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The need for government to take concrete steps towards the development of human capital as the means of achieving the dream of shooting Nigeria to the top 20 developed economies of the world by the year 2020 has got more boost.
Human resource, key to vision 20-2020 - Soludo, Soyinka
The need for government to take concrete steps towards the development of human capital as the means of achieving the dream of shooting Nigeria to the top 20 developed economies of the world by the year 2020 has got more boost.
This was the high point of discussions by experts at the second 2008 annual Oceanic Global Leaders Forum which held in Lagos this week.
The Forum theme that focused on Human Capital Development in an Emerging Economy, Harnessing, Engaging and Wealth Creation" attracted Captains of industries, Chief Executives, and other participants.
The Managing Director Chief Executive of Oceanic Bank, Mrs. Cecilia Ibru said the event was part of the bank's contribution to the efforts aimed at harnessing the nation's vast human resources to her benefit
The financial sector is grateful for benefiting from reforms which have taken the sector to the grassroots due to efforts of the Obasanjo government and his reform team. She added that the FSS 2020 laid a huge demand on Nigeria to begin to think about strategies aimed at improving her human capital in order to meet the coming challenges
The position of all the discussants was that human capital and not infrastructure is a major challenge towards Nigeria's dream of Nigeria of hitting the top 20 largest economies by 2020. The governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Prof. Chukwuma Soludo insisted that Nigeria is just growing at half the rate required for sustained poverty reduction.
Not about wishful thinking
'For Nigeria to make it by 2020, we need to be working 72 hours for every 24 hours. Financial System Strategy (FSS2020) will not happen by our wishing, because Nigeria is still largely a macro resource dependent economy. The 21st Century does not belong to countries that are resources dependent, like those that are depending on oil, gas, solid minerals and so on. These countries would realise that by the turn of the century, they would discover that they would be left behind.
The CBN Governor revealed that it is technology and skilled human capital that would largely be driving the emerging economic society. Its knowledge and skill, that would create sustainable wealth, which would transcend generations yet unborn. Nigeria is suffering a different kind of paradox that is ‘suffering in the midst of plenty'. This is in the area of human capital, its is a fact that we are more than 140 million people yet in every aspect of our national life, there is acute shortage of high levels of skills.
Prof. Soludo said 'Human capital is the key area for Nigeria. 'To move to the next level which is the FSS2020; We must be able to use our present oil windfall to create a platform that would create skilled human capital that would continue to generate wealth long after the end of the oil boom."
Killing the builders
Prof. Wole Soyinka brought sober reflections on the issue when he emphasised the denigration of education in Nigeria. To illustrate his point on the problem, he had to show participants the photograph of late Mrs. Oluwatoyin Oluwafesan who was killed by secondary students in Bauchi while labouring to develop the nation through education. The female teacher was murdered by her pupils for standing against cheating during an examination. He pointed out that so many brains have been sacrificed in that manner.
'Needed human capital would not flow into Nigeria if those who subjected a skilled labourer to this kind of treatment can go unpunished and the society is still largely unperturbed".
The academic lamented that: 'There is no point of contact among the youth where knowledge is incubated and this is experienced at the political level, tertiary level down to the primary schools.
'There is accountable brain drain going on now in Nigeria, all the professors that have spoken before me have identified that education is germane to development of the human capital. The denigration of education started through the pauperization of the educational institutions beginning with the military and climaxed with the killing of Mrs. Olwatoyin in Bauchi", Soyinka said.
Invest in human beings
Prof. Eric Maskin also noted that globalization, instead of reducing the gap between the rich and the poor countries has succeeded in increasing the gap. This he said does not mean that globalization should be stopped but that rather Nigeria and the other developing economies must strategically invest in human capital in order to have the same opportunity in the globalize world.
He noted that Nigeria needs strong policy that would raise its skill level through education; this would make it easy for them to have international matching opportunities,
Yar'Adua's plan
Senator Saminu Daggash Minister of National Planning revealed that the Ya'ardua administration would soon roll out a national masterplan that would include the power sector and the transport sector which would include the infrastructure plan for water ways and the educational sector.
Prof. Ndi Okereke-Onyuike Director General Nigerian Stock Exchange said the Exchange has succeded in bringing a lot of Nigerians in the Diaspora back to Nigeria to set up businesses that would add value to the Nigerian economy.