Cry For Nigeria & Toothpick Makers... Prayers Not The Solution

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It has been argued that all policy makers in Nigeria should go through basic critical reasoning test before assuming office. I must admit that going by one's own knowledge of contemporary policy making in Nigeria one will agree with that proposition. It is indeed, imperative that Nigeria gets men and women who would formulate and develop policies based on verifiable and quantifiable national interest. Nothing else will do, prayers will not help. This has to happen if Nigeria is to justify its existence and survival.

It is unimaginable that the policy of unbanning of toothpicks, textiles and other basic manufactured items can be justified on sound economic, political or social reasons. This policy reversal is plainly not in Nigeria's national interest. The policy is malicious and calculated to increase unemployment and lower further the country's standing in the eyes of the world.

For a country that noisily reminds its citizens that it wants to join the club of the 20th largest economies in the world within the next 10 or 20 years, not able to make common toothpick in 2010, this must pass as one of the biggest jokes of the century. The eighth largest exporter of oil in the world, the largest market in Africa and the largest repository of African manpower, can not replicate toothpick and textile making which our ancestors were able to do 200 years ago with bare hand! What a pity, Nigeria!

The devastating psychological effect of this policy aside, on pure elementary economics it makes no sense whatsoever to lift the ban on toothpick and sundry items. The cost of production of any item in Nigeria may have been deliberately prohibitive because of a stubborn reluctance to invest and develop the energy sector and failure to provide friendly loans to our manufacturers; but it is worst to destroy the faint hope of our budding manufacturers by exposing them to the risk of cheap imports/dumping. The development of a functional manufacturing base is one of the keys to the economic survival of any nation. Even those who are prepared to falsify evidence will accept that in the 21st century no emerging state can develop without having a good manufacturing base, or a strong service sector, or both. No nation can make it by relying on one single raw commodity, whether oil or not. Particularly, if the country refuses to add value to the raw material by controlling the entire process of extracting, processing and delivering it to the ultimate consumer. Regrettably, we have shown that we are not able to do the above with nature's gift to us.

All those in our league of oil producing countries have used their oil wealth to develop and consolidate their critical economic infrastructure like: transport network, energy, schools, hospitals; and develop their service and tourism sector. But in Nigeria, our so-called leaders have been busy gorging themselves on stolen oil money oblivious of the world around them. We have not managed to develop the most basic of manufacturing sector and our country is neither a shoppers' paradise, nor a tourist destination, except for those with kinky sense of excitement as Prof. Chinua Achebe once said in a British newspaper.

Out of bloody mindedness our policy makers have conspired to ensure that energy generation and supply is minimal and a complete lack of other infrastructure thereby making manufacturing unbearably expensive in Nigeria. But what they should not be allowed to get away with is to switch off the machines of those patriotic Nigerians that bothered to invest in basic manufacturing. Toothpick making is hardly going to win the Nobel price for technological innovation. It is so basic. Any nation that can not boast of skills in producing toothpick and furniture making, or deny its people the right to acquire those skills is pathetic and devoid of meaning.

Forget Prayers, Cry For Nigeria & Toothpick Makers.