Bill Gates’ epistle to Nigeria

It is Noah Webster’s thinking that in selecting men for office, the electorate should let principle be their guide. He advises that regard should not be given to the particular sector denomination of candidates, but we must look to their character. Interestingly, the scriptures direct that rulers would be men and women who rule in the fear of God. Though, morality and religion are not imperatives for political office holders, those elected or appointed must be men and women of truth.
It is no secret that throughout the world, poverty is pervasive, robbing most families the freedom to pursue their dreams. Anyone who has walked through the valley of the shadow of poverty will know that the poor in any society needs to be taken care of, but the question is how? Is there no way the poor could be helped to help themselves because as human beings, we were all created to flourish? According to Bill Gates, “people without roads, ports and factories can’t flourish.” He submits further that “roads, ports and factories without skilled workers to build and manage them can’t sustain an economy.”
Despite numerous development programs, one wonders why some countries in sub-Saharan Africa are mired in poverty and volatility. But how can a people flourish in the midst of chronic poverty? Sub-Saharan Africa lags behind as nearly half of all the children (51 percent) are living in extreme poverty conditions.
A nation that is faced with economic crisis leaving many of its people without enough foods to eat, clothes to wear, and shelters to accommodate them requires urgent economic revival. Most people in sub-Saharan Africa are vulnerable, and this has attracted a growing movement of philanthropists around the world to the reality of poverty in the sub-region. Bill Gates and his wife, Melinda are pouring massive resources into poverty-stricken areas of the world. Bill Gates’ Foundation has committed over “US$ 1.6 billion in Nigeria”
For Bill Gates so love Nigeria that he freely gave a piece of advice to an expanded National Economic Council that in order “to anchor the economy over the long term, investments in infrastructure and competitiveness must go hand in hand with investment in people.” He also, admonished our leaders to develop the nation’s human capital in areas of health and education.
Gates’ epistle was hinged on the premise that “Nigeria will thrive when every Nigerian is able to thrive.” For policy makers who think that Nigeria has human resources, it is time to reappraise the quality of human resources the country has been parading for many years. It is no news that more than 70 percent of Nigerians are poor. And that 10.5 million children of school age are out of schools hawking cheap goods on major streets of the country. Many parents are indigent because they are being owed salaries and pensions, amongst other reasons. This is not surprising as a recently released data from the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS) shows that only 5 states-Lagos, Ogun, Delta, Rivers and Kano- can generate sufficient Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) to take care of their expenditures without federal government allocation. The remaining 31 states are not economically viable. This ugly picture of the performance of states in terms of IGR is worrisome. How federal and state governments will provide quality education including adequate primary, secondary, and tertiary healthcare facilities for almost 190 million people remains a puzzle.
Health is wealth, they say. For many years, malaria, meningitis, yellow fever, Lassa fever have wreaked havoc on the poor who don’t have access to primary health care facilities. Child mortality rate is 201 per 1000 live births, meaning that one in every five Nigerian children will not reach the age of 5, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). This should be of grave concern to those in government.
When much is not going on in the academic environment, there is always an exodus of skilled manpower to developed nations. The reverse movement of skilled manpower is popularly referred to as “brain drain,” or reverse transfer of technology. There is already “brain drain” in the country as there is a reverse movement of our skilled human capital from Nigeria to developed nations all over the world. Due to frustration, skilled Nigerians seek greener pastures outside the shores of Nigeria. With brain drain, building indigenous technological capability in Nigeria remains an illusion. What about unskilled Nigerians who are migrating? Most of them end up being sold into slavery in Libya. A pity, you may say.
Providing infrastructure without investing significantly in the people that will design, produce, operate and maintain the basic physical and organizational structures and facilities does not make any strategic sense. In order to score cheap political points, politicians prefer to provide infrastructure as it will show the electorate that huge sums of money borrowed by the federal and states governments have been “wisely” invested. But money invested in providing education and health to the people will not be appreciated easily until one either goes to hospitals or educational institutions.
The Nigerian experience regarding human capital reminds this writer about Fredrick H Harbison’s philosophy in his book titled “Human Resources is the Wealth of Nation,” that: “Human resources not capital, not income, not materials constitute the ultimate basis for the wealth of nations. Capital and natural resources are passive factors while human beings are active agents who accumulate wealth, exploit material resources, build social, economic and political organizations and carry forward national development. Clearly, a nation that is unable to develop the skills and knowledge of its people and utilize them effectively in the national economy will be unable to develop.”So, Nigeria needs to invest in the welfare and well-being of its 190 million people to enable them flourish. May I, though belatedly, seize this rare privilege and grace to wish all esteemed readers of my column “Happy Easter.”

 
MA Johnson