Envoy Urges Fed Govt To Emulate Korea To Fix Economy

If Nigeria could take a cue from the South Korean experiences after evolving from ashes of wars, poverty, hunger and malnutrition as a developing economy to becoming an export driven capital of the world, the nation must look beyond crude oil – to address her development challenges.

This was the focus of a special lecture on AI, Smart Agriculture and Blue Economy presented to a packed audience at the University of Uyo (UNIUYO), by the South Korean Ambassador to Nigeria, Ambassador Jeon Yo-An, at the weekend.

He recalled that emerging from the quagmire of development crises, South Korea, had to think out of the box, and invested in human resources, strong institutions and imbibe the virtue of patience for the paradigm shift to evolve and yield fruits of economic prosperity and wealth creation from 1953.

South Korea, he noted, has no comparative basis with Nigeria in terms of natural resources, but regretted that such potentials have not been fully explored and harnessed for socio-economic advancement of the nation and its people.

He said South Korea’s remarkable transformation from poverty to prosperity was anchored on a three-pronged philosophy of diligence, self-help and cooperation, encapsulated in the country’s development movement known as “Saemaul Undong,” and wished Nigeria could follow the Korean example.

According to the Ambassador, imbibing the virtues of nationalism driven by deep sense of patriotism, has accelerated Korea’s trajectory of development from an import and aid -dependent nation to a donor economy, noting that Nigeria could get out of the woods if people are valued, trained and built into the national reservoir of vital national assets.

He disclosed that South Korea as a veritable Nigerian ally has offered assistance to the country in different pheres of education, scholarships, agriculture and other areas to the tune of about $8billion Dollars, stressing that the people remained the greatest resource of any nation, urging Nigerians to rise above current challenges by embracing the values that helped South Korea achieve its remarkable development.

With rich population with young people of median age of 19, the Ambassador noted that Nigeria could overcome its challenges of development in the next 50 years.

“The real resources are people, strong institutions and patience. The story of the next 50 years is yours to write, and South Korea will help you to write,” he assured.