By Jude Njoku

The state of infrastructure in Nigeria does not meet the requirement for economic development. This view was canvassed by the Registrar of the Quantity Surveyors Registration Board of Nigeria, QSRBN, Mr Godson Moneke at a workshop organised by the Ondo State chapter of the Nigerian Institute of Quantity Surveyors, NIQS.

Moneke who spoke on Infrastructure and Economic Development, premised his views on fact that “our infrastructure deficit gap is very wide” and in most cases in very deplorable conditions. “Electricity generation in Nigeria which currently stand as at 4,000MW is far below the current demand of over 10,000 MW.

“Most roads in Nigeria are unmotorable and in various states of disrepair.  Yet huge sums have been budgeted and said to have been spent on both electricity provision and road development with nothing to show for it due to corruption.  Yet development of infrastructure is a categorical imperative for economic development and socio-economic empowerment of the citizenry,” he lamented.

The QSRBN Registrar adduced reasons for the slow rate of economic development in the country. “A system that accommodates  horde of “economic vampires” will find it difficult to witness economic development.

Corruption is the biggest threat to economic development because it encourages the personalisation and wrongful appropriation of the commonwealth by a few rent seekers who now become the wealthy class while majority of the citizens live in misery, want and poverty.

The biggest obstacle to Nigeria’s development today is graft and corruption which have eaten deep into the very fabric/fibre of the society.  Corruption encourages the rule of impunity and the weakening of governance infrastructure,” he said.

He posited that “so long as a great majority of Nigerians live on an income per capita of less than one US Dollar a day, economic development will continue to remain a tall order because development is all about human centred development”.

Mr. Moneke  who observed that long term finance is required to fund infrastructure development, posited that pension funds constitute a veritable source of such long term finance. He noted that investment in infrastructure is part of the capital accumulation required for economic development and thus have an impact on socio-economic measure of welfare.