‘Recession, opportunity to move from underdeveloped to developed nation’

RESOURCE persons have urged the Federal Government to come up with policies that encourage local inclusion, local production, productivity, hard work and creativity, describing the current recession as an opportunity for the country to move from under development to development.

The resource persons advanced this position while speaking on “Ensuring Sustainable Production And Consumption Patterns: Policy Implications,” at the 2016 Founder’s Day celebration of Development Policy Centre (DPC), Ibadan, on Friday.

In her remarks, Chairman, DPC Board of Trustees, Professor Bimpe Aboyade, averred the need for the nation to implement the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for the nation to witness economic development.

One of the discussants, Professor Samuel Olofin of the University of Ibadan, decried the nation’s import-driven economy and focus on exportation of natural resources, while describing them as the bane of sustainable development in the country.

He described statements by government officials on timeline for an end to the current recession as based on hope rather than grounded on real policies that would engender sustainable development.

Similarly, Professor Olufemi Ajayi of Obafemi Awolowo University decried the decreasing value of the naira against foreign currencies and crave for dollars by Nigerians due to huge reliance on imported goods and labour.

Executive Vice Chairman, Ibadan School of Government and Public Policy, Dr Tunji Olaopa, posited that a “cabal” benefitted from importation and hence stifled the growth of the industrial base of the nation’s economy.

He derided the country’s focus on crude oil despite its comparative advantage in cocoa production, cassava production, agriculture and agro-processing, textiles and garment.

Termed focus on “Made in Nigeria,” Olaopa canvassed for locally-generated production and consumption pattern, wondering why the nation imported what it could produce.

The Ooni of Ife, Oba Enitan Ogunwusi, represented by the Asoya of Ile Isoya, Oba Adebanjo Adedeni, called on Nigerians to imbibe love among one another for the nation to witness real development.

Contributing, a chieftain of pan-Yoruba organisation, Afenifere, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, called for intellectualism in governance to bring about the implementation of impactful policies in the polity.

The list of resource persons who contributed to the discourse included Brigadier General Oluwole Rotimi (retd); General Alani Akinrinade; Chief Folanke Solanke; Professor Bolanle Awe; Professor Johnson Ekpere; Chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Professor Tunde Adeniran and a former Editor in Chief of Nigerian Tribune, Mr Felix Adenaike.