Voice of Wisdom -Obafemi Awolowo: The Rich And The Highly Placed Are Running A Dreadful Risk In Their Callous Neglect Of The Poor And The Down-Trodden
It is common ground that Nigeria is one of the most underdeveloped countries of the world. Two pertinent questions to which many leaders, especially the so-called economic advisers to top government functionaries, appears to have closed their minds or to have refused or failed to apply their minds is: what are the chief causes of our underdevelopment?
It would appear that our expert planners, from period to period, plan for the economic growth of Nigeria and not for its development. The phenomenon of growth without development is habitually overlooked. All development economists outside Nigeria are agreed that there is substantial difference between growth and development. I say economists outside Nigeria, deliberately. For in Nigeria most of the experienced economists have allowed partisan political prejudices to colour their analyses and judgments, and badly damage their scholastic credibility.
All around us we see evidence of growth. New factories, new shops, new highways, plenty of motor vehicles, greater output of petroleum and of cement, etc. In the result, our per capita real income has risen somewhat. But in spite of all these, Nigeria still remain underdeveloped. It also remains one of the poorest countries in the world.
Gerald Meier denominates the objectives of economic development as ‘better nourishment, better health, better education, better living conditions, and an expand range of opportunities in work and leisure for the poor…
Jacob Viner who is a world-acclaimed development economist has this to say in the book of progress of UNDERDEVELOPED AREAS edited by B.F. Hoselitz: ‘…it must be recognised that the objective of development should be not only raised the level of per capita real income BUT ALSO TO REDUCE THE ABSOLUTE NUMBER OF INDVIDUALS AND THE PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL POPULATION BELOW A MINIMUM LEVEL. OF REAL INCOME.’
Judged in the light of these development criteria, and having regard to available data, it can be said that, as the years roll by, Nigeria is getting worse rather than getting better. For sure, the per capita real income is rising slowly, but the percentage of our total population … below the level of minimum living income is increasing daily and rapidly. We can now see quite clearly that the objectives of development are: to raise the level of per capita real income, and to increase the absolute number of individuals and the percentage of our total population, who can afford to live above a minimum level of real income, and thereby enjoy ‘better nourishment, better health, better education, better living conditions, and expanded range of opportunities in work and leisure.’ It can also be seen quite clearly that these are the objectives which the Ondo state government like the other UPN governments are striving conscientiously to achieve.
Nigerian leaders, of whatever political camp, must be under no illusion that in order to achieve these objectives, we must pull Nigeria out of the morass of underdevelopment and develop the country. The next question then: what and what constitute the morass of underdevelopment? The constituent elements and the characteristics are incontrovertible; and they are;
- Ignorance;
- Illiteracy;
- Disease;
- Calorie deficiency;
- Dependence of subsistence agriculture, and excessive under-employment of the rural population;
- Deficiency in techniques, organisation and capital. All these can be easily translated into three kinds of underdevelopment, namely;
- Underdevelopment of the body, arising from ignorance, illiteracy, and deficiency in techniques and organisation.
- Underdevelopment of the body, arising from disease, calorie deficiency, bad water, bad housing, meagre clothing, and filthy environment;
- Underdevelopment of agriculture and excessive underemployment of the rural population, arising from underdevelopment of the mind and body, and from lack of savings and capital formation.
From the foregoing, the solutions to Nigeria’s underdevelopment problems are clear. They consist in FULL DEVELOPMENT AND FULL EMPLOYMENT OF EVERY NIGERIAN – MAN OR WOMAN, CHILD OR ADOLESCENT.
The full development of a Nigerian, or of any man for that matter, must proceed on two fronts simultaneously: the full development of this body, and the full development of his mind. For the development of his body, every man needs suitable and adequate food, shelter and suitable and adequate shelter, and suitable and adequate clothing. To procure food, shelter and clothing in suitable and adequate quantum, he must be in possession of commensurate purchasing power.
It has been established that a COUNTRY IS POOR BECAUSE IT IS POOR; that is A COUNTRY IS UNDERDEVLOPED BECAUSE IT IS UNDERDEVOLPED.
This proposition can be put in many variant forms all of which is are equally true. It can be said that a COUNTRY IS POOR BECAUSE ITS PEOPLE ARE POOR; IT IS POOR BECAUSE IT IS PEOPOLE ARE UNDEVELOPED IN BODY AND MIND; and ITS PEOPLE ARE BECAUSE THEY SUFFER FROM IGNORANCE, UNDERNOURISHMENT, CALORIE DEFICINECY, and DIESEASE, and so on and so forth.
IN SHORT, A MAN IS UNABALE TO ENJOY THE GOOD THINGS OF LIFE MBECAUSE HE DOES NOT ENJOY THE GOOD THINGS OF LIFE. But he cannot get the good things of life without money. This, the vast majority of our people do not have. It is for this reason that a ‘reasonable national minimum living wage or income’ of at least 200.00 naira per month, becomes an urgent desideratum. Out of 80 million populations, about 70 million live in abject poverty whilst about 60 million are actually starving, and have for houses shelters unsuitable for modern poultry or piggery. As against this soul-depressing picture, we have in our midst about 1000 rich Nigerians who in the past cleverly rigged the sources of the wealth or our nation, and we are now tactically poised onto oligopolies all munificent avenues of riches that may supervene now in the future. The rich, and the highly-placed in business, public life, and government, are running a dreadful risk in the callous neglect of the poor and down-trodden. We expect that the rank and file of the law-enforcement and security agencies should be devoted and dedicated in their onerous assignments of protecting our lives and properties; we expect the low-income workers to be loyal in their respective occupations of drudge-of-all-work. But what they receive by way of remunerations for a whole month is much less than what is spent by each of many of us to entertain his friends every day of the week, at home or in some high class hotels. Indeed, their wage or income is inadequate for any suitable standard of living. Apart from food, shelter, and clothing, the body of man needs protection against preventable diseases, and rescue from the attack of any disease. It is the duty of the government, without any cost to the individual citizen, to is ill, and to assist him in keeping his environment clean, sanitary, and wholesome.
The full development of man’s mind consists in good and sound education up to the limit of each person’s absorptive capacity. All men have innate talents. These talents differ from man to man. We don’t know and cannot know all the quantum are saying, therefore is: whatever the number of a person’s talents, until those are developed. All we are saying, therefore, is: whatever the number of a person’s talents- two. Three, five or more- opportunity should be provided by the government, free of charge, to enable him to develop all his talents to the fullest extent possible. It will be neither just nor equitable to give opportunity to a person with to a person with four talents to develop them to full, whilst a man with eight, because poor percentage, has no opportunity to develop only one or two of those eight. When this kind of discrimination in the provision of opportunity occurs, the individual discriminated against is unable to contribute to social development as much as he would have done otherwise. In result, both him and the society suffer.
In other words, when all the talents in society are not fully developed it is not the individuals that are adversely affected alone who suffer; the society as a whole suffers as well. For, the economic, social and political development of society is absolutely a function of the aggregate efforts of the entire members of society. Now, granting that every Nigerian is given an opportunity to develop his talents, it is imperative that he should also be given an opportunity to employ developed talents. In other words, he must be afforded equal opportunity to contribute to social development the same way as his fellow Nigerians, irrespective of birth or state or origin. Since his share of total development will depend on contribution to the social pool, it will be unjust and inequitable to deny one the opportunity of employment, and provide it for another. It can be seen that full development of man and his full employment are not social imperatives but also inseparably inter-connected and complementary. To pursue one without the other is detrimental to the best interests of society. For one thing, the objectives of development will not be achieved; and for another a good deal of wanton injustice and inequity would have been done to those who have been discriminated against the process.
It is for all these reasons that I advocate, and will continue to advocate until my advocacy is heeded and upheld by all, that FULL DEVELOPMENT and FULL EMPLOYMENT (as I have described them) of every Nigerian are accepted as Nigeria’s TOPMOST PRIROTIES and the CONERSTONE OF ALL OUR DEVOLPMENT PLANS. The UPN-controlled states plus Kano state plus Kaduna state have blazed the trail: it is hounorable, not in any way shameful, for the other states to emulate them; and will be praiseworthy for the federal government sedulously to support, and not to hinder, the states, in their mighty strivings for the elevation of the so called common people. In closing, I thank you Mr. Speaker for the honour you have accorded me to address the Hon. Members of your August Assembly
The above speech was delivered by Awolowo in 1980
