‘We must use what we have to get what we need’
-By Chukwudi Odili
Background Treatise
During the first and second quarters of 2020, we observed with awe, how the steep fall in international oil prices and the lock-down against the coronavirus pandemic practically left our country Nigeria with lean financial resources needed for present and future development. Worst still, the Naira exchange rate soared from N350/USD to about N470/USD within that short period, signposting scarcity of FOREX needed to meet urgent import obligations.
Apparently, the situation was necessary to make us begin to use what we have to produce what we need; and by extension, export and save the excess of what we produce.
What we need
Basically, we need food and safe water; clothing and accessories (bags, belts and footwear); and essentially too, housing and furniture.
Socially, we need amenities such as hospitals, schools, electricity and fuel to power it. We also need means of transportation like cycles, motor vehicles, aircraft, ships and spare parts, and the enabling pathways such as roads, rails and waterways.
Industrially, we need machines and equipment and their spare parts to drive manufacturing and construction activities.
What we have
We have large expanse of fertile soil, favourable climate conditions and abundant human resources (skilled farmers) that could produce all varieties of staple food crops across the country including most essentially: cassava, yam, rice, beans, corn, millet and other grains, plantain, fruits and vegetables; as well as cash (exportable) crops such as palm oil and kernel, cocoa, cashew, rubber, cotton and ground nuts. We also have world-class herbs like Dogonyaro, Lemon-grass, Kola-nut, Quincy seed (bitter kola), Ginger, Neem, Papain, Garlic, Wide Indigo, Aloe-Vera which are all widely proven to be purely medicinal. Besides the favourable soil and climatic conditions, our country can boast of many other useful ecological habitats and natural resources, which include the sprawling and varied vegetation, reservoirs of rivers and lakes, and a deep ocean lining the southern fringes.
We have crude petroleum resources in abundant quantities, which have remained the mainstay of our foreign exchange. We have Bitumen (tar sands) used in road construction silently buried within the long stretch of land from the coast of Epe district in Lagos down to the Okitipupa districts of Ondo State. We have iron and steel in Itapke and Ajaokuta in Kogi State and Aladja in Delta State, which we can quickly utilize to rebuild our Iron and Steel industry. Zinc, tin and aluminium, for providing roofing and doors can be mined in the plateau and neighbouring middle-belt areas of the country. We have several other useful solid minerals.
What we have, can it meet our needs?
Our large expanse of fertile soil, favourable climate conditions and abundant human resources can be mobilized to sufficiently produce all the varieties of staple food crops. For instance, the oil palm tree could be harnessed to produce edible and industrial oil-based derivatives; likewise groundnuts and other vegetable plants. Furthermore, the oil palm can be tapped to provide palm wine, which we need for nourishment and leisure. In fact, the palm wine is better than imported brands originating from the Mediterranean region, not only in terms of nourishment but also in terms of safety and taste. Our cocoa can be processed into local Bournvita, Milo and Ovaltine beverage drinks (or ‘tea’) or chocolate candies while our rubber can be used for making the tyres that our cars need to run with. Our herbal plants and seeds on the other hand could be processed into traditional herbal medicine. It would be recalled that our forefathers remarkably depended on this local herbs as therapy to cure their diverse ailments, long before the coming of the Europeans. The favourable soil and climatic conditions and the varied vegetation favour the planting of all kinds of crops and the unconstrained breeding of livestock and poultry. Again, the large reservoirs of rivers and lakes within the nation’s heartland, and the ocean coexisting around the coastal fringes could all be harnessed to produce large amounts of fish and other aquatic animals; and could also be tapped and treated to yield potable water. This means that we have abundant natural resources that can supply all our food and water and wine and medicinal needs. What more, housing?
With regard to housing and furniture needs, the Mahogany and Iroko trees, found in the equatorial forest zones of the country, could also be preserved and salvaged for furniture production. Together with the abundant sand and clay and limestone (found in sufficient quantities in Nkalagu, Sokoto, Zamafara and Calabar), our country could produce sufficient cement locally, and we would be able to erect our houses and shelter completely, without resorting to any imported inputs. We have abundance of materials and local engineers and architects that are capable of building the houses and producing the furniture we need. What more, clothing and footwear?
The cotton lint that would be produced in the farms could easily be processed into textiles for clothing, using both traditional and advanced methods; while the hides and skins processed from livestock would serve as raw materials for making our shoes and bags and belts. Debatably, Aba made-shoes and belts and bags are as good as Italian and Spanish ones. So, you can see that we are also very capable of meeting our bodily-clothing and footwear needs.
What of the electricity and fuel that we would need to power the local industries such as the food-processing plants, and the housing-roof, wall, floor, door and window, clothing and footwear and furniture factories? It’s an indisputable fact that we have fuel resources in abundance, to the extent that we flare our gas without minding the wastes. Even if foreigners refuse buying our crude oil, nothing stops us from refining and exporting most of it to nearby African neighbours; in addition to utilizing as much of it as possible to power our local industries and provide abundant fuel for our domestic needs.
What of our infrastructural or social amenity needs?
Do we have all it takes to provide our social amenities such as schools, hospitals and roads?
In terms of human resources, the answer is ‘yes’. For instance, we have abundant technical manpower: qualified engineers and architects (who would construct the roads and build the schools and hospitals and organize the irrigation systems), doctors and nurses (who would work in the hospitals), economists (who would plan and manage the resources), teachers (who would teach in the schools). Some of our local engineers are already manufacturing cars!
In terms of raw materials for constructing the social amenities, the answer is also ‘yes’. For instance, our limestone and sand could be appropriated to provide materials for building our schools and hospitals. Our Bitumen (tar sands) could be tapped for road construction while our iron and steel could be mined and refined to provide finished products for constructing our bridges and automobiles and factories.
Furthermore, the water basins could further be redirected to serve as transportation routes to the hinterlands or serve the irrigational and agricultural system.
High Technology is perhaps, the only area where we need foreign assistance
In the area of fabrication and usage of highly automated and digitalized equipment used for instance in specialist hospitals or laboratories, or similar equipment used for constructing bridges and rails, or in the case of highly automated equipment used in fabricating industrial machines or aircrafts and ships and their spare parts, the local resources within the country, are usually on the average not adequately trained to handle the advanced technology. Hence, this is the only area where we need foreign assistance; both in the case of human resources and imported materials. Even at that, nothing stops us from beginning to aggressively research and develop and experiment our local prototypes.
Conclusion
Based on the analysis above, you could see that we have within our shores all we essentially need to be well-nourished, housed, clothed, and kept healthy for survival. If we could produce all our basic needs, as we have seen we could, so, why then is the nation panicking? Why is our Naira freely sliding against the Dollar and against the Euro and Pound?
To the extent that we could also produce much of our social needs, our local currency ought to remain very strong against other foreign currencies. For instance, we could construct our roads using almost our local personnel and raw materials. We could also in like manner build our own hospitals, electricity and schools.
Other than petroleum, we even have many things we could produce far in excess of our needs, to the extent we could start exporting them to other countries in no distant time.
In the long-run, we could advance to embrace higher technology. Perhaps, those things we don’t have expertise to produce at the moment, such as automated and digitalized machines, aircraft, ships, railway engines, etc., are the only things we should temporarily interchange with the things we have in excess, pending when we’re ready to start making them locally.
It is imperative we readjust quickly now, similar to how we should respond in a difficult closed-border war-situation. Delay is dangerous.
The author may be reached for further conversation via his email: chukwudiodili902@yahoo.com
