From: Laide Raheem, Abeokuta
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr. Okey Enelamah and his Mine and Solid Minerals counterpart, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, are among dignitaries expected at the public presentation of a book entitled: ‘From Consumption To Production: The Whys And Ways Out Of Failed Industrialisation In Nigeria’.
Others expected at the event are governors, Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State, Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State, Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State, Hon. Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN) and the Central Bank governor, Godwin Emefiele.
The book, written by the former Director, UN-Habitat, Nairobi, Kenya and now a Professorial Fellow, United Nations University, Prof. Banji Oyelaran Oyeyinka, is slated to be launched at the Ladi Kwali Hall, Sheraton Hotel, Abuja, on November 21, 2017.
According to the author in a statement, the book traced how policy dysfunctions and delays led to Nigeria’s gradual descent from a prospective “Production” to a “Consumption” nation.
Oyeyinka added: “The book further outlines the characteristics of a ‘consumption’ nation like Nigeria; the case study of industrial failures in Nigeria; the economic cost of presumptive planning; how infrastructural deficit limits industrialization and how Nigeria’s economy can be transformed or resuscitate through diversification from consumption to production.
“It also revealed how Nigeria had, after independence, aspired to be in the main, a producer not a consumer nation but due, in part, to a constellation of events and factors, the reverse has been the case; Nigeria has descended into a nation that imports the most basic of agricultural and manufactured goods and services.
“The book proffered that Nigeria’s short and long term planning and policy objectives must target sustainable economic development that expands both the non-oil sector for domestic production and, as well, ramp up the export sector in a bid to diversify the nation’s production and export bases.
“The book recommends, among others, that the country’s transformation from a consumption to a production economy should be an explicit policy sub-sector of the diversification of the Nigerian economy”, the author stated.
The scholar, who noted that Nigeria descended into a consumption economy because Nigeria had not experienced a positive structural transformation that would lead to the reallocation of economic activities across three broad sectors – agriculture, manufacturing, and services, pointed out that “unlike the successful Asian economies, the Nigerian economy experienced neither the Green nor the Industrial Revolution”.