Nigeria is, without question, a nation endowed by the Almighty God in a way few other countries can ever boast. One hundred and seventy million strong (nearly 47 percent of the West African population), two hundred and fifty culturally rich ethnicities and languages, ocean, rivers, and creeks teaming with fish and life, oil and natural gas reserves that are the largest on the African continent, expansive tropical rainforest literarily bursting at the seams with wildlife and diverse natural resources, Nigeria indeed is a land flowing with milk and honey.
However, despite the abundance of the necessary ingredients that make for greatness, the Nigerian nation continues to wallow in the fallow ground of smallness as though weighed down by the sheer magnitude of her blessedness. Instead of a people suckling nourishment at the ever-milky breasts of a richly endowed motherland, the sons and daughters of Nigeria are left to scrap and scrape for livelihood from the crumbs that fall off the table of the few high and mighty. The Nigerian people contend daily with a fifty-five year history of stunted economic growth marked by intense poverty and inequality, beyond poor standard of living, a structurally deficient infrastructure services, a health care system characterized by its inaccessibility, unaffordability, and stone-age quality, an education system that churns out uneducated illiterates, and a political system infested with thieves, thugs, and goofballs.
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How a nation can be this richly endowed and yet turn out to be this poor is a phenomenon that makes for a rich source of award winning academic research publications for years to come, and good class materials for many sociology and economics courses. The tale of the fate of such a once promising nation will be told by generations yet unborn.
The answer to the burning question – the ever so nagging and vexing question – as to why there is such a deeply rooted and extremely debilitating impoverishment in the midst of so much wealth and abundance, is not too far-fetched at all. The phenomenon is referred to as the “resource curse” or the “paradox of plenty”. It is also known as the “Dutch Disease”, a term which was first coined in 1977 by the Economist magazine. In a November 5, 2014 article titled, “What Dutch Disease is, and why it is bad” the Economist magazine described the phenomenon as follows:
“Large gas reserves had been discovered in 1959. Dutch exports soared. But there was a contrast between "external health and internal ailments". From 1970 to 1977 unemployment increased from 1.1% to 5.1%. Corporate investment was tumbling. This puzzle was explained by the high value of the guilder, then the Dutch currency. Gas exports had led to an influx of foreign currency, which increased demand for the guilder and thus made it stronger. That made other parts of the economy less competitive in international markets. That was not the only problem. Gas extraction was (and is) a relatively capital-intensive business, which generated few jobs. And in an attempt to stop the guilder from appreciating too fast, the Dutch kept interest rates low. That prompted investment to rush out of the country, crimping future economic potential.”
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Sunday, January 15, 1956, is a date that should be forever etched in the memory of every Nigerian. On that fateful day Nigeria caught the Dutch Disease – ironically – from men who came from the Dutch land. The day marked the discovery of the Oilfield at Oloibiri by the Dutch oil company, Shell D’Arcy, the first Shell Company in Nigeria. Within a couple of years of being infected, the disease sank its teeth deep into the soul of the nation. Like a raging wildfire, its intoxicating influence spreads over our land, corrupting every heart and mind along its path. The disease has now become so widespread, and the nation trapped within the firm grips of its tentacles, that the World Bank recently reported that oil now accounts for close to 90% of exports and roughly 75% of Nigeria’s consolidated budgetary revenues.
As it’s the case with countries infected with the Dutch Disease, it was all very honky dory at the very beginning. Nigeria was awash in a deluge of wealth. The blustering wind of the rapid influx of the petrodollar unfurled the sail of the boat of the Nigerian economy, propelling it forward at a warped speed. The power and influence of the Nigerian government was elevated to unprecedented heights by a torrential flood of petrodollar that poured into the national coffers. The overnight wealth transformed Nigeria from the stature of a midget into that of the Giant of Africa. So flushed with wealth was Nigeria that General Yakubu Gowon, the then military Head of State, declared to the world that, "the only problem Nigeria has is how to spend the money she has."
To prove that point, the Nigerian government set out on a grandiose display of national profligacy. It embarked on an unprecedented spending spree that broke all records in the Guinness book of records – a record which remains unmatched till today. The spendthrift Nigerian government went on to pay the salaries of workers in other West African countries. There was such a boom in the issuance of import license certificates that Nigerians, suffused with petrodollars, imported anything and everything that could fit into the cargo hold a ship or an airplane. From sand to stones to snow removers, just name it, Nigerians imported them all.
Between January 15 and February 12, 1977, Nigeria, under the military dictatorship of General Olusegun Obasanjo, hosted the Second, and the very last, World Black Festival of Arts and Culture (aka FESTAC). The event attracted more than 15,000 participants, from over 50 countries. It was an extraordinary display, and the textbook case, of the how to burn the wealth of a nation. For one month, the Nigerian government, as it were, invited the demons and minions of those nations to feast on the Nigerian economy, in the process sucking the very essence of life out of it.
The educational sector benefited somewhat from the spending galore though. Following the 1960 report of the Ashby Commission, the Nigerian government established 4 Universities between 1960 and 1962. These included, the Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria, University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University), University of Lagos, and the University of Nigeria, Nzukka. In addition to the University of Ibadan, which was already in existence, there were now 5 Universities in the country. However, additional Universities would soon follow in quick succession, and by 1977 the number of universities had increased to 12. Included in the second wave were the University of Benin, University of Calabar, University of Port Harcourt, University of Ilorin, University of Jos, University of Sokoto, and Bayero University.
Students attended universities virtually free of charge; the Nigerian government paid the tuition. Meals at the university cafeteria were highly subsidized and in some instances food were served free of charge. Kids who left high school for universities, looking gaunt, with hollowed cheeks, and pants falling off their waists, would return to their high school a few months later with chubby cheeks and waist line the size of the equator, having been fed on government largesse.
Those were the golden age of university education in Nigeria, and the Nigerian version of the gilded age.
To be continued...
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