26 March 2018
Just recently an expanded meeting of the National Economic Council was held at the State House Abuja. The meeting which is usually comprised of the Vice President of Nigeria as Chairman with Governors of the thirty six states and selected Ministers of the Federation as members. This time however invitation was extended to multi-billionaires Bill Gates and Aliko Dangote as well as selected traditional rulers, some members of the business community and academia and some Multi-Lateral Organisations with the theme Human Capital Investment in Supporting Pro-poor and Economic Growth Agenda.
What is evident from the foregoing is that Bill Gates did not on his own take a swipe at the Federal Government on its handling of the nation’s economy but expressed his opinion in an event hosted by the government with a clear agenda. What is also clear from the foregoing is that the government willingly invited critical stakeholders to review its economic programme.
It is however very disappointing to read comments on social media stating that Bill Gates rated the government low in its handling of the economy with the main opposition party seizing this opportunity to deride the government handling of the economy, stating that “what Bill Gates did not tell Buhari and his team was that their administration is so incompetent, disorganized and confused that it could not develop any functional economic policy direction”. The uproar attracted comments from the Governor of Kaduna State, who though agreeing with Bill Gates on his critical areas of concerns in the strategic direction of the nation’s economy however disagreed with the billionaire on his statement that the Federal Government Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) does not address Nigerians’ Needs.
While many commentators have misconstrued Bill Gates' statement, some are doing so intentionally to disparage the government, what did Bill Gate actually say that caused this latest uproar and what is my take on his statement. For me simply this whole controversy has been taken out of context with a clear goal of scoring cheap political point against the government as is now the stock in trade of many biased opponents of the government.
Bill Gate in his address actually stated that Nigeria has a veritable economic potential, stating that it was up to the country to maximize such potentials by investing in its people whom he described as its greatest resource. He went on to admonish the government to invest in healthcare, education and human capital, stating that investment in infrastructure on a long term basis must go hand in hand with investment in people. His view was that if the government maximizes it greatest resource, which is the Nigerian people, the nation will thrive. He opined that if the government invests in their health, education and providing opportunities for the people-the ”human capital” we are talking about today —then they will lay the foundation for sustained prosperity. If you don’t, however, then it is very important to recognize that there will be a sharp limit on how much the country can grow.
Interestingly Bill Gates acknowledged that it was one of the objectives of the government to invest in people, when he said “I urge you to apply this thinking to all your investments in your people. The Nigerian Government Economic Recovery and Growth Plan identifies ‘investing in people’ as one of three ‘strategic objectives’ but he still went on to say that the ‘execution priorities’ don’t fully reflect people’s needs, prioritizing physical capital over human capital.
Bill Gates went further to say that ” To anchor the economy over the long term, investments in infrastructure and competiveness 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”. The billionaire explained the nexus between investing in people, being transparent and accountable to them and the improvement in the revenue of the government.
Having taken great pains to outline the suggestion of Bill Gates, I am of the CANDID OPINION that it is important for the government to take into consideration his view without dismissing it though I reckon that the government has clearly made enormous and unprecedented allocations to its pro people social investment programmes, much more needs to be done to ensure that we are on track to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals which it has subscribed to. Nonetheless, I remain in support of the Federal Government’s aggressive infrastructure drive to open up the nation’s economy and create massive employment to drive growth. I don’t have to be an economic expert to say that this is the right step. I am sure Bill Gate did not advice the government to jettison its infrastructure investment( if he intended that I would disagree with him) but I guess he was trying to awaken the government to it already stated pro-people component of its economic agenda and in doing so, offer to support the government specifically in that aspect to turn around the negative rating of the country especially in the social subsectors of health, education and human capital development. The progressive oriented government of President Buhari must find ways to strike an appropriate balance between infrastructure investment and its investment in social development sub sectors of Health and Education.
I must however state clearly, that in my opinion, Gates did not choose his words correctly when he generalized the needs of Nigerians to be tilted more to programmes that are geared towards education, health and opportunities for human capital development as opposed to infrastructure. His statement could not surely have represented the needs of those Nigerians who are desperately in need of basic infrastructure to improve their living standard and economic ventures even at the expense of other equally important considerations.
Let me at this point conclude by saying that the uproar on the well intentioned advice of Gate to the Nigerian government has really been much ado about Nothing as the Federal Government and the Billionaire were able to use the occasion to clearly identify areas of collaboration using the government’s strategic document known as the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP). It is becoming clear that the policies and programmes of the Buhari’s government has led to gradual improvement in the economy of the country and many Nigerian workers in the Federal and Public Service are assured of their wages due to the performance of the Buhari’s economic team so the statement released by the opposition in this regard is completely false assessment of the situation of the economy of the country. I commend the Buhari’s government for opening up its economic policies for scrutiny and advice by critical stakeholders. This is the right way to go in a democratic nation such as ours.
God Bless Nigeria.
Ben Usang
Is a Civil Society Leader, Development Activist and Public Affairs Commentator) who writes from Calabar
