Economic objectives (II)

Economic objectives

Continued from last week

SECONDLY, on socialising any enterprise or industry, it must be our resolute and inflexible aim to maintain, and, if possible, improve upon the existing standard of management and control. This is very important. For it has been argued that, since the existing government corporations and state-owned companies are so badly and inefficiently run, there is no guarantee that these and the newly socialized enterprises would fare better; and that, it is almost certain that after socialization disaster would befall those enterprises which are now doing well, and flourishing under private management. These are very cogent points; but they should not be allowed to deter us from socializa tion. There are, in my view, five causes for the notorious performances of our public enterprises, all of which, fortunately, are curable and preventible.

FIRST: In public enterprises, the ratio of senior category of high-level employees to intermediate category is much less than in private enterprises. This is amply borne out by Table 3 at page 27 of Manpower Study No.2 published by the National Manpower Board in 1964, where the ratios of senior category to intermediate category in the private and public sectors respectively are 6 : 11 and 11 : 32. The position is much worse in the civil service which is the supervisory organ of public corporations and state-owned companies. The ratio of senior category to intermediate category in the civil service, according to the same source, is 3 : 11. This factor deserves special attention; because it explains, in a substantial sense, the common phenomenon whereby Nigerian workers, under alien private enterprises, often perform much better than under indigenous private, or Nigeria-owned public enterprises.

SECOND: It is common knowledge that, as a result of nepotism, favouritism, extreme partisan politics, bribery, and other forms of corruption, a good number of those who are appointed into the senior category of high-level employment in public enterprises and in the civil service have neither the academic nor professional qualifications, nor the experience, nor the qualities, requisite for their assignments. It is known that these people would not have been appointed into equivalent posts under alien private management.

THIRD: . The same evil factors which were responsible for wrong appointments into the senior category of high-level posts, were also responsible for deliberate over-capitalization of our public ‘enterprises, and the purchase, at inflated prices, of inferior goods and services for the use of these enterprises.

FOURTH: As compared with the private sector, there is a measure of disincentive for high-level officials in the public service generally. But I would like to point out, in this connection, that incentive is, to not a little extent, a matter of relativity. If A who works for X earns more than B who works for Y, for doing the same kind of work within the same economy, the tendency would be for B, unless he is specially dedicated, to want to exert himself less than A, or at any rate not to give of his best.

FIFTH: The old attitudeof mind is still lingering that, in the service of the Government, one does not need to exert oneself to the utmost. It was an attitude of mind which was cultivated, and prevailed under the British Colonial Administration.

As I have said, these defects can be cured and prevented. To this end, there is urgent need for the proper training of Nigerians, to fit them for their respective appointments in the public service. There is need for radical reorganisation and improvement in our existing public corporations and state-owned companies, to ensure that their executives are men with the requisite qualifications and expertise. There is also need for re-education and re-orientation of all our public servants.

In the meantime, however, we must see to it that the existing management and control of newly socialized enterprises, even where they are in expatriate hands, are retained, and the expatriate personnel generously treated, until Nigerians, who are equally qualified, are able to take over.

It will be seen, therefore, that the rate of full Nigerianization 0f the management and control of socialized and other productiv activities would be governed by the speed at which we train the type of Nigerians to acquire the requisite skill, technique, an expertise to take over such management and control. At the same time, it is important to bear in mind that it would be courting national regrets and disgrace to allow a socialized enterprise or industry to remain, for too long, under alien management and control, which i to say that speed is of the essence of efficient Nigerianization.

We will now deal with the six occupations in turn.

(i) PRIMARY OCCUPATIONS: In Nigeria, we have no proble of large estates. The very opposite is the case. The only exemption are a few cash-crop plantations which are owned either wholly by government, jointly by government and private interests, or wholly by private interest. The ownership of agricultural estates by aliens should be forbidden in the people’s republic of Nigeria; and all farm-lands above a given acreage—which size would be defined by the government—would be socialized, and its management vested in the workers on each of such estates as co-operative farmers.

The land tenure in the southern parts of the country is uneconomic, and an obstacle to planning and modernization. But it is not an insuperable obstacle. There are two ways of approaching the problem. Contiguous land-holders should be encouraged by positive inducement to group their farm-lands into viable economic units, and to work on them as cooperators under government financial and technical assistance, and managerial supervision, until the co-operative farmers are able to carryon as autonomous groups. Alternatively, the government may compulsorily acquire viable units of land, settle co-operative farmers on them, and provide such farmers with the same financial and technical assistance, and managerial supervision, as in the previous case.

To be continued

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