By Adisa Adeleye

Many Nigerians would always want to discuss the economic and political position of Nigeria or what is often regarded as the ‘National Question‘. Every Nigerian adult, whether educated or not, would want to know the position of the country, as compared with other nations of the world.

The National Question is not based on Hausa/Fulani hegemony, the position of the Ibo in the country, Yoruba marginalization, or the fear of the minority against the tyranny, of the majority in the sharing of political offices.  The election of Dr Jonathan as President of the country, appeared to have solved some of these problems, leaving him to seize the God given opportunity to redirect the crucial aspects of the Nigerian Question.

Mistakes are often made on the method of comparing Nigeria as a developing country with Britain or United States of America, as a developed nation.  The ‘question‘ is often blurred by the inordinate ambition of Nigeria pushing to be among the twenty richest nations of the world by the year 2020 (assuming other nations remain static). The arrogant determination of the nation‘s business operations in dollars and not in naira is not helping the issues.

The difference between ‘us‘ (Nigerians) and other rich nations is that the argument becomes merely academic.  At independence in 1960, analysts thought that Nigeria could catch up with Britain in 50 years.  But by today, the gap in development has widened to 200 years.

Some Nigerians think, and rightly too, that instead of comparing ourselves with other richer nations, the leaders should be worried on how to achieve greatness at home and respect abroad.  The difference between us and others would be seen in terms of standard of living and quality of life.  Other richer nations of the world have better education system; highly improved communication operations efficient transportation system (road, rail, and water); reliable health service; scientific agriculture; full employment; expanding national income and extended social services.

Even if Nigerians are not like Britain or United States of America, they could be proud Nigerians, well-fed and happy.

The concept of a well-fed Nigerian depends on sufficiency on some aspects of life.  It needs improvement in national income to be able to increase the standard of living fast enough.  There should be sound economic planning to bring fast economic progress which is necessary for rapid increase in national income.

In economically advanced countries, sturdy roads have been built more than one hundred years ago and are currently well maintained.  Transportation (air, road and water) is efficient and steady.  In Nigeria, our transportation system is chaotic and dangerous.  The new federal roads in many parts of the country are uncompleted while the old ones are not regularly maintained.  The problem has been uncoordinated efforts on Federal, State and Local government roads.

There should not be any difference in the maintenance of roads throughout the country.  Fiscal arrangements should exist between Federal Government and the States, between States and the Local government authorities to ensure that our roads get proper attention at any time of the year.  It is a shame that Nigerians living in Lagos could not safely or pleasurably travel out of Lagos to any part of the Country (East or North).  The gods are there to receive human blood as regular sacrifices.

The congestion on our badly constructed and poorly serviced roads, and the lack of rail and water services have combined to increase the cost of transportation of goods and people and also, prices of commodities.  There is no doubt that Nigerians would be happy if the present government would concentrate on road repairs for the rest of this year.

It is also assumed that the abundant fertile Nigerian soil should be able to produce enough food for the country and extra for export to the neighbouring countries.  The constantly increasing import bills on food items have become a national shame.  The present policy appears tilted towards big farm projects and plantations and not directed towards small-scale farming or peasant agriculture which is the vogue in all parts of the country.  Any effective measure to transform agriculture should lay more emphasis on transforming peasant farming into modern and scientific agriculture in order to increase output.

From past experience, problems involved in removing poverty and increasing the standard of living in Nigeria include lack of quality education; poor health; dependence on one or two crops and oil; size of agricultural sector and condition of unemployment – all of these jointly present obstacles to fast economic development and growth.

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