President of the Nigerian Academy of Engineering, Prof. Azikiwe Onwualu, has tasked leaders that would emerge from next year’s election to focus more on putting the nation on the path of active manufacturing of goods and promoting engineering profession.
He said this during a public forum themed: “Engineering as the key facilitator of national development policies and strategies for the incoming administration”, organised by the academy in Lagos.
The president lamented that after decades of development policy formulation and implementation, Nigeria is still challenged with dysfunctional infrastructure, adding that it appears that no section of the economy is operating at an optimal level.
He said: “In fact we are all aware of the situation where some of the challenges have been so bad that the existence of the nation, Nigeria, was under threat. We are preparing for a general election in a few months’ time. It is imperative that we get it right this time. Our approach in solving the problem is to provide evidence, data and knowledge-based advice on how the incoming administration can redirect Nigeria towards the path of progress.”
Also, speaking is the senior special adviser to the president of African Development Bank (AfDB) on industrialisation, Professor Banji Oyelaran-Oyeyinkan, said incoming leaders must realise that engineering and manufacturing are at the base of all wealth creation, adding that whatever happens in the micro-economic space like inflation, wages, interest rate, and employment starts at the factory level.
He said, countries make progress because they build factories, produce goods, add value to their raw materials and employ a huge number of people.
“In a country where there are no factories that are producing and adding value, you will necessarily have unemployment because where will you generate wealth from?.
In any country where oil has become the dominant production idea or the only export Nigeria derives its foreign exchange from, they always run into fiscal crisis and volatility. When oil prices fall, they are down and when the prices go up, leaders steal the money,” he said.
