FOR the purpose of accelerating the training of our people to take over the organisation, management, and control of all our productive activities, a team of experts would be appointed to identify which spheres we can take over now, and in which we are at present technicall y, professionally, and managerially deficien t, and to recommend detailed programmes of immediate and complete take. over in regard to the former, and of accelerated training in regard to the latter.
I have no doubt that our foreign friends will participate actively in any plan designed to achieve this end. As I have said before, it is in their .and our best interests to do precisely this.
I would like to stress, however, that, in our natural and burning desire to be masters in our own land, and thereby to be bettei equipped to promote the welfare and happiness of our people, we must make ‘undoubted competence,’ ‘thoroughness, and ‘moral discipline’ our watch-words. This must be our iron resolve. But it must also be our inflexible resolve that no obstacle, of any kind and magnitude, shall be allowed to impede our rapid march towards the attainment of complete Nigerianization.
- Socialisation
Some people are ‘always frightened, almost out of their wits whenever they hear the word ‘socialism’ mentioned. Their fright arises either from a completely wrong notion of socialism, or fron irredeemable committal to the pursuit of the naked self-interest mad, possible only under the capitalist system. There is otherwise rational or sane basis for the morbid dread which such people exhibi towards a politico-economic ideal whose sole aim is social justice, By social justice, in this context, is meant the just and equitabk distribution of the nation’s wealth amongst those factors which havt made positive, necessary, and effective contributions to it~ production. And such factors are labour and entrepreneurship, whicl are two species, degrees, or gradations of the same phenomenon’ the application to the land of the efforts of man, assisted by capita which is wealth accumulated from an antecedent union of labou and entrepreneurship with land.
The aim of socialism, therefore, is social justice for all; and the only means by which this end can be attained, as has been established theoretically and empirically, and demonstrated in The People’s Republic, is the nationalisation, public ownership, or socialization of the means of production, exchange, and distribution.
It is true that even capitalists of the deepest dye also say that they believe in social justice. But they cannot be taken seriously and as sincere, as long as they tremble at, and work strenuously against, socialization which, as we have seen, is the only means by which social justice can be attained. Any argument against public ownership of the means of production, exchange, and distribution, is, therefore, an argument against social justice. It is for this reason that nationalisation is often equated with socialism. But as we have defined it in The People’s Republic, socialism is a normative social science, and its inseparable end and means are respectively social justice and socialisation. The point at which we have now arrived is this. If we accept social justice as the normative social objective of the people’s republic of Nigeria, we must also accept socialisation.
I have argued in The People’s Republic, ‘that Nigeria cannot become fully socialist, in one fell swoop, without chaotic social upheaval’ That is to say that socialization of the means of production, exchange, and distribution cannot be done, at one and the same time, without disastrous consequences to the eventual attainment of social justice itself. It is for this reason that 1 have proposed two antecedent stages to complete socialisation, namely: rationalisation and Nigerianisation, both of which have been dealt with in Sections 13 and 14 above.
No one, not even the most rabid capitalist, would quarrel with the Nigerianization of the management and control of all productive activities in Nigeria, since this is one of the few vital means by which we can be complete masters in our own home.
As for rationalisation, only the inefficient and the sub-marginal firms or enterprises will quarrel with it; whilst some socialists will hold the view that it is an unnecessary stage towards the attainment of socialism. We must, however, not allow the inefficient and submarginal enterprises to constitute a drag on our economic performances and development. And for the benefit of those socialists who may be unfavourably disposed to rationalisation, it is important to stress the dire need for stability in the transition from a mixed primitive-capitalist system to a modern socialist economy. This is not to say that the transition will not entail some inconvenience to a number of individuals, especially the landlords, rentiers, and those who already have a siamese type of attachment to capitalism. Inconvenience then we must have; but we can and must avoid social chaos and disaster.
In sum, it is my view that rationalisation and Nigerianization should go side by side with socialization. In fact, not only is there no antithesis of any kind among them, they are even also mutually complementary, in our quest for economic freedom.
In considering the issue of progressive and rapid socialization, it would make for simplicity and clarity if we deal with the six economic occupations separately. Before doing this, there are two problems of a practical nature which must be examined.
Firstly, if we are to avoid chaos and disaster, a fair compensation must be paid to the proprietor of any firm, business, or industry that may be socialized. According to the Central Bank of Nigeria, there is a total of approximately £470 million worth of foreign investments in Nigeria today. In other words, we must, on the socialisation of foreign business and industrial concerns, be prepared to pay at least £470 million in foreign exchange, or risk retaliation, which may take several forms, from the countries of origin of the proprietors of such concerns. It follows, therefore, that the rate of socialisation of enterprises belonging to foreigners would be determined by the rate at which we can accumulate foreign exchange to payoff the shareholders. In the case of Nigerian proprietors, there is no practical difficulty. We can either pay them off immediately, or give them temporary scrips in return for their shareholdings.
To be continued
and then