26th September, 2015
GBENRO ADESINA/IBADAN
Professor Owolabi Usman, Head, the Department of Management and Accounting, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, has counseled President Muhammadu Buhari-led government to expedite action on strengthening institutions for the desired change to be realized in Nigeria.
According to the professor of Financial Economics who spoke at a public event in Ikire area of Osun State said that weak, ineffective political, economic, physical, and social institutions in the country has been the bane of the current dilemma the nation finds herself.
He said, “What drives a system are the institutions embedded in that system. Nigeria has one of the weakest institutions. We run one of the most careless economies in the world because our institutions are either not functioning or functioning weakly. We don’t have strong economic institutions, political institutions, social institutions and others that can drive the kind of economy we all deserve and desire. So, there is a lot of wide gap between the policy making, economic articulations, managers of the economy and the institutions through which these policies are to be driven.”
Professor Usman who was careful in offering economic advice to the president noted that irrespective of the advice, only strong institutions that can enforce the policy are most desirable, adding, “If I advise President Buhari that we should as a nation increase rice cultivation and reduce importation because we have the land and climate that can grow rice, and as such save money every year, but tell me, are the government institutions at the borders working? At every Nigerian border, you have numerous security agencies and operatives and in between all of them, all the contraband products still come into the country.
“So, how will the policy be effective? So, that is the problem with the institutions. And that is why the anti-corruption crusade of President Buhari will go along way to help Nigeria achieve her goal if we can strengthen the institutions and organs.”
He further stated that Nigerian economy cannot improve except the nation changed from a consuming nation to a producing nation where the country produces virtually everything she consumes, noting that “Any economy that only buys can never develop. As long as you are only buying, you can never grow.”