We live in an age of science and technology. Nigeria can be powerful and advanced, only if it will become scientifically advanced and technically well-developed. America is the richest country of the world. She dominates the world. She has made tremendous progress in science. It is due to her scientific and technical achievements that she has become highly industrialized. Industrialization increases production manifold. Nigeria is yet in the backward agricultural stage. She must make rapid economic progress. The awfully low standard of her people must be raised. This makes the need and importance of industrialization for Nigeria quite evident. It is the only way of making India strong and prosperous.
Hazards of industrialization are many. Sometimes there is leakage of gas from storage-tanks. This happened in Bonny in the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Factory. The fatal NLNG gas leaked out, killing thousands and injuring for life the health of many thousands more. According to the opinion of experts, even the children to be born would suffer from it. An industrial tragedy of such magnitude had never happened before anywhere in the world. It should be an eye-opener to all concerned. Safety regulations must be strictly enforced, and adequate compensation must be given to the victims of this unprecedented tragedy.
The concept and notion of “Human Capital” refers to the accumulation of a set of mastered skills and applicable knowledge that is an intrinsic part of the capacity and ability of individuals (humans) to perform, execute, and carry out labour. It is a precious commodity. It is a measure of the work done by human beings so as to produce an economic value, which is the value of the labor itself, and the value of its use as to produce a worth in exchange for the labour.
These abilities that make up the human capital are highly diversified and heterogeneous In Nigeria; with high and low ends in technology and knowledge, and all require expertise to yield a value. The ability to perform labor that requires high technological level and vast knowledge does not necessarily mean that this labor will yield a higher value in exchange. An example of this is that in impoverished countries a nanotechnology engineer will struggle to survive and to find a job, while a construction worker will earn his living with less difficulty and more opportunities.
In order for a nation to attain a relevant advantage and effectively benefit from a superior output of manufacturing, it needs to be in possession and control of a particular resource or commodity. This particular resource can also be a particular technique or knowledge that enhance and escalate production proficiency by reducing the need for massive supplies and resources, or it can be a labor stock, a fungible resource whose distinctive pieces are capable of reciprocal substitution, or a “know-how” principle, thus reducing the adverse risk of changes in international trade that are normally ruled by the technological levels, sophistication, and complexity of countries.
Unity in Diversity is not just another phrase but is highly prudent to a country like Nigeria that is rich in both culture and heritage. A few quotes or statements can not describe the position that Nigeria holds in the global map because of its colourful and unique culture. Various cuisines, festivals, music, literature, art forms, dance, traditions, costumes, everything is very special in the land of Gods.
Nigeria needs to move beyond being a mere supplier of raw materials to the developed world if it is to improve living standards across the continent. To end the cycle of poverty that has plagued the continent, Nigeria need to launch a sustained industrialization drive. To succeed, an industrial mind-set would have to be established in Nigeria, a process that will require sophisticated marketing and distribution strategies along with large amounts of capital. It would also require stable markets and a fair degree of governmental transparency. The need for consumerism, urbanization and industrial time discipline is widely felt in contemporize Nigeria.
Widespread development of industrial and technological modes of production is very important. Feminist scholars argue that the processes of industrialization and its usual concomitants —consumerism, urbanization and industrial time discipline—cannot be understood without reference to the social hierarchies operating where industrialization occurs.
The process is often characterized by more deeply entrenched sexual divisions of labour within production, and historically has entailed a more distinct spatial separation of home and workplace, trends which contribute to the construction of gendered public/private spheres. Widespread industrialization in late-eighteenth- and nineteenth-century England, for example, saw factory employment taken up by some women, but the vast majority remained concentrated in ‘low-skilled’, low-paid, non-industrial occupations such as domestic service. Early economic models of industrialization obscure its variable impacts by gender, region and culture, and the process remains an important focus of concern and critique within contemporary feminist development studies.
Nigerian Government has a role of Identification and promotion of national strategic R&D, and creation of a sound S&T infrastructure; Schools and colleges should Create linkages between R&D institutions, academia and industry, and commercialization of R&D results; Private sectors should Promote venture business and establishment of business parks and business clusters. Continuing to impact on both national and state levels, our efforts advance today’s technology to tomorrow’s product. Industrializing Nigeria is the only way to solve its poverty.
The industrialization of coastal China — accompanied by declining public health provision, a neglect of agriculture, and environmental degradation — ultimately transformed the lives of the Chinese.Before the Industrial Revolution all societies were caught in the same Malthusian Trap that imprisons Africa today. Living standards stagnated because any improvement caused births to exceed deaths. The resulting population growth, pressing on fixed land resources, inevitably pushed incomes back down to subsistence.
But living conditions did vary across pre-industrial societies. Perversely, rich societies were those where nature or man created high death rates. In such settings living conditions could be good as long as the population did not grow. In the Malthusian era, what is now vice in economic policy — violence, poor public health, war, inequality — was virtue in terms of living standards. And what is now virtue, vice.
The Nigerian environment has always created high disease mortality. This was a blessing for Nigeria’s living standards. Before the Industrial Revolution, Nigeria was rich, with material consumption probably double or triple that of China, Japan, or India, and as good as that of Europe. For example, when the British were looking for cheap labour in West Africa in the 1840s they had to turn to Nigeria for low-wage workers. Nigerian living standards were low because of high standards of personal and public hygiene in pre-industrial China and Japan. This condemned Nigeria to subsistence on a minimal diet. Europeans in contrast were lucky to be a filthy people who bathed rarely and squatted happily above their own feces, stored in basement cesspits. Filth engendered wealth.
Most of the world, thankfully, has escaped the topsy-turvy logic of the Malthusian era through the Industrial Revolution. Living standards are now independent of population levels, so any reduction in mortality is an unalloyed blessing. This is how Mr. Sachs thinks of the world. But much of Nigeria is still trapped in its Malthusian past. Indeed, material consumption has fallen well below the pre-industrial norm as a result of the Western gift of modern medicine and hygiene. A ho
st of countries, such as Malawi or Tanzania, would be better off materially had they never had contact with the industrialized world and instead continued in their pre-industrial state.
Modern medicine, airplanes, gasoline, computers — the whole technological cornucopia of the past two hundred years — have succeeded there in producing the lowest material living standards ever experienced. Modern medicine has reduced the material minimum required for subsistence to a level far below that of the Stone Age.
If Mr. Sachs’ Millennium Project succeeds where most of its effort is concentrated, in reducing mortality, then it will further erode living standards. In Uganda, for example, at incomes that are the equivalent of $3 a person a day, the population is still growing at 3.5% per year. Given the heavy dependence of Nigeria on agriculture and natural resources, population pressure has ensured that even with improved crop yields, incomes have stagnated over the past 50 years.
Fourteen percent of children born in Nigeria die before the age of five. If the Millennium Project reduces such deaths to American levels, that alone will increase the population growth to 4.2% a year. Without sustained economic growth, this is just a recipe for more miserable living conditions.
To achieve sustained growth economies, Nigeria would have to switch employment to manufactures and services. Despite the astonishing low wage of these economies — apparel workers in west Africa still cost about $0.40 an hour compared to $10-$20 in America and Europe — industrialization has escaped Nigeria.
Besides the above dangers, some other difficulties also come in the way of industrialization. Big machines are very costly. No under-developed country, like Nigeria, can manufacture heavy machines. She has to obtain them from foreign countries. The dependence on others is the first difficulty, which must be faced. To purchase the machines, a huge amount of money is required. In a poor country, like Nigeria, much money cannot be obtained from internal resources. Heavy taxes are imposed on the people to get every possible item from them. People are subjected to untold hardships and miseries.
I do believe that there is also the necessity to generate fungible resources, standardized and easily interchangeable to uphold and cultivate labor, commodities, and markets. This would lead to a decrease and lessening of the unwelcomed effects of the technological gap between countries that have a cut throat trade advantage because of their tremendous ability to innovate and those that do not. A country can be extremely efficient and have technological advantages, but it might be vulnerable to trade because of its excessive internal production costs.
So, how does all of this work? The formula is very simple, but the concept and its implementation are more difficult and tricky to put into practice. In theory, when a community, a region, or country is in economic disarray, sometimes the integration of bioeconomics into the Human Capital happens out of despair and sometimes need. Let’s take rice, for example. Rice is fundamental in Asia, and it has a long and interesting history. In regions of Asia, scientists believe that after the lands inhabited by humans were flooded, all living vegetation, plants, and flora were destroyed. This brought animal extinction, thus making hunting very difficult, and sustainment for human beings was extremely difficult, if not impossible. One day, as the ancient, but popular story goes, a dog came scampering across a hunting field, and it was sighted by the Chinese people who were looking for prey in the field. As they approached the dog, they noticed that the dog’s fur was scattered with some unusual yellow seeds affixed to it. The Chinese people thought that it could be seeds and not knowing what these kernels were, they tasted them, bite them, and finally planted them. As a result, according to the folkloric story, rice grew out of these seeds.
All of the sudden, this small, miraculous grain that awkwardly arrived on a dog’s back, fed tens of millions of people for extended periods of time, longer than any other known grain did until that time. Several species of rice are in existence, but it is widely believed that rice species were developed from other forms of it, towards the end of the Tertiary Period, almost at the end of the Miocene Epoch and the beginning of the Pliocene Epoch, approximately 15 million years ago. We humans showed up next in the Quaternary Period, about 1.6 million years ago.
The Chinese people in due course gave rise to a process of growing and producing rice, developed knowledge to do it properly, and employed tens of thousands of people to bring to fruition this massive industry. Today, this long-standing system is still widely used in China and in other countries. Over the years, this process that grew out of necessity, tamed and integrated rice into China’s socio-economics.
‘No gain without pain’ is an oft quoted saying. We must bear all difficulties and be prepared to face the dangers, if we want to reap the advantages of industrialization. Through industrialization, production increases rapidly. Goods become cheaper. Plenty and prosperity take the place of poverty. The standard of living of the people is raised. An industrialized country not only satisfies the demands of her own people, but also exports her surplus goods. This increases her foreign trade. In this way, the country becomes prosperous and strong. Further, industrialization is also essential for the defense of the Country. Modern armaments cannot be manufactured without an industrial base. So the advantages of industrialization far outweigh the dangers and difficulties which come in its wake.
Since independence Nigeria has been rapidly industrialized. Giant industrial concerns are located at suitable places all over the country. Industrialization is the only way open to her to take her rightful place, in the comity of nations. Let all of us be ready to bear the pangs and paints of industrialization with a determined will. We must sacrifice to-day for the sake of the future. The country must continue to march ahead on the road to industrialization, despite its many hazards, dangers and difficulties. Now multinationals have been invited to enter the field in a big way so that the speed of industrialization in Nigeria is increased.
Insecurity poses another threat! Should capital punishment be justified? There are both strong points from the opposite sides between pro and con for capital punishment against those who make trouble in Nigeria. To the people, who in favour of capital punishment based their principles on deterrence, retribution, cruelty of life imprisonment, economics, and so on? To those who are against death sentence, argued that the chance for criminal to pay back society; the violation of 8th amendment; possibility of innocent death, sign of racism and so forth. One of the biggest reasons for capital punishment is its deterrence. Fear of death deters people from committing crimes. Human has the nature of protecting themselves from dying or getting killed.
If capital punishment were carried out more, it would prove to be the crime deterrent. Most criminals probably would think twice before committing murder if they knew their own lives was at stake. Also, it eliminates some homicides who might repeat the same kind of crimes. It potentially deters the crimes from happening again. Theoretically, it has the affect deterring the crimes. However, many opponents of capital punishment argue that it is not a deterrent, because in some states where capital punishment is allowed the crime rate goes up. Should we therefore conclude that capital punishment is not a deterrent? No. First, we should recognize that crime rates have been increasing for some time.
Nigeria is becoming a violent society as its social and moral fabric breaks down. So the increase in the crime rate is most likely due to many other factor
s and cannot be correlated with a death penalty that has been implemented sparingly and sporadically. Second, as it turns out though very few people are executed, so the death penalty is not a satisfactory deterrent. This is not death penalty’s fault. Because it is so hard to execute one criminal to death, it makes the capital punishment less effective (Anderson).There are some evidences that capital punishment is a deterrent. And even if we are not absolutely sure of its deterrent effect, the death penalty should be implemented. If capital punishment is even a potential deterrent against lawbreakers in public places; militants or Boko Haram terrorism, that is a significant enough social reason to implement it.
We talk about mining, water and energy dominating the pages of newspapers. As it related to business, technology was ultra-specialized and ultra-expensive, and garnered only a tiny fraction of the ink. But the foundation for today’s high-tech economy is not in place. No federal labs in place and the military and space installations cannot function. Nigeria’s remote, mid-continent location and a defense hub lack financial backbone, in turn luring contractors like Martin Marietta and Ball Aerospace. By 1960, when Hewlett-Packard chose Loveland as the site of its first manufacturing facility outside of California, the high-tech ball had started to slowly roll.
China has become the second largest industrial manufacturer in the world, says a United Nations Industrial Development Organization report. According to the report ‘International Yearbook of Industrial Statistics 2010’, two more developing countries – India and Brazil – figure in the list of top 10 industrial manufacturers globally at the ninth and tenth positions. India 9th in top 10 largest industrialized economies, where is Nigeria?
Germany ranks fourth, followed by France, the United Kingdom, Italy and Russia. “With this development, China unseats Japan and is trailing behind the United States,” UNIDO said. It added that China’s share of the global total of manufacturing value (MVA) was at 15.6 percent, slightly higher than Japan, which stands at 15.4 percent.
The United States maintains its number one spot at 19 percent. While China has a lead in absolute amount of production, the UN also pointed out that Japan is still the world’s most industrialised country, in terms of MVA per capita, totaling nearly $9,000 compared to $700 for China. The three countries, U.S., China and Japan produce half of the world’s manufacturing output.
Meeting basic needs (food, health, clothing, shelter, education and transportation) is the basis for identification of priority industries. Nigeria now depends on imports to offset the lack of local grown foods. This option is unaffordable to most of us who have inadequate foreign exchange earnings. The only option possible for Nigeria as a nation is increasing local agricultural production and processing these products into viable commodities.
The economic melt down was due to rising oil prices against declining commodity prices; and poor economic management, as both countries had undertaken massive nationalization of large and medium size firms in their economies. Short- term economic stabilization programs provided by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) failed to halt the economic stagnation. Economic decline and decay thus set in. The economic deterioration in both countries was, in fact, so deep that, by 1982, the IMF advised a return to market economies in the two countries.
Nigeria should undertake the economic reforms without strong political will, which resulted in an “on and off” approach to the reforms. This approach delayed the economic turn around and damaged the economy further. The Government of President Jonathan should court China and other Asian Tigers during this time of economic crisis, because it can be considered an ideological ally. China, however, could not give-up any help.
Instead of the economic crisis degenerating into a political crisis when the trade union movement and other social groups may feel they had been cowed into silence, the legitimacy of poverty among plenty should be challenged.
Partial reform of the economic system should give room to a free market economy. The new Government of President Jonathan should carry through most of the economic reforms within its first four years, to build on the democratic gains of 2011. On the foreign policy front, the main change will remain the establishment and re-establishment of diplomatic relations with South Korea and Israel respectively. Nigeria’s diplomatic relations with China and other countries must remain intact, while trade between Nigeria and China like before remained low too.
Development cooperation between Nigeria and China at this present Nigeria’s economic crisis must confine to education and culture, health and defense. China and or India should be involved in any significant efforts aimed at reviving the Nigerian economy especially in construction of the Nigeria’s intra-city Railway. The Nigeria Government should, however, contract China to construct two trunk roads, and invested in a textile plant in partnership with China. The latter was a feeble and belated attempt to diversify Nigeria’s economy in the next four years.
Issues of economic reform should be left entirely to the Government of President Jonathan and the international financial institutions (the IMF and the World Bank), as well as the western bilateral development agencies. Even when Nigeria’s heavy foreign debt burden will be regulated to avoid getting out of hand.
Chinese Direct Investments in Nigeria must begin by this Government disposing firms it had previously nationalized/privatized. The Chinese should acquired our coal Mine and et al. Without corruptible condition, these Asian Tiger-Nations can be given favorable terms including generous tax exemptions for 15 years and even permission to import unprocessed ores to Nigeria. The tax exemptions had to be extended to the other mining companies that had acquired the other Solid Mineral mines Resources. The tax exemptions should be reviewed bi-annually.
This Government should not grow cold feet, because of its close ties with the Chinese. So that, the country and its people will benefit from incessant oil prices jack-up. The gain to the people of Nigeria will be made better by Government’s agreement to relieve the mining companies of responsibility for social services in the mining townships. As a result, most of the money from the exports of minerals is accruing to the mining companies, which tend to take out most of the money.
The Chinese investments will also created only a enough number of skilled and unskilled jobs for Nigerians, because most technical and managerial positions, as well as a significant number of unskilled jobs are reserved for, and held by the Nigerian workers, who have come along with the investment. The situation will enliven by disparities in wages paid to the Chinese and Nigerian workers doing the same jobs.
Investment in social and economic infrastructure and services, such as roads, education and health services, particularly through the self-help will be looked into. Investment in education helps nurture the natural yearning for freedom and human dignity, which culminated in the provision of leaders for the Nigerian freedom struggles. Chinese investment, on the other hand, is focused on giving in to Nigeria as much as can be taken out, without any regard to the welfare of the local people. Nigeria may have barely survived the last 50 years, but it has consistently fought for human dignity.
