By Henry Umoru
ABUJA—PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan warned yesterday that Nigeria will remain among the poorest countries of the world if we continue with a business as usual approach on foreign crafted development paradigms.

President Jonathan who urged Nigerians to put their money where our needs are and work closely with the government to put in place people oriented programmes, stressed that “it is only by so doing that we can prepare ourselves for a truly joyous arrival in the year 2020 as one of the most developed twenty economies in the world.”

Speaking yesterday at the opening of a three-day Nigeria’s Non-Oil Conference, Exhibition and Awards, NNECCA 2010 in Abuja, President Jonathan admitted that infrastructural deficiencies in the country was responsible for the nation’s poor industrial growth, just as he said that the government was fully determined to address the issues.

The event which is taking place at the International Conference Centre with the theme, “Soaring towards the future… Non-oil exports as Driver of Nigeria’s Vision 20:2020, is sponsored by the Nigerian Export Promotion Council, NEPC, Olam, West African Cotton Company Limited.

According to him, “any society or nation that is devoid of vision is like a ship without a captain.

The vision must be indigenous, not imported or borrowed and must be owned by the people. Only visions that are owned by the people because they have been arrived at, by consensus after extensive dialogue and debate can become shared national values.

“Development paradigms that emerge from such consensus have the potentials of leading to what the historians call the Turning Point in the history of nations in terms of launching an irreversible process for achieving a self-sustained, self-reliant dynamic and competitive economy”.

Represented by the Minister of Commerce and Industry, Senator Jubril Martins-Kuye, the President who noted that partnership with the private sector was quite imperative for the sound and efficient management of the national economy, said, “the non-oil sector of the Nigerian economy has traditionally played a vital role in our national economic development particularly in the area of providing foreign exchange earnings and revenue for Government.

“However, its singular most visible and significant contribution to the socio-economic well-being is in the area of providing empowerment and employment for the vast majority of Nigerians.

The emergence of the petroleum sector as the mainstay of the economy since the early 1970s has led to the neglect of the non-oil sector. This meant that self actualization of our people has been jeopardized as a result of the real sector not performing to create jobs which has ensured inequitable wealth distribution in the country.”

Earlier in his opening remarks, the CEO, Koinonia Ventures Limited and Convener of the Programme, Femi Boyede noted that if Nigeria must achieve its set target of becoming of one of the top twenty economies of the world, there was the need for the government to engage in trade by moving away from reliance on the oil sector, adding that there must be collective efforts if we must get there, just as he prayed that the oil wells should disappear, but he was quick to add that before then, the price of oil per barrel should drop to 7 dollars.

Part of the events is the maiden Presidential award where Vanguard Newspapers won the most Export-friendly Media award.