Stories by Amaka Ifeakandu
A former Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon, has expressed the need for Nigeria government to adopt strategic economic planning approach that would centre on reforming and modifying existing projects instead of abandoning them for new schemes.
Gowon who spoke in Lagos during the 21st yearly stockbrokers conference said that Nigeria will continue to miss opportunities if it fails to build on previous projects or on things that has been down in the previous years.
In his explanation, he said,
“We have advised them that they should really go back to thinking of economic planning and starting from today to continue for the future. The question of government, irrespective of which party is in charge, they should always continue to build or reform what have been done before, rather than abandoning it because of difference in ideology or whatever.
“If only the government that took over from us were able to carry through the development plan that we had, the story of this country would have been very different. By now we would not only be competing with Dubai but with New York or America or many other nations. But unfortunately, that did not happen.
“We have been missing opportunities by not carrying out that developmental plan of 1975-1980. What we wanted to do at that time was that we wanted Nigerians to take the highest command of the economy but that did not happen.”
Also speaking, a former Permanent Secretary, Phillip Asiedu said that Nigeria would have escaped poverty, if the country had continued with the 1975 -1980 indigenisation plan.
He said that Nigerians are yet to recover from the massive disruption of confidence that followed the second indigenisation policy due to failure to put into cognizance the already existing plans.
According to him “In the first indigenisation plan, people who sold their properties, their companies, their shares were able to get their money, in accordance to the status of investment, but the second plan, three years four years, you sold your company, you got the money, you could not transfer it, it was getting loss.”
“Nigerians still yet to recover from that massive disruption of confidence.
We hope that this present set of people will not lose the opportunity because if we had continued with the 1975 -1980 plan and subsequent plans, we would have been at pars or ahead of the Asian tigers and Nigeria would have escaped poverty.
“After the civil war, people do not realize that with the ‘three Rs’, Rehabilitation, Reconciliation and Reconstruction, Nigerian economy started growing by 11.5 per cent per annum, ten more years of that, we would have escaped poverty.
“What was the consequence of abandonment of planning, by 1980, economy grew at -1 percent and for about 20 years, it was just recording uncertainties. We pray that the present people, never minding what is happening should have a vision, vision 2040, let us just plan for the future not for the next election,” he added.
