Nigeria Has No Developmental Goal, Paradigm In Place – Stakeholders

STAKEHOLDERS have identified corruption and loss of value as the major challenges threatening Nigeria’s growth.

The stakeholders agreed that Nigeria has not decided to develop because it has no developmental goal and paradigm in place.

They spoke at a conference organised by Fountain University, Osogbo, on Wednesday.

The theme of the conference was tagged: ‘The Challenge of Development in Nigeria: Beyond the Corruption Narrative’

Some of the lecturers and panelists who spoke at the programme disagreed that corruption is not the major factor hindering the country’s growth, while some of them identified it as a major threat.

In his address, the Chief Executive Officer of OSUN DEFENDER Newspaper, Prince Kanmi Ademiluyi, said corruption is not a big deal to hinder development in Nigeria, sighting the example of Brazil and India. 

Ademiluyi noted that corrupt in those countries are not seen as normal issues, saying money stolen by public office holders are used to invest and build industries within the country.

He said this provide employment opportunities for youths in the countries as against what corruption is in Nigeria where individuals stole money and take it outside the country. 

Ademiluyi, however, argued that Nigeria as a country has not yet decided to develop as it failed to bring up a development goal and paradigm.

He said: “Corruption is not actually Nigeria problem because corruption is not seen as a moral issue in Brazil and India. When monies are embezzled in these countries, they invest it by building industries within the country which provide employment for the graduates.

“Corruption is not our problem in Nigeria, just that we are not interested in development.

“Instead of building productive capacity, we are buying cars for our lawmakers from Japan. What happened to our own local manufacturers? The money used in purchasing the cars would have remained within our economy. Nigeria has not decided to be a Develop country.”

One of the panelists, Comrade Ayo Ologun, opined that Nigeria has developed because the country is not where it was before years back, though the nation is not where it supposed to be.

According to Ologun, the bane of Nigeria’s growth is not corruption but loss of value, noting that the country can only succeed when it attached value to the system.

He said: “Nigeria has developed as we are not where we used to be but we have not developed to where we supposed to be. 

“What have limited us in term of development is not about corruption. We cannot develop when the issue of value is not put into place. An idiot can lead Nigeria when he/she bring value to the system.

“A system that is put in place is what we bring about development and will bring about value. It is when value is attached to the office he or she is that will bring growth. 

“Office holders embezzle money because of value they attached to material things. We have lost development because of value we attached to people because of material things.

“You cannot bring sanity to a system unless you are ready to bring value to it and It is about value you have developed as you are growing up that will assist. Our limitation to development in Nigeria is because we have lost value, not corruption.”