the raw materials needed for the use of our growing and ever-expanding factories. For instance, in order to be self-sufficient in textiles and in the raw cotton required for their production, we need to quintuple our present output of raw cotton. In the fourth place, since 70 per cent of our present population engage in farming, any policy, which is designed to raise the people’s standard of living at all levels, must of necessity have a special and strong bias for great increase in the productivity of the Nigerian farmers. It must, that is to say, have a bias for mechanization of farming, and the education of farmers in modern farming techniques.