CONTINUED FROM LAST WEEK
THE goals which Nigeria must pursue are quite clearly two. There is the immediate goal of economic freedom, and the ultimate one of being counted among the developed countries of the world. The two goals can be achieved almost sulmultaneously, provided they are pursued in the order in which we have stated them. We hold the view, quite strongly, that in the pursuit and attainment of economic freedom, economic prosperity is inevitable.
But not the other way round. Every attempt on the part of an underdeveloped country to achieve economic prosperity, without first of all taking steps to ensure its economic freedom, is not only patently doomed to failure but would also make the country’s economic enslavement more certain and tighter.
In order to attain the goals of economic freedom and prosperity, Nigeria must do certain things as a matter of urgency and priority. It must provide free education (at all levels) and free health facilities for the masses of its citizens. It must breed and constantly maintain ail adequate number of professionals, technicians, managers, and administrators. It must, from year to year, produce enough to raise the level of consumption as well as of the standard oflivmg for all the citizens, and, at the same time, to ensure that the quantity and quality of its capital formation progressively increase, so that it is sufficient for its successive investment purposes. Since the welfare of the people is the aim of all economic activities, it must foster and insist on a balanced growth in all the sectors of its economy. I n this connection, the equal dignity of all forms oflabour must be proclaimed and practically demonstrated; and all those who, because of disability, infirmity, or age, are unable to earn a living should be fully provided for from the public purse. It must discipline its citizens to eschew all forms of ostentatious consumption, be they traditional or foreign-inspired, as they tend and are bound, in the long run, to distort the utilization of resources, and generate endemic social disequilibrium, which will in tum encourage foreign exploitation and economic enslavement. The full employment of all the natural resources of the country is not practicable at present or in the immediate future. But it is certainly practicable now so to organize the economic affairs of the country as to abolish the unemployment and underemployment of its human resources, and to ensure the exploitation, mobilization, and deployment of its natural and human resources so as to benefit all Nigerians much more substantially than ever before, and without discrimination.
In other words, it must maintain a constant state offull employment of its human resources, and must, from time to time, seek to exploit, mobilize, and deploy its natural and human resources much more effectively. It must considerably improve all its systems of communications, in order to bring about greater mobility of resources and outputs. It must resolve to be self-sufficient in nondurable consumer goods. At any rate, it must endeavour to export enough to pay for all such consumer and capital goods as it has to import. It must avoid, like the plague, an adverse balance of trade or pay-ments on consumer accounts, because it is this kind of economic factor, more than anything else, that forges, with ruthless effectiveness, a country’s chains of economic bondage.
Foreign capital should be admitted only for the purpose of executing capital projects which are designed to strengthen the country’s economic freedom and self-reliance, as well as its self- sufficiency in durable and nondurable consumer goods. Above all, it must guarantee social justice at home, and self-respect for itself and its citizens abroad. These then are the social objectives which we consider to be indispensable to the goals of economic freedom and prosperity. In a nutshell, they are designed to achieve and maintain for Nigeria the requisite quantity of Capital and Organization and the requisite quality of Labour, Capital, and Organization. Having stated these social objectives, the next important question is: how do we achieve them? Before we proceed to answer this question, however, there are two equally important questions which deserve immediate attention. Are these objectives essential to the attainment of economic freedom and prosperity and are they practicable? Unless we can satisfy ourselves as to their necessity and practicability, it would be a waste of time and effort to embark on ways and means of achieving them.
Many educated, literate, and articulate Nigerians hold views which .are divergent from those which we have just stated. They believe that the quickest and most dependable way to the economic freedom and prosperity of Nigeria is energetic and rapid industrialization of the country. For this purpose, foreign investment and loans, in partnership with indigenous capital provided by Nigerian entrepreneurs or by the Government, should be welcomed. When the country is industrialized, workers would get more money to spend on food, clothing, housing, and on the education and health of their children, themselves, and their wives.
Farmers, traders, artisans, and others who cater to them would also benefit, and there would be an all-round rise in the standard of living. This, they argue, was the way it was done in Britain, America, and other developed countries, and this is the way it should be done here too. If the country were to pursue the objectives stated above, they insist, monies and resources which should have been utilized in industrializing it would be wasted, and our position, materially, would either be worse than before or remain the same. Only a few thinking Nigerians understand the forces at work in these matters, and give full support for the social objectives which we have stated. But even some of these doubt their practicability.
As for the masses of the people, they whole-heartedly support the objectives; but they do so without bothering their heads as to whether they are practicable or not. In the discussion of the stated objectives, it must be constantly borne in mind that there are two nuclei around which the others revolve, and by which alone these others can be constantly kept in their proper places in the social orbit. They are: education and health.
CONTINUES NEXT WEEK
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