Former Minister of Agriculture and Water Resources, Alhaji Abba Ruma, in this interview with ADELEKE ADESANYA, says Nigeria’s return to agriculture as a major source of revenue should not be delayed further, if the country truly wants to get out of the woods. Ruma, who was also a Minister of state for Education, adds that most of the problems bedeviling the Nigerian nation can only be surmounted if the current administration encourages more entrepreneurship. He also speaks on issues of national importance. Excerpts:
Nigeria’s economy has nosedived due to the dwindling earnings from oil. As a former minister, what do you think government should do to revive the economy from the current recession?
Franking speaking, job creation, and employment of people should be the framework and the basis to revive our economy. Look at where we found ourselves with the oil that we depend on. So many nations in the world today are moving away from oil; they are looking at exploiting other areas as sources of revenue for their economies. It is unfortunate that Nigeria as a country still solely relies on oil, and yet we are not giving rapt attention to other important areas to help the future of this country. For me, the government should be looking inward to encourage entrepreneurship in order to revive the economy.
We have to leverage on human capital for development. With our population, you will see that it is better to concentrate on what to do as government or individuals to encourage development in terms of economic prowess of Nigeria.
For instance, in the last five months, I have been busy and engaged with establishing a university. It is a university with a focus on enterprise, entrepreneurship development and training. So, it is time our government gave more attention to entrepreneurship.
Do you think the removal of subsidy from fuel by the present administration will help to revive the economy?
The history of subsidy removal has been a contentious issue that is in contradiction, because sometimes they say it is removed, later they will say it is returned, and it is an intellectual question that we should all ask ourselves as Nigerians. And if I may ask, what is even subsidy? You see, whether removed or returned, it’s not the major thing that will help the situation. What we need in this country is knowledge capital for our development. Government needs to think more in the direction of boosting entrepreneurship. It is time we got things right.
Recently, the global rating of universities was released and no Nigerian university was able to make it. What is your take on this as a former minister of education?
Honestly, quite a number of reasons may be responsible for it. In fact, I even heard one of our vice chancellors on one of our media who was drawing Nigerians’ attention to the issue of the global university rating. According to him, he doubted the yardsticks that were employed to do the rating. He said they could be deficient and others. And to me, I will say though we need to look into how we can upgrade our educational sector to meet up with the global standard, such global rating needs to be looked into critically, because we have to look at what were the criteria that were considered in doing the evaluation. We have to see those factors that made other universities fit into the rating while ours are left out. And it is within those factors that we can equally discuss on improving our own universities in critical areas such as infrastructural development, teachers’ capacity, students welfare, sanitation, research, curriculum and many others things that are required to produce quality students.
What do you think is responsible for the falling standard of education in the country?
There is a fundamental disease that is behind this national headache called falling standards in education. This disease is also behind our failures in almost all the departments of our national life. The problem is bad politics! Poor funding of education, nonimplementation of annual budgets, corruption, name it; they are all products of bad politics. Bad politics is that which is obsessed with placating personal and group aggrandizement to the detriment of public good. It is time we have the love of this nation at heart in order to move forward. We need to encourage the young generation in all we do, especially in the area of education that affects them. I don’t expect politics to be played with sensitive sector like education. I am not referring to this administration, but the Nigerian tradition in general in terms of politics. The same issue affects every sector in the country. I think it is time we should have a rethink and start emulating good characters that will help us as a nation.
What is your perception about Nigeria’s revenue base?
Looking at things from the angle of our stand in international oil market and the current global financial crisis, the need for Nigeria to diversify her income base cannot be over-emphasised. The dwindling external earnings occasioned by the slide in oil prices and the violent activities of restive youths in the Niger Delta, definitely have telling effects on Nigeria’s finances and her development plans.
The rural dwellers who constitute the majority of the nation’s population are being further driven into poverty by both the global food and financial crises. Government’s basic responsibility to its people is to alleviate poverty and promote development and there is no other way of achieving these than by diversifying the economy. And with all these, I will advise government to redouble efforts in agricultural development and give the farmers more support.
As a former minister in charge of agriculture in this country, what will you identify as a major problem hampering agricultural development in the country?
If you flash back to Nigeria’s stand in the area of agriculture in the 1960s and 1970s, you will realize that this country was doing well in terms of agriculture. Nigeria was one of the world’s highest producers of palm oil, cocoa, and groundnut. But, disappointedly, the sector experienced decline over time. Although agriculture remains the dominant sector in the rural areas of Nigeria, it provides employment for about 60 per cent of the work force. The agricultural potential of Nigeria is barely being tapped and this explains the inability of the country to meet the ever increasing demand for agricultural produce.
So, how will you advise government in its renewed bid to regain the lost glory in agriculture?
The government needs to wake up from its slumber and realize that despite the neglect suffered in the past years, agriculture still contributes significantly to internal revenue and has the potential of solving the nation’s unemployment problems. And for this, I will advise that the present administration be more committed to the vision of eradicating rural poverty. They should give adequate support to small-holder farmers and encourage more of rural development projects. Serious investment is needed across the board to enhance production and increase the contribution of the sector to GDP and also meet the target of earning at least 50 per cent of foreign exchange in the near future. Government should do more towards ensuring that the glory of agriculture is brought back in this country.
