By Ibrahim Mammaga
By most accounts, Nigeria’s strategic oil reserve, put at 36.2 billion barrels, is expected to sustain the nation for about 43 years.
According to recent statistics published by the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency’s Weekly Bulletin, Nigeria has the lowest reserve lifespan among all the members of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
As a result of this development, the Federal Government set new oil targets of 40-billion-barrel reserve and 4 million barrels per day production by 2010.
Concerned citizens, however, warn against the country’s over-reliance on proceeds from crude oil, arguing that this does not auger well with plans to ensure the country’s economic survival in the future.
They, therefore, urge the country’s policy makers and other stakeholders to focus their priority attention on agriculture, insisting that the agriculture sector is one of viable sectors which can comfortably sustain the nation’s economy.
Prior to the discovery of oil, Nigeria had an agrarian economy that solely relied on the cultivation and exportation of palm produce, cocoa, rubber, timber and groundnut, among other agricultural produce.
The agriculture sector then offered myriad opportunities to Nigerians and in fact, provided employment for more than 70 per cent of the nation’s labour force.
The situation, however, changed dramatically during the oil boom era, as crude oil exports accounted for about 85 per cent of the nation’s foreign exchange earnings.
Observers recall that one of the dire consequences of oil boom era was the steady neglect of the agriculture sector.
Nevertheless, the dwindling fortunes in the oil sector, brought about by the abysmal decline in oil prices in the international market, have forced many Nigerians to start asking questions as to the future of the nation whenever its oil wells dry up.
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“If we can re-focus our energy on agriculture rather than oil, our country will be one of the best nations in the world,’’ Dr Muyideen Akorede, the Senior Special Assistant (Media and Communication) to Gov. Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara, said.
He stressed that agriculture could be the mainstay of Nigeria’s economy in the future, adding that a well-planned agro-driven economy could sustain the country in the absence of oil.
Sharing similar sentiments, Prof. Malachy Akoroda, the Executive Director, Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria (CRIN), Ibadan, urged state governments to look beyond allocations from the Federation Account and develop their agricultural resources to generate revenue.
Also, Dr Michael Oke of the Department of Banking and Finance, Ekiti State University, Ado Ekiti, said that it was better for the nation’s economy to rely on agriculture than on oil “which has become a curse, rather than a blessing, to the nation’s economy.
“Agriculture was the mainstay of our national economy before the discovery of oil and the economy was then buoyant,’’ he said.
Mr Agbadua Bamidele, a lecturer in the Department of Banking and Finance, Federal Polytechnic, Auchi, also urged the Federal Government to invest more in the development of the agriculture sector.
“The Federal Government needs to adopt the UN recommendation of investing 10 per cent of a country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in agriculture,’’ he said.
As part of efforts to boost agriculture, Mr Charlie Ifeanyi, a lecturer in Madonna University, Okija, urged the Federal Government to revitalise all the country’s River Basin Development Authorities.
He underscored the need for the government to place considerable emphasis on agricultural production, while reducing the country’s over-dependence on oil as its major income earner.
He stressed that the agriculture sector was vital to current efforts to transform the Nigerian economy.
“So, for the country to survive beyond oil, more investments in the agriculture sector, targeted at mechanising agriculture, will definitely encourage the youth to embrace agriculture,” he said.
Beyond that, other experts implore the government to give priority attention to the development and exploitation of the vast solid mineral deposits scattered across the country.
Another university don, Mr Peter Adamu, nonetheless, underscored the need for Nigeria to have a good and resourceful leadership that would guide the country’s efforts to benefit maximally from its enormous resources in the non-oil sector.
Adamu, a lecturer at the Department of Economics, Kaduna State University, said that efforts to ensure Nigeria’s economic survival without the input of petroleum resources would not be problematic because the nation had vast non-oil resources that had yet to be exploited.
Besides, Dr Oluwatosin Adeniyi, an Ibadan-based energy economist, called on the Federal Government to use the job-creation potential of the Nigerian Mining Act of 2007 to reduce unemployment in the country.
He said that apart from oil, Nigeria was blessed with vast mineral resources that have yet to be tapped.
Adeniyi’s viewpoint appears quite logical, as a recent report of the Raw Materials Research Development Council (RMRDC) said that Nigeria had vast deposits of talc in Niger, Osun, Kogi, Ogun and Kaduna states, while gypsum was found in several states.
The report also said that the country had commercial deposits of iron ore in Kogi, Enugu, Niger and the FCT; and lead/zinc deposits in over eight states, while bentonite and baryte deposits were found in Taraba and Bauchi State.
Also, there are proven reserves of both alluvial and primary gold in the schist belt of Nigeria, particularly in the south-western part of the country.
Other minerals such as bitumen, coal rock, salt, gemstones and kaoline are found in commercial quantities in different locations across the country.
The vast mineral deposits notwithstanding, analysts underscore the need for committed leadership and political will in efforts to develop the agriculture and solid mineral sectors of the national economy.
“With a focus on the sustained development of the two critical sectors, Nigeria will surely fare better without oil,’’ says one of the analysts. (NANFeatures)
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