Former Governor of Abia State, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu, has urged African leaders to embrace economic diversification by allowing the private sector to be in-charge of businesses or consider the alternate option of living in regrets. He said that government has no business in businesses, adding that selfishness and nepotism are what have driven the leaders to interfere in business.
Kalu stated this on Friday, while delivering a lecture on “Economic Diversification: The role of the private sector versus government sector” at the University of International Business and Economics, Beijing, China. Addressing the audience consisting of students of the university, diplomats, private sector leaders and the African community in China, Kalu said the best many African leaders have done about diversification was just to talk about it.
He said there have been no sincere efforts to move towards creating the environment that will enable the private sector to drive diversification. He lamented that a country like Nigeria, despite being a major oil producer, still imports refined petroleum products. According to him, there is no reason the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), a public corporation that manages the nation’s oil, cannot be privatised.
His words: “If the NNPC was privatised long ago, we wouldn’t be hearing some of the pitiable stories. Government should have taken its hands off and focus on policy making and regulations. Because of the stranglehold of the government, the oil industry has failed to meet the expectations of Nigerians.” Kalu also reiterated that Nigeria ’s dependence on oil is no longer sustainable. He expressed worries in the face of the rising alternative to oil and gradual elimination of combustible engines by car manufacturers. “The only sustainable option now is to diversify.
The opportunity cost of the focus on oil is today’s quick rush to beat the tape on what we ought to have done several years ago. Today, Nigeria’s government is looking back aggressively on agriculture. President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration has taken the bull by the horn and is going practical in the agricultural sector,” he said.
The business mogul also commended the privatization policy of some African nations, but decried that they were poorly executed. For instance, he noted that in Nigeria, during the execution of some of the policies “aimed at handing over companies and businesses managed by government to private businesses, a lot of necessary factors were ignored.” According to him, “Expertise and financial capacity were sacrificed and nepotism took over as many of the businesses were sold to cronies and friends of those in government. What that has done is that those privatized companies are not faring any better than they were before being sold.
Therefore, the aim of selling them was defeated as they do not play major roles in leading economic change as expected.” Kalu also recalled how he had suggested to a former Nigerian president on how to solve the electricity problem in the country through substantial handover of the management of power to reputable and efficient multinational companies, but was turned down. He said if the former president had listened to him, Nigeria would have had a better economy.
The former governor, who used Africa and China as a case study in his lecture, recommended amendment of some laws to accommodate new developments in the former. He blamed lawlessness, injustice and political disagreement for Africa’s inability to achieve economic diversification. Kalu said the only difference between African nations and China is the existence of law and order.
He recounted how his businesses suffered in the past because of political disagreements and queried the rationale behind the clampdown of businesses of people perceived to be politically unfriendly, arguing “somehow, it was like the political leaders feared that a strong private sector would be a counterforce during elections.”
He added: “Such leaders are not visionary and should not be emulated as they failed to understand the link between the economic growth and private sector. Sometimes, they think that their actions affect owners of those businesses or the stakeholders, but it doesn’t. The concern should be the trickledown effect it would have on the masses, who were gainfully employed.”
