Omu-Aran (Kwara) – A don, Prof. Gafar Bello has blamed the absence of expected inputs from critical sectors of the economy for the country’s underdevelopment since independence.
Bello, a lecturer in the Department of Economics, University of Ilorin, made the assertion during the annual get-together of Omu-Aran Government Secondary School Old Boys Association (OGSSOBA) in Omu-Aran, Kwara
on Wednesday.
Bello said that the nation’s economy at independence was founded on a foundation of “stagnant water’’.
“The economy at independence was meant to float, not to sink, but was susceptible to imbalances from the water waves,’’ he said.
He said that the colonial masters were determined to grow and stabilise the economy as majority of the inhabitants were farmers before the advent of oil boom.
Bello, however, said that lack of expected contributions from some vital sectors had been a stumbling block to achieving a transformed and developed economy.
He said that this had been problematic in spite of many laudable economic initiatives by past and successive administrations.
According to him, development plans have suffered from lack of coordination and harmonisation of programme policies both within the tenure of an administration and those succeeding it.
He said that the first attempt at development
planning in the country was in 1946 with a 10 year execution plan.
“Thus, the development of the economy began as 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th attempts, while the military on intervention attempted their own policies too.
“More importantly, the planning has been top-down rather than being bottom-up, the expected input from critical sectors are therefore lacking.
“The reason for this is that the economy has been existing
without the necessary paraphernalia of sustainable and inclusive growth development.
“This was critically needed to transform from a consuming nation to a producing one,” he said.
The don also identified policy somersault as another bane of the economy because of discontinuity and democratic fallacy that militate against the economy.
Bello advocated specific roles for states in strengthening the
productive capacity of firms and institution as interim solution to the present economic recession.
“This will call for change of our elites’ taste and also reduce the activities of middlemen,” he said.
Mr Olusegun Adeniyi, the OGSSOBA President, in a remark, commended members for their steadfastness and urged them to maintain the tempo.
He promised that the school ongoing renovation project would be completed before the association’s 50th anniversary scheduled for May 2017.
Present at the ceremony were prominent members such as Bishop David Oyedepo, the Founder of the Living Faith Church and Chief Jide Adebayo, a former Executive Director of NAN, among others.
