In the context of this article, the word ‘We’ is meant to refer to the developing countries of the world, especially Nigeria, while ‘Them’ would refer to the rich nations of the western world. Nigeria may not be as rich as Britain or the United States of America (USA) but it is possible for the country to enjoy a measure of wealth and a tolerable amount of satisfaction within its limited resources.

Nigeria, as it has been noted at different occasions, is a country blessed with both natural and human resources, but lacking at home, a combination of discipline and innovation. If the leaders are innovative and the people are disciplined, as the theory goes, there would be plenty at home to feed the nation and the extra to export to earn foreign exchange. Foreign exchange is needed to bring in commodities that could not be economically or impossible to produce at home. Such commodities will include capital goods like various forms of equipment to provide the foundation for economic growth.

In a country blessed with vast fertile land, priority would be on agriculture – copious provision of food and cash crops for the growing population, especially in an atmosphere without birth control measures. The prevalent culture in many parts of the country is peasant farming which has continued its traditional pattern. The idea is to make traditional peasant farming more attractive and productive by the introduction of simple farm implements and incentives directly to practising farmers.

The glory of peasant farming was the old groundnut pyramids of Kano, the foreign exchange earnings of Cocoa of Western Nigeria and the Palm Produce of the East. The incentives came directly from British colonial officials in form of ready cash for products supplied and aid to local farmers in the provision of pesticides and clearing of weeds. Those old peasant farmers knew that there was ready cash for any quantity supplied.

What is needed today to aid peasant farming is ready market for his farm products. Also, the farmer needs aid in clearing weeds between the planting and the harvesting seasons and of course, tolerable roads to move produce to the designated markets. Happily, there are more than enough Agricultural graduates who could be trained in extenxion works and could be deployed to help peasant farmers.

The conversion of peasant farming to the desired scientific farming is a long process in an atmosphere of total lack of scientific education. There is that urgent need to develop what we have – to make peasant farming more productive and profitable. The present effort at various levels of government appears to enrich political farmers and plantations owners and not the real peasant farmers whose number is vast declining through the pull of the urban areas.

The vital drawback to successful peasant farming is the poor rural environment where life is drab and living, unattractive. There is need for provision of water, health care, power and other social amenities in the rural areas to attract farmers to stay on the farms. Unfortunately, our own pattern of development is biased towards urban centres. What we have today is rural depopulation and urban congestion.

My sermon over the years is the direction of our agriculture towards a condition of self sufficiency – a state of ability to feed ourselves without any importation of foods from other nations. What is needed from other developed countries is technical knowledge or simple equipment to transform gradually the country‘s agriculture. A nation that can feed itself adequately would be a happy one.

The gradual approach towards agricultural evolution could be extended to the domestic industry. Any serious country would start to produce goods in which it has comparative advantage over other countries. Various governments after 1960 started with import substitute industries, thus reducing import bills and the need for scarce foreign exchange.

The theory is that- produce as much as possible at home and restricts import to only capital goods and technology.Where such import substitutes mechanism exists, cause it to grow and provide for its extension by all necessary and legitimate means.

This theory does not violate any international trade agreement but strengthens it. The message is clear – produce as much as you need at home and import only the necessities not available at home. Professor Ransome-Kuti , as former Minister of Health advocated the production of common ailment drugs at home and leaving the importation of complex drugs to the existing drug manufacturing industries.

The simple theory of self_sufficiency can be extended to the oil industry where oil revenue should be the pivot of the countrys‘ economic growth. Instead of being a notorious importer of oil products, Nigeria should be a glorious exporter of oil products and other oil related commodities.

Nigeria would someday be a better nation if we could feed ourselves well, produce what we need at home and import necessary commodities that would aid our economic development.

What is needed to be like “Them” is the determination. We need also discipline and innovative mind.