THE STRATEGY AND TACTICS OF THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA: Economic objectives (I)

From today, we begin the serialisation of one of Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s insightful books about Nigeria’s political and economic survival, The Strategy and Tactics of The People’s Republic of Nigeria, which was first published in 1970.

THE economic objectives of the people’s republic of Nigeria shall be as follows:

1. Full employment.
2. Payment of unemployment relief allowances to persons who are able and willing to work but are unable to secure employment, during the period of their enforced idleness.
3. Introduction of national minimum wage compatible with a national minimum standard of living.
4. Elimination of discrimination between categories of employees; that is to say, all persons employed in the public and private sectors, whatever their categories, should be on a full-time and permanent basis, and should be entitled to pension on the same basis under a comprehensive and compulsory social insurance scheme.
5. The raising of pensionable age to between 65 and 75 years, in strict regard to the types of employment.
6. Modernization of agriculture as well as of the storage, transport, and marketing of farm products.
7. Economic freedom; that is to say, voluntary economic interdependence with other countries of the world, involving:

(i) immediate introduction of schemes for self-sufficiency in non-durable consumer goods;

(ii) the introduction, within five years, of schemes for self- sufficiency in durable consumer goods; and

(iii) the attainment, within 20 years, at the longest, of complete self-reliance in capital goods and technical know-how.

8. Modernization, and the economically requisite extension, of the Nigerian Railways, to ensure a greatly accelerated haulage of goods from distant parts of the country to the ports. 9. Construction and maintenance of adequate and modern waterways to ensure much quicker transport within and from the riverine areas of the country -.
9. Construction of a sufficient and efficient network of all-season roads and bridges so as to attain, within 15 years, a ratio of I mile of road to 2 square miles of territory in all parts of the country.
10. Rationalization of the salaries and remuneration paid to, or received by different classes of employed or self-employed persons with a view to closing the existing gap between the higher and lower income groups.
11. Integration and assimilation of the salaries and conditions of service of all employed persons, other than self-employed persons, with a view to ensuring equal pay for identical qualifications or merits in all the sectors of the country’s productive activities. This will entail the abolition of fringe benefits’ for all categories of employed persons in all sectors of the country’s productive activities.
12. The immediate rationalization of certain categories of industrial and commercial undertakings in order to eliminate waste arising from unnecessary duplication or multiplication of efforts, selfish and cut-throat competition, and lack of coordination on the part of productive agents in given industries and enterprises.
13. Immediate introduction of training schemes designed to ensure the total Nigerianization of the management and control of all productive activities in the country, within the shortest possible time.
14. Progressive and rapid socialization of the following occupations, including all services ancillary to them:

(i) primary, manufacturing and transport occupations of defined classes, types, scales, and capacities; and

(ii) banking and insurance occupations of whatever classes, types, scales, and capacities.

 

Commentary

1. Full Employment

Like on many other issues, including even the definition of the word ECONOMICS itself, there is no unanimity among economists as to the meaning or definition of FULL EMPLOYMENT. But there are two authoritative definitions by Keynes and Beveridge which can be used to guide our thoughts on this subject.

Keynes defines involuntary unemployment as follows: ‘Men are involuntarily unemployed if, in the event of a small rise in the price of wage-goods relatively to the money-wage, both the aggrega te supply of labour willing to work for the current money- wage and the aggregate demand for it at that wage would be greater than the existing volume of employment.’ (The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money-p. 15).

In other words, according to Keynes, full employment exists when there is no involuntary unemployment, even though there may be frictional and voluntary unemployment. (Ibid p. 16).

On the other hand, Beveridge is of the opinion that full employment exists when there are ‘more vacant jobs than unemployed men.’ (Full Employment III A Free Society-p. 19).

He, like Keynes, admits the compatibility of full employment with frictional, seasonal, and structural unemployment. But he hastens tc emphasise that’ full employment, in any real sense, means that unemployment in the individual case need not last for a length of time exceeding that which can be covered by unemployment insurance without risk of demoralization.’ (Ibid p. 20).

Some critics have described the situation in which there are’ more vacant jobs than unemployed men’ as a state of’ over-full ‘ employment. They think that the ideal state of full employment is one in which the number of unfilled vacancies is exactly equal to the number of people who are out of work. This state of exact and permanent identity between vacancies and unemployed persons will be difficult, if not impossible, to maintain in a dynamic economy.

Because of changes in the weather, we know that in industries like agriculture, fishery, building, and road-construction, there is always an alternation between peak and slack seasons, with an inevitable fall from one to the other in the number of people employed. In a dynamic society, changes in the structure of the economy, due to various factors, are constantly taking place: old factories are now and again being pulled down in order that new and more modern ones may be erected in their places. Decrease in demand due to change in taste may necessitate closure of some factories and hence the retrenchment of workers. New labour-saving machines or devices are from time to time being put on the market or introduced, which not only render some existing techniques obsolescent but also make it possible for one or two men to do, even more competently, the jobs hitherto performed by a team of ten or more workers.

To be continued