Prof. Segun Ajibola
Nigeria may be heading for an unprecedented gloom in an imminent post-oil era unless urgent steps are taken from now to start finding some other virile alternative economic base for the country.
This was the consensus of an academic discourse in a public lecture titled: “Deregulating the Nigerian Economy As We Move To The Era of Oil” organised by the Faculty of Management Sciences and Department of Banking and Finances at the Three-in-One Hall of the Lagos State University, (LASU), Ojo on Wednesday.
Delivering the lecture, President and Chairman, Council for the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria, Prof. Segun Ajibola feared that an economy which survival was solely dependent on revenues accruing from oil would eventually collapse once the oils dry up.
To avert the unsavoury consequences which would spell doom on a mono economic base like Nigeria, the seasoned academic therefore, urged the nation’s leaders and drivers of the polity to pay more than mere lip service to the all-important need to diversify the economy and take as serious, useful suggestions and well-researched postulations coming from the academia on ways to move the economy, and indeed the nation forward in its quest to catch up with global trends in development and breakthrough.
“We need not just a deregulated economy but also an economy that will not be subjected to the whims and caprices of a few people who drive the economy through political powers.
“An economy that is over- regulated can never perform at its best.”; the academic banker submitted.
Ajibola observed that global trends and the happenings among the powers that dominate oil production coupled with the double standard power plays of nations who constitute world economic powers have all combined to militate against the health and wealth of the Nigerian oil.
The banking and finance academic observed with regrets that Nigeria was such a country that though, blessed with abundant intellectual pool, but she does not seem enthusiastic to tap from such lofty pool to harnesses and convert the natural resources to economic development that would make the envy of other nations in the world, given that Nigerian intellectuals abound all over the world being explored to contribute positively to the ever growing economies of developed countries.
Prof. Ajibola gave a statistics that
” Some 60% of our (Nigerian) internal revenue comes from petroleum , a situation that is too delicate and may cause untold hardship should anything happen to oil any moment.
“Less than 25% of global population controls the affairs and decide the fate of the remaining over 75% of the population.
” Almost every Nigerian has become an economic rent in our over reliance on oil while governments at all levels have remained non-responsive to the needs and yearnings of the citizenry.
“So where are we in Nigeria? Have we started marching towards developing other sectors of the economy?”, Ajibola queried.
Buttressing Ajibola’s views, the Dean, Faculty of Management, Prof. Banji Fajonyomi canvassed a knowledge-driven economy even as he raised the poser: ” How do we make the economy survive when the oil has dried off ?” .
The brain storming session was coordinated by Dr. Toyin Oluitan also of the same faculty.
