FORMER Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Alfa Belgore, has traced the high rate of poverty in Nigeria, in spite of the presence of a huge natural resource base, including crude oil, gas and water, to the incursion of the military into governance in the country.
According to him, that dislocated some noble development plans evolved by the political class in the early days of the nation's independence. Belgore also declared that, had the military incursion not occurred, no Nigerian today would be unemployed and that neighbours, instead of coming here to attack Nigerians as they do through the insurgent groups, would have been seeking means of livelihood in a more dignified manner.
He charged the National Assembly to display a high sense of responsibility and patriotism as the lawmakers begin work on the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), describing the last Assembly's work on the bill as a disaster. The former CJN spoke in Abuja yesterday at the opening of the new office of the International Institute for Petroleum Energy, Oil and Gas (IIPELP), which he chairs on an advisory capacity.
The institute was set up to offer specialised skills and capacity for operators in the oil and gas industry in the country and beyond on policy formulation and implementation aimed at harnessing oil and gas resources for the benefit of the people, as well as enthroning a transparent and competitive system that can attract investors into the sector.
"As I was growing up, even before independence and right at independence, there were some development plans and investments, but some of them were abandoned while some of these investments cannot be located," Belgore said.
"We lost them following the incursion of military into governance. If all these were there, Nigeria today would be an entirely different story; everybody would be employed. When I say employed, I mean very few people would be working for the government.
"Many people would be working for themselves. So many companies would be struggling for space in agriculture, miming and transportation sectors. But you know that a country like Nigeria must have enemies that are working for her instability.
"But if a country is stable with a properly elected government, with leaders properly selected, which we seem to be having now because we have had properly conducted democratic elections - and if this continues for another 20 years, the country will definitely be different."
On the pending PIB, he said: "Interference by multinationals in the oil industry is responsible for the delay in the passage of the PIB. You must remember that they are here to make profit and not to make loss. That is where we are paying the price for democracy.
"In the military era, they would just come up and announce their decrees and there you have it. But I hope sooner than latter, we will have this bill. The last session of the National Assembly wanted to pass the PIB, which would have been a disaster.
"The National Assembly should first of all think of Nigeria and the future of their children and their grand children as they deliberate on the bill because money seems to have taken over our thinking."
President of the institute, Mr. Niyi Ayoola Daniels, said the initiative of the institute was a reaction to the British Petroleum (BP) Annual Statistical Review, 2012, which stateed that Nigeria's oil reserves and production could last for only the next 46 years.
"In the next half century, economic transformation in Nigeria would require significant institutional support to ensure desirable outcomes," he said. "The success of Nigeria's transformation lies squarely in the institutional development and organisational strengthening, otherwise there would be growth without governance."
The Guardian