The immediate-past Governor of Anambra State, Mr Peter Obi has prescribed
a tripartite solution to the Federal Government for Nigeria to get out of
economic recession, reports ITRealms.
Mr
Obi was a Guest Speaker at the 1st Annual Conference of the Guild of CorporateOnline Publishers (GOCOP) held on Thursday at Renaissance Hotel, Ikeja in
Lagos, and spoke to the theme "Sustaining growth through diversification
of the economy."
He contended that Nigerian economy is already diversified,
stressing that the non-oil sector is contributing about 80 per cent to the
nation's Gross Domestic Product (GDP), noting that the tragedy is that the oil
sector however accounts for 90 per cent of the nation’s foreign exchange
earnings.
The
three ways to put the economy back on the path of growth, he said, include that
government must as a matter of urgency embark on aggressive savings,
diversification of the economy towards manufacturing and lastly investment in
developmental education.
“Diversifying
our economy through manufacturing and investment in education is what we
require today to turn around our economy,” he said.
Describing
himself as a trader and businessman, Mr. Obi pointed out that by aggressive
savings, Nigeria will be able to get the resources to bring about micro
economic stability to the country, defend the currency and be able to attract Foreign
Direct Investment (FDI) and portfolio investments and unlock the resources to
invest in the deteriorated infrastructure.
Another Guest Speaker and Managing Director of the News Agency of
Nigeria, NAN, Mr Bayo Onanuga, charged GOCOP to come up with code of conduct
for online media practitioners.
He
also charged the leadership of the Guild to pursue capacity building for
members through workshops and seminars to broaden their knowledge.
The
NAN boss assured that his organisation would collaborate with GOCOP in
generating contents, not only text but videos and photographs.
On
his part, the keynote speaker, Prof Akinyemi Onigbinde, posited that we need to
restructure the polity before talking about diversification of the economy.
"Let
me say this and it is with all sense of responsibility, that the proponents of
this 'diversification' theory, with respect to the chronically ill Nigeria
economy, are not being honest.
"Indeed,
I dare say they are being mischievous, just as they insist on playing Nero
as our Rome prepares to go up in flames. Truth is, for Nigeria, it may well be
one-minute to midnight, if we continue to
ignore the ‘first principle’ in nation-building.
"So,
what is responsible for Nigeria’s arrested development, to put it in a counter
thesis to GOCOP request: Nigeria economy cannot enjoy a sustainable growth and
neither can it be diversified because there is even no basis for economic
growth.
"As
I had earlier suggested, what economy are we to diversify? And As I had also
insisted on, there can be no economy to be diversified, hence there will be no
growth as to speak of ‘sustainable growth.’
"But
let us, however, say that Nigeria will continue to remain in a state of
suspended animation, economically, so long as some sections of the Nigerian
nation space feel short-changed by the Nigeria political economy, due,
largely, to the operations of present structure of the Nigerian state.
"Truth
is, so long as the centre holds a ‘veto power’ over the economic activities of
Nigeria so-called federating units, so long will Nigeria manifest destiny
remain dormant," Prof Onigbinde said.
Representatives
of GOCOP key partners like FRSC, Mobil, NLNG, EFCC delivered goodwill messages
calling for sustained relationship while the GOC 81 Division of the Nigerian
Army, Major General PJ Dauke, presented paper on counter-insurgency.
At
the end of the one-day conference, the newly elected Executive Committee of
GOCOP was inaugurated under the leadership of Mr Dotun Oladipo, Publisher, The
Eagle Online.
Uj. N. Dominic/GEE
ITREALMS ... everything news digitally!
