Don't Miss

Nigeria can’t be among top economies in 2020 – Don

By BusinessNews Staff on February 25, 2014

A former Presidential Adviser on Food Security and Spokesman of the Northern Elders Forum, Prof Ango Abdullahi, said on Monday that Nigeria’s quest of being among the 20 largest economies in the world by the year 2020 would remain mere rhetoric given the current bad state of the country’s economy.

He also touched on the current state of insecurity in the country and submitted that unless government at all levels addresses the problem of poverty and other social injustices affecting the masses, the current war against terrorism and militancy would remain mere talk-show.

Abdullahi, while presenting a lecture titled, “Agricultural Transformation for Industrial Development”, at the ongoing Kaduna International Trade Fair, also expressed concerns over the gradual decline of Nigeria’s life expectancy ratio, which he attributed to the bad state of the economy.

He said despite several economic policies that were initiated by past and current administrations, Nigeria was still ranked among the 15 poorest countries in the world with 70 per cent of its citizens living below poverty line.

He lashed out at former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration for misguiding Nigerians on life expectancy figures while in office by placing the poverty line of citizens at 54 per cent as against the 70 per cent identified by his office as Special Adviser on Food Security.

He called for the revival of the agricultural and industrial sector, while blaming the situation on some of the economic policies like Operation Feed the Nation, Green Revolution and Structural Adjustment Programme.

He said, “It is a pipe dream for us to say we will be among the 20 economies of the world by 20:20-20.

“Unless Nigeria goes back to agriculture, the country will continue to have social and economic dislocation. All the upheavals are as result of poverty.”

Also speaking at the event, Governor Mukhtar Yero of Kaduna State reiterated the urgent need for every state to go back to agriculture as a means of curbing insecurity in the country.

He said the state government was working relentlessly to complete its dam projects in order to provide irrigation for farmers and also generate power for industries operating in the state.

While calling for the revival of agricultural extension services in the country, the governor also noted that one major problem confronting the country was that of attitudinal change.

“The only way we can change, especially in the north is to go into agriculture as this is the only way to curb the current security challenges in the north,” he said.

[Punch]

headline