Nigeria’s failure to take its numerous chances in the sectors of agriculture and natural resources largely accounts for its low level of development and pervading poverty today. And to reverse the situation, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academics), Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO), Prof. Ebong Thomas Eshett, has advocated for the review of existing national action plans for the development of national capacity for industrialization. He said the emphasis this time should be on the development of industrial human resources and technical skills.

Eshett, a professor of Soil Science who also served on the national technical committee on Vision 20:2020 as vice-chairman of the thematic group on agriculture and food security, said Nigeria’s undoing was its failure to invest in the modernization of its agricultural practices using the staggering amount it had earned from oil over the years. He spoke to Daily Sun shortly after he delivered a paper on “Quality Leadership and Educated, Dedicated and Articulate Citizenry as Pre-Requisites for Achievement of Vision 20:2020 in Nigeria” at the annual conference of the Institute of Administrative Management of Nigeria.

Given Nigeria’s rich endowment with assorted minerals of high economic value, including stupendous deposits of petroleum n the Niger Delta, Eshett pointed out that the judicious exploitation of these resources could have formed the basis for the industrial take-off of the nation, but regretted that that had not been the case:
“Almost all the nation’s natural gas is wastefully flared into the atmosphere, causing untold environmental degradation in the oil-producing regions of the country. It is impossible to quantify the amount of revenue that has been lost through this mindless frittering away of our natural gas.”

Similarly, he observed, with 70 per cent of Nigeria’s landmass evaluated to be arable and suitable for agriculture, Nigeria should have been in a pole position to export foods to other countries. However, he said, several years of over-cultivation, worsened by deleterious soil management practices, have resulted in severe loss of productivity of the soils.

As consequences, he said, there is a situation of low food production, extremely high market prices for available basic food stuffs, as well as the prevalence of hunger and starvation which have affected a considerably significant segment of the population, mainly the poor majority: “Although Nigeria is the sixth largest world producer of petroleum, the country has failed woefully to use her God-given oil wealth to develop her agriculture. In fact, Nigeria is ranked the 13th poorest nation in the world, despite our stupendous oil wealth.”

Eshett also decried the fact that agriculture and food production were still in the hands of illiterate peasant farmers who receive little encouragement from governments “despite huge figures touted by various state governments as having been given to these farmers as loans at one time or the other.” Besides, he said, farmers live in deplorably poor dwelling environments deficient in modern amenities like pipe-borne water, electricity motorable road networks, schools and hospitals.

According to him, the cause of agriculture has not been helped by the use of archaic farm tools entailing considerable human energy and drudgery. Yet, but for the continued “shameful” and unjustified importation of rice into the country, the farmers remain the main source of food supplies to both the rural and urban populations of the country.

Besides, farmers toil without adequate assistance and incentives from government. Eshett faulted government’s inability to provide sustainable processing and storage facilities to preserve excess food stuffs: “Nigeria is indeed in the midst of food crisis. Population growth which is estimated at about three per cent per annum has far outstripped food production.”

If the university teacher and administrator had spent so much time talking about agriculture during the lecture, he said it had to do with the fact that many nations of the world like Malaysia, Brazil, Thailand, China and the Philippines had attained economic growth simply through a highly developed agriculture: “Agriculture could serve as the engine for rapid economic growth if and when governments develop the right attitude and political will towards this critical sector of the nation’s economy. Our vast land resources stretching from the hot humid south to the dry north beg for cultivation to stave off hunger and starvation.

“Our vast solid minerals across the length and breadth of our nation are crying to the high heavens for economic exploitation to generate revenue needed to build our infrastructure and enhance the living standards of our people. Until this is done, Nigeria’s industrial take off will remain a mirage. Already a number of African countries are ranking higher than Nigeria in both human and socio-economic development.”

To facilitate the economic exploitation of Nigeria’s economic resources, Eshett said the problem of epileptic power supply must necessarily and decisively addressed “as a matter of grave urgency”. He urged President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua to make good his promise to treat the power sector problem as a national emergency, since it remains the starting point to finding a lasting solution to many developmental problems confronting the country.

He said Nigeria must embark on a well-articulated human capacity building programme that will enable it procure a pool of well-trained specialists to man the various industries that need to be established to produce goods and services that are related to the mineral endowment of the country. To realize this, Eshett made a case for the empowerment of universities and research institutes through proper funding in order to be able to produce high-level man-power in the sciences, engineering, technology and agriculture: “The level of funding of universities and research institutes is far from adequate to enable these institutions act as catalysts to the nation’s economic development.”

The need to empower the universities, he explained, had become more urgent against the background that Nigeria needs to develop its indigenous technologies to help it as a nation to be at par with other advanced countries of the world. The answer to this lies in cultivating the right attitude to industrialization, beginning with a soul-searching self-assessment: “If we as a nation… begin to look inwards, set our national priorities right, decide as a people to change from being a consumer nation to a producer nation, embark on a definite programme of industrialization, provide enabling environment for industrialization which will include ensuring uninterrupted power supply, revive our moribund Ajaokuta Iron and Steel industry, plug all loopholes through which the nation’s financial and other resources are corruptly diverted, exported or appropriated, understudy the history of development of the world’s largest economies, with a view to adapting what is right, we are bound to join the league of the most developed nation’s of the world in less than two decades from now.”

Linking the achievement of these targets to purposeful leadership, the soil scientist said Nigeria was in dire need of quality leadership as well as dedicated, educated and articulate citizenry. He, however, debunked the notion that leadership begins and ends with the man at the helm of affairs at Aso Rock. He said as many as could influence outcomes at various levels of organization should consider themselves as leaders.

Eshett who said Yar’Adua should be commended and encouraged for putting in place the seven-point agenda, called on the President to pursue the agenda with a sense of purpose to ensure that the envisaged dividends are delivered to the people while the nation is placed on the path of growth and development. He also urged the President to overhaul the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to make for the conduct of free and fair, credible election to deepen the culture of democracy in the polity: “We must avoid driving this great country into a one-party state.”