Peter Obi: 3 Ways To Pull Nigeria Out Of Recession

The restructuring of Nigeria and diversification of its economy dominated the discussion at the 1st Annual Conference of the Guild of Corporate Online Publishers (GOCOP) on Thursday.

The conference, which held at Renaissance Hotel, Ikeja in Lagos, had former Anambra state Governor, Peter Obi as guest speaker.

Obi, who spoke on theme “Sustaining growth through diversification of the economy,” identified three areas the Federal Government must pay attention to in order to pull the country out of recession.

The former governor identified aggressive saving, diversification of the country’s economy towards manufacturing as well as investment in developmental education as key to exiting recession.

“Our economy is fully diversified because the non-oil sector is actually contributing about 80 per cent to our GDP today.

“But the tragedy of our economy is that 90 per cent of our export revenue is derived from just one sector – oil”.

“Diversifying our economy through manufacturing and investment in education is what we require today to turn around our economy.

“And by aggressive savings we’ll be able to get the resources to bring about micro economic stability to the country, defend our currency and be able to attract FDI and portfolio investments and unlock the resources to invest in our deteriorated infrastructure,” said Obi.

Prof Akinyemi Onigbinde, who served as the keynote speaker, however argued that restructuring the polity should precede diversification.

He said, “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,” said Onigbinde.

Also speaking at the event was Mr Bayo Onanuga, the Managing Director of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

Onanuga tasked leadership of the Guild to pursue capacity building for members through workshops and seminars.

He also assured of NAN’s commitment to the Guild in the area of content development.