26 March 2018
1.Let me start by saying, while I support the administration of BUHARI, I hold reservations on some policy options as designed and implemented, one of such is the priotization of midterm recovery plan. I take sides with Bill Gates reasoning.
2. What Bill Gates said: Nigeria is one of the most dangerous places in the world to give birth with the fourth worst maternal mortality rate in the world ahead of only Sierra Leone, Central African Republic and Chad. One in three Nigerian children is chronically malnourished.
3. My response: Bill Gates is right. Child birth in most climes is considered a matter of life and death. Before a woman gives birth to child, virtually everything is readily available and standby. The blood bank is filled in the event blood transfusion is required and all the technicians are standing ready. In the event of normal delivery, all the surgical doctors and blades are ready and standby in the event normal delivery goes wrong. But what do we have in Nigeria? Our mothers give birth to children on heap of plantain leaves in the village not minding if complications may arise. Those who manage to reach primary care facilities are delivered in most cases by untrained nurses who do try and error, in some cases at the middle of operating theater that’s when NEPA takes light.
4. Sometimes it is after a woman gives birth, that’s when people scamp around looking for blood. Tell me again that bill gates was wrong. He only said the obvious, that nigeria is one of the most dangerous places to give birth in the world, he was right!
5. Bill Gates also said:
“The most important choice you can make is to maximize your greatest resource, the Nigerian people. Nigeria will thrive when every Nigerian is able to thrive.
“If you invest in their health, education and opportunities, the human capital we are talking about today then; that will lay the foundation for sustained prosperity.
6. My Resoonse: again Bill is right. There’s no developed nation with high physical capital without a corresponding human capital development. Gates argues that human development should be given priority and comes first before physical capital. He is absolutely right.
7. Let me explain further: Investing in Human development improves upon the productive forces of society so much that a little advancement in physical capital makes sustainable economic growth easy to attain.
8. Before I proceed let me explain what we mean by the development of productive forces in any clime. It is important to understand this political economy term to be able to appreciate where Bill Gates thinking was founded.
9. Within the schools in political economy it is generally argued that Development cannot come to pass until a society or a people have developed the ability to produce wealth capable of satisfying basic needs. Bertrand Bardie, one of the greatest protagonist of human capital Development argued that “it is only possible to achieve real development in the real world… by employing real means… example, slavery cannot be abolished without the steam-engine that performed the jobs the slave did and in more efficient ways, likewise serfdom cannot be abolished without improved agriculture, and… in general, people cannot be liberated as long as they are unable to obtain food and drink, housing and clothing in adequate quality and quantity. In summery he argues further that Liberation like Development is a historical and not a mental act, and it is brought about by historical conditions.
10. Building an airport in a local village will not automatically make the people to start traveling by air, First their income level has to be developed to a point that they can purchase air tickets, so if you build an airport they will be able to fly. It is within this context you understand Gates reasoning.
11. Now the problem with our country and our development plans are that our economic planners are operating with 21st century economic assumptions and mindsets, emphasizing so much on physical capital projects while the reality of our human development and the living conditions of our parents in the villages is operating at the 16th century mental and historical framework. In Bayelsa government spent billions of Naira to build an international hospital, no plans for doctors or equipments, no skilled personnel, today the hospital has been abandoned and is sinking.
12. Some have argued that most nations in the world embarked on massive construction as a way to bail out of recession. They also argue that the Reconstruction in Western Europe, The financial crises in the United States and Rebuilding of Russia upon the collapse of USSR were all tied the intensive capital and construction pathway to bail out their economies and create employment.
13. Well, that is a great thinking especially since it has historical precedence. But they failed to understand that in those countries mentioned the productive forces of society were fully developed before they entered into recession. In our case, our productive forces is at its lowest, our educational system and health sectors are collapsing, and as such investing on human capital (that is investments that will build the capacity of the person like health, education, power supply, feeder roads to rural areas) is more important and would bring better results faster than massive rail roads running into trillions of Naira amidst hunger and poverty.
14. Examples abound. We place a higher priority in building rail tracks and bridges while our mothers still give birth using plantain leaves on their backyards, our children sit on bare floors at school, our hospitals do not have basic supplies, our beef is not treated or vaccinated, our local markets so unkempt that they have become disease reservoirs.
15. It is no gainsaying that today, 21st century jobs are outsourced and labor mobility has internationalized, that’s when our graduates lack basic technical and technology skills and cannot catch up with global trends of engagement. It is amidst these in our society that Bill Gates is arguing that please put more emphasis in the development of human capital, fix the schools, fix your infant mortality rates, be able to provide vaccines for your children and beef you eat, develop the productive forces of your society to an appreciable level before you embark on physical capital development. So It is within this thinking that Gates made the comments below:
16. “The Nigerian government’s economic recovery and growth plan identify investing in our people as one of three strategic objectives. But the execution priorities don’t fully reflect people’s needs, prioritizing physical capital over human capital. To anchor the economy over the long term, investments in infrastructure and competitiveness must go hand in hand with investments in people.
“People without roads, ports, and factories can’t flourish. And roads, ports and factories without skilled workers to build and manage them can’t sustain an economy.”
17. The key word here that Bill Gates used is ” sustain an economy”. At the present rate of the development of productive forces in Nigeria, we will not be able to sustain these physical capital Development in the long run, We also pray they do not end up abandoned. This observations by Bill Gates is common for anyone who lives in the developed world and visits Nigeria. It is common to arrive at the conclusion that we spend for the wrong things and starve funds from things we should be spending on.
18. Our hospitals cannot maintain blood banks not because there are no donors, but because electricity is unstable, our university teachers some do not have emails and cannot even use computers, majority of our young people who graduate from universities cannot conduct basic online research, not because they are not willing but because they lack the tools and the university system is ill equipped.
19. On the Development of our social infrastructure as a nation, we are still dependent on donor organizations to vaccinate our children,what on earth makes us a country? Over 80 percent of Nigerians that are hiv positive and who are poor depend on donor organizations for medication support, over 70 percent of the budget of federal ministry of health is applied to salaries, you then ask yourself what is reserved for new equipment, research, training,capital and infrastructure development?
20. You now understand with me what Bill Gates meant by invest on human capital development, make it a priority. Instead of our leaders to appreciate his advice and at least set up a panel to review our midterm economic recovery plan and maybe solicit some financial support from him, rather some people on Facebook who barely understand the issues turned around to call him a Harvard drop out! God save Nigeria.
Princewill odidi is a Public Commentator writing from Atlanta.
