Economic objectives (II)

Continued from last week

LIKE the land tenure in the southern parts of Nigeria, the present system of individual peasant farming is extremely uneconomic. The overriding objective of policy in this field then should be, as quickly as possible, to convert the whole or the vast majority of Nigerian farming classes into co-operative farmers. In order to prevent the emergence of big land-owners and capitalist-farmers, no one working alone or with his family should be allowed to cultivate more than a given acreage of land, or to employ more than a given number of workers on his farmland. In circumstances such as this, the private employer, who must be a working farmer himself, will have to pay the minimum wage for farm labourers.

It should be emphasised that no absentee employer, whether on the farmland, in the factory, or shop or store, would be allowed or ht tolerated in the people’s republic of Nigeria.

Deep-sea fishing would be socialised. But fishermen’s co-operatives would be encouraged and given financial and technical assistance, and managerial supervision, in the same way as farmer’s co-operatIves.

All mining activities would be socialised. Mining is what economists call ‘robber economy,’ which is indeed what it is. Unlike other primary productive undertakings, extractive activities are not self-reproducing or self-perpetuating. Every ton of mineral won from beneath the earth means an equivalent permanent reduction in our mineral deposits or wealth. Apart from ideological considerations, therefore, there are strong economic and political arguments for direct state control and regulation of mining activities. The best and most effective way to exercise such control and regulation is, in my view, socialisation. This is the only way by which we can, in the present, prevent alien greed, and complacency on our part, to dissipate and squander some of our most precious natural resources, and so preserve as much of them as possible for future generations of Nigerians.

(ii) SECONDARY OCCUPATIONS: All secondary or manufacturing activities (including the generation of power), other than strictly individual (non-absentee) and co-operative ones, would be socialised. This would make it possible for the government to determine what shall be produced, and in what quantity and place they shall be produced.

In determining what shall be produced, consumers’ tastes would, to a reasonable extent, have to be taken into account. But only to a reasonable extent. As I have again and again stressed, we must not allow the whims and caprices of consumers to bring about the kind of waste and misutilisation of resources which prevail in a capitalist economy. The question, however, will be asked: How do we curb, control, or regulate the infinite preferences of a large multitude of consumers?

The answer is not as difficult as the question would make it appear. It is a well-known technique of modern salesmanship for producers lecisively to induce and influence the tastes of consumers, without the latter realising that what they regard as their peculiar personal tastes have been psychologically and externally induced in them by sheer, skilful, and consummate advertising. It follows, therefore, that, within wide limits, the government can, from the point of view of economy, social desirability, national interest, and the health of individual Nigerian citizens, decide what shall be produced, and then mount a publicity campaign designed to induce people’s tastes for what is produced.

Under the capitalist system, the consumer’s sovereignty, about which the textbooks on economics speak with so much confidence and reverence, has been supplanted long ago, through the means of subtle, powerful, and sustained advertising subversion. Here then is a well-tested weapon which must be used by socialism, not for the enrichment of a few and the impoverishment of the many, but for the benefit and the enhancement of the standard of living of the masses of the Nigerian peoples.

(iii) TRANSPORT OCCUPATIONS: In Nigeria, rail transport is already fully socialised. We also have our own shipping and air lines.

Outside our territorial waters and airspace, shipping and air transport are international business undertakings. We cannot forbid the ships and aircraft of other countries from calling at Nigerian ports; though we can, if need be in the national interest, regulate and circumscribe their activities within our territorial waters and airspace. Nor can we socialise foreign shipping and air lines which call at Nigerian ports, even though they open offices for booking and other clerical and accounting transactions in Nigeria. The most that we can do in these sectors, therefore, is to increase the number of our shipping vessels and aircrafts to the point where we consider our economic and national interests to be best served, and at the same time socialise all Nigeria-based and Nigerian-owned shipping and air lines.

Internal water and air transport are on a different footing. They would be fully socialized without any delay, there being no obstacle here that I can see to immediate socialization. But canoes or motor launches operated for private use, or operated for hire directly by individual owners or co-operatives will not be socialized.

All the docks, wharfs, and harbours, as well as dock labour, throughout the country, would be socialized forthwith.

The posts and telegraphs which, like transport, are means of communication, are already publicly owned in Nigeria: they would so remain.

In dealing with the socialisation of road transport, four categories of road vehicles call for separate consideration. We will take them in turn.

(a) Motorcycles would not be socialised.

(b) Private cars would also not be socialised.

(c) Taxis would be socialised; but wherever they are forthcoming, owner-drivers, and co-operatives of practising and non-absentee drivers, would be assisted by government with finance and expertise to run their own taxis.

(d) Commercial vehicles including trailers may be divided into two classes, namely: those that are used for hire, and those that are used by business enterprises for their own purposes only and not for hire.

To be continued