Felipe Calderon, a former President of Mexico, Tuesday, told the Federal Government that the only way out of the economic duldrum bedevilling Nigeria is the environment of rule of law and accountability.
Calderon, while delivering his keynote address at the 2018 Ogun State Investors Forum in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital said new economy of a nation can only be built on rule of law and not on national resources.
The former President explained that research had shown that the economy of a country with rule of law can grow for as much as 34% regardless of its geographical location, culture, leadership ability or even the natural resources.
The same research, he said, had shown that the economy of nations without rule of law and accountability would only remain stagnant at 0% or be crawling only on 1%.
He said Singapore as a nation has no national resources but remain one of the best economies in the world because of rule of law and accountability.
“It is important to have a country that is rules by law and not by man,” he said.
Calderon said one other area of focus should be fighting corruption which, he said, has been come cancer for any society, adding that no country or society with corruption can have a future for the people.
According to him, any country with the two indexes would see an upsurge in free trade and diversified trade, domacratic freedom and accountability and digital economy and innovation.
Calderon who governed Mexico between 2006 and 2012 said his country was faced with serious challenges similar to those of Nigeria, including organised crime, financial crisis, economic downturn, etc, when he became the President.
According to him, the economic crises were tackled by ensuring temporary increase in public spending, expansion of social programme, programmes to preserve jobs, amongst others.
He said 400,000 jobs were preserved on annual basis by the government subsidising the salaries of workers at the private sector.
Calderon said the Mexico competitiveness was increased by betting on free trade which saw the country signing free trade agreement with not less than 44 countries; tariff reduction; public private investments; investments in education and health and deregulation on ease of doing business which saw the country eliminating 16,000 federal rules.
Vice president Yemi Osinbajo, while making his remarks assured that Nigeria is on the right track to economic recovery, blaming grand corruption of the past.
The Vice President who expressed delight at the economic growth of the state said the federal government has launched and implemented economic recovery and growth plan, pursued peace in the Niger Delta and diversify the economy.
Osinbajo said the main problem of Nigeria was not its unhealthy dependence on single commodity but corruption which has seen the proceeds of the commodity been hijacked by very few people.
He said, “We have launched and implemented a comprehensive economy recovery and growth plan, we pursued peace in the Niger Delta, we focused on improving our business environment, we scaled up our investment in agriculture and infrastructure and aggressively worked at expanding Nigeria revenue base.
“Perhaps most importantly, we have reversed the grand corruption in public finance and impunity which attended the conduct of public business especially in the past five years.
“The main reason for Nigeria’s growth is not just a matter of our relying heavily on a single commodity, it is the fact that proceeds of that single commodity were regularly hijacked consistently by a few.
“In the so called strategic contract with NPDC, the promoters of those companies made away with about $3billion, almost a tenth of out reserves at a point, at the moment, we are in the course of getting the $3 billion to built roads; the Abuja-Kaduna-Kano road, the second Niger bridge, the Enugu-Port Hacourt road, the East West road, the Sagamu-Benin-Ore road, the Kano Maiduguri road, the Abuja-Lafia road, the Akwanga-Keffi road plus the Lagos-Abeokuta road.
“It is important for us to understand that our country’s problems must be analyzed on the perspective of what our real issues are, we can’t talk about the Nigeria economy without the plight that was caused years ago by people simply stealing the resources of this country.
“In one single transaction, the sum of 100 billion Naira and $289 million in cash were released three weeks to the 2015 elections. That money was essentially embezzled.
“When you consider that in 2014 when the price of oil was at an average of $110 a barrel, only 99 billion Naira was spent on power, works and housing; agriculture and transportation got 14 and 15 billion Naira respectively. So the total spent on capital in 2014 on those areas have mentioned was just N153 and over N150 billion was released and shared in three days, this is the enormity of what we are talking about.
“There’s no country in the world that can survive on ground corruption and that is what we are talking about and that is why it is important for the Federal Governments under President Muhammad Buhari to reverse that grand corruption.”
Osinbajo who lauded the initiative of the Ogun State government called for a sub regional economic summit among Ogun, Lagos and Benin Republic towards exploring the potential of the proximity of both Lagos and Benin Republic to the state.
He said the programme and policies of the Federal government were targeted at improving the potential of states, regardless of partisan affiliation, adding that a total of N1.91 trillion Naira has been released to stated in form of Paris Club refund and budget support facilities.
Both the Ministers of Finance and Agricultural and Rural Development, Kemi Adeosun and Audu Ogbeh respectively said the country has the capacity to grow its GDP at 7% by being focused.
Ogbeh bemoaned the 9% interest rate to farmers by the Central Bank of Nigeria as being extremely high, adding that, though it’s better than over 20% by commercial banks but that 5-7% would be more preferable.
Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State, while delivering his speech said his administration is poised to bequeathing a lasting legacy and provide a model of development that is impactful and sustainable for the state.
Amosun who highlighted his achievements in the areas of agriculture, infrastructure, security and investment said this is the time to support his administration the more, now that is winding up.
