By Okechukwu Emeh, Jr.
It is notable that huge income from such cash crops had funded and sustained a lot of development projects of the regional governments of the time. Being a goldmine, forward-looking countries with a more diversified economy like the US, the UK, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, China, Australia, Israel, Thailand, Malaysia, South Africa and Rwanda have prioritised commercial agriculture as a veritable means of boosting their export trade.
For example, Malaysia, which took palm kernels from eastern part of Nigeria in 1961, is today one of the leading exporters of the cash crop whose profitability is more than crude oil because of different raw materials from the kernels that are used for producing cooking oil, cosmetics and drugs. Another fine example of agriculture as a money-spinner is post-genocide Rwanda, where the visionary government of Mr Paul Kagame has superintended over massive development of coffee plantations and made exports of the commodity the hub of the country’s amazing economic metamorphosis.
Our policy-makers should take a cue from the aforementioned countries by articulating a clear-cut policy for agricultural transformation in Nigeria as a way of propping up our economy. The Buhari administration should set the ball rolling in this regard by unfurling policies in the country that would ease farmland acquisition, ramp up agric funding, establish farm settlements for absorption of teeming unemployed youths and enlist the services of agricultural extension officers to assist farmers gain expertise on new farming methods, including production of genetically modified (GM) foods.
The administration is also expected to make available to genuine farmers agricultural input like cheap credit facilities, machinery (including tractors), implements (hoe, cutlass, etc), high-yielding and disease resistant seeds/seedlings, subsidised chemical fertilisers, insecticide and herbicide.
There is equally an overarching need for us to go beyond rain-fed agriculture and government could facilitate this by exploiting our water sector through construction of dams and irrigation systems for year-long farming in Nigeria, as well as rolling back the frontiers of desert encroachment and building national capacity against climate change and the associated global warming.
Other measures that would scale up agricultural investment in the country include developing critical rural infrastructure like roads and transport system to enable farmers get their crops to markets, reducing post-harvest losses by constructing storage facilities like silos and grain reserves in food basket areas like north-west and north-central and encouraging food processing for exports, reinstating agricultural marketing boards to help farmers sell their produce on favourable terms, checking farmlands encroachment by herdsmen and the incessant bloody confrontations and imposing restriction on imports of agricultural produce we can locally grow like rice, beans, banana, fish and poultry.
Another vital sector that holds most of the aces to remarkable economic turnaround in Nigeria if well-harnessed in this era of oil gloom is that of solid minerals. Thankfully, our polity is awash with various types of extractive materials like iron ore, tin, aluminium, zinc, manganese, bauxite, gypsum, cobalt, coal, bitumen, gold, copper, uranium, kaolin, phosphate, salt, dolomite, tantalite, glass-sand, limestone, the list is endless.
Apart from their high revenue value, such materials can provide the springboard for a full-blown industrialisation geared towards manufacturing of finished products in Nigeria for both internal consumption and exports. Just ponder on billions of dollars the country is woefully losing annually due to lack of keen interest in resuscitating her moribund iron and steel company in Ajaokuta, Kogi State. Unfortunately, this is happening when countries like the US, the UK, Canada, Russia, Japan, China and India are obsessively preoccupied with protecting their heavily subsidised iron/steel sector because of its pivotal role in the multi-billion dollar global construction industry.
It is, however, widely expected that the Federal Government would explore our untapped mining industry as one of the most alternative revenue earners in Nigeria that would, in turn, accelerate economic diversification, attract foreign investments, create millions of jobs and contribute to rapid socio-economic development of our mining communities. To this end, the government, apart from revoking dormant exploration and mining licenses, is required to conduct a thorough audit of wide range of solid minerals in the country with a view to ensuring transparency and accountability in their exploitation.
The Federal Government, which should enter into a mutually beneficial relationship with state governments and private investors in harnessing our mining riches, is also implored to formalise illegal mining in Nigeria by making artisanal and small scale miners to organise themselves into cooperatives that will contribute to our economy through royalties and taxes.
Likely to make Nigeria take a quantum leap in economic growth is our tourism sector, which, lamentably, has been relegated to the background by our successive administrations. Indubitably, the country is blessed with many exotic places of tourist attraction that could fetch us billions of naira yearly if re-packaged.
These include Yankari Games Reserve in Bauchi State, Gashaka Gumti National Park in Taraba State, Olumo Rocks in Ogun State, National Arts Theatre in Lagos State, Zuma Rock in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Kainji National Park in Niger State, Living Spring in Osun State, Idanre Hills in Ondo State, Obudu Mountain Resort in Cross River State, the temperate and greenery Mambilla Plateau in Taraba State and that of Jos Plateau, Ogbunike Cave in Anambra State, Rivers Benue and Niger confluence in Lokoja, Kogi State and National War Museum in Umuahia, Abia State.
Disappointingly, because of the pernicious influence of easy money provided by crude oil exports over the years, along with insecurity in certain parts of Nigeria, some of these exquisite and restorative tourist and recreational centres have been neglected to the extent of becoming a shadow of their former self. This parlous development is unlike what is obtained in fellow African states like Kenya, Tanzania, Seychelles, Mauritius, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, South Africa, Egypt, Tunisia, Senegal, Cote d’Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana and Rwanda, which rely partly on their tourism industry for economic survival, as seen in areas like nature reserve, holiday resort and heritage or memorial site.
With collapsing crude oil prices, the Nigerian government would have to look inward by revitalising our grossly neglected tourism industry. Apart from bearing dividends in terms of being instrumental in raising our national revenue profile, creating job opportunities and catalysing the growth of sectors like hospitality (including hotels and restaurants) and entertainment (film/movies, music, etc), the industry would also help to cushion our economy against the vagaries of the international petroleum crude market.
To be concluded tomorrow
•Emeh, a social researcher, writes
from Abuja