Oil revenue: Too Little to Pay for The Nigerian Dream

Oil creates the illusion of a completely changed life, life without work, life for free”¦. The concept of oil expresses perfectly the eternal human dream of wealth achieved through lucky accident ”¦. In this sense oil is a fairy tale and like every fairy tale a bit of a lie – Ryszard Kapuscinski Like a torrential rainfall slicing through the sky, flooding the streets and in no time – with the same measure – drying up without a trace after sunshine, oil revenue in Nigeria may not make lasting impacts on the future of Nigeria. How many times have we been inundated with the statement that “The sea never dries”? Unfortunately, in the case of Nigeria, the sea of oil revenue will soon dry and won’t be enough to pay for the Nigeria of our dreams. One may ask: What’s the Nigerian dream? It is the dream of building cities on the moon and other planets; the dream of launching the most advanced rockets in the world; the dream of paving all the streets of Nigeria with gold; the dream of making the Nigerian people the most respected and admired around the world; the dream of creating a nation where the green and white green flag would be the most respected. To achieve these lofty dreams, a humongous amount of money is needed. However, the present reality of the oil and gas industry around the world is not encouraging, which has led to lean resources in Nigeria. That resources are trickling into the Nigerian economy, though, is self-inflicted – because when the world saved; we squandered. When the world thought about tomorrow, our concern was squarely about present gratification. When the world invested in sustainable development and infrastructure, we put enormous efforts into stomach infrastructure. Now the Nigerian dream may be in danger of not being fully realised. Too LittleWith the realisation that the Nigerian dream is beyond bread and butter, it will be interesting to know that even though oil is currently the mainstay of the Nigerian economy, it has no capacity to birth the Nigerian dream in totality. There are other sectors of the Nigerian economy where massive resources can be generated. In its report, the Bureau of Statistics reports that in real terms, the non-Oil sector contributed 89.71% to the nation’s GDP in Q1 of 2016. The breakdown shows that trade contributed 21.55% to nominal GDP in Q1 and the Real Estate Services sector contributed 6.46% to real GDP in Q1 2016. Other Services contributed 4.08% to real GDP in Q1 of 2016, Construction contributed 3.99% to nominal GDP; Agriculture contributed 19.17% to nominal GDP in Q1 2016. The Oil sector which is presently the darling of the majority of Nigerians accounted for 10.29% of total real GDP in Q1 2016. The foregoing shows that other sectors of the Nigerian economy are of equal ”“ if not more – importance to the Nigerian economy. What Experts Are SayingWhile speaking at the second run of the Media for Oil Reform forum at The School of Media and Communications, Pan-Atlantic University, Dr. Dauda Garba, Nigerian Officer of Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI), made a comparative analysis between Nigeria and other OPEC countries in terms of oil per capita and came to the conclusion that even though Nigeria is sitting on $23, 400 per capita, oil revenue won’t be enough to pay for the Nigerian dream. Former President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Mr Olisah Agbakoba declared that there is massive untapped revenue in Nigeria’s maritime sector estimated at N7 trillion per annum. According to him, “there is massive untapped revenue in our maritime sector estimated at N7 trillion per annum. In order to tap revenue from this sector, there will be the need for the overhaul of policy, institutional, regulatory and legal framework. “Nigeria was designated to be a maritime hub for West and Central Africa, with the potential to be a Maritime International Centre, MIC, but Nigerian ports are being abandoned for those in the Benin Republic and Togo.” A financial expert, Alhaji Babatunde Salami, the Group Head, North Central 2 of First Bank Plc, said the Federal Government needs to review the Land Use Act in order to promote agriculture and put in place support for farmers by way of creating international markets for their produce. The Way ForwardIf Nigerian leaders are truly serious about the realisation of the Nigerian dream; there is an urgent need to look beyond oil and look at other sectors that can bring in massive resources. One of the ways to get the resources is for the government to be deliberate about tapping into the human resources that abound in Nigeria. The first step in doing this is for the government to value the Nigerian people genuinely; then can the human resources perform extraordinary feats. Also, the government needs to stimulate enterprise spirit right from elementary school all the way to the tertiary institutions. The awakening of this enterprise spirit will ensure that we export more than we import. Nigerians must be encouraged to be creators instead of consumers. It is then that we will have more resources than is necessary for consumption and be able to fund the Nigeria of our dreams.