Nigeria’s Development Positive But Slow- Adedoja

Former Minister of Sports, Prof. Taoheed Adedoja, has described Nigeria’s development after 51 years of independence as positive.

He, however, said that the development process had been “slow”.

Adedoja made the statement in an interview with newsmen in Ibadan.

The former minister argued that in the past 15 years, the country had not had the environment conducive for the development of its abundant human and material resources, adding that the essence of independence was to assume nationhood and Nigeria had not achieved that.

“Other countries that have had their independence have had great advancement in all spheres of life. We were absent for several years in this country, Nigeria has been a witnessed of that punctuated experience in democratic governance. And this definitely has affected Nigeria as a country to reach where it should reach at the 51st year of attaining independence.

“Nigeria has not been chanced to witness the kind of environment that would make Nigeria to tap its human and material resources, blessed as Nigeria is.

“And if we have to go by what had happened before Nigeria gained independence, and what is happening now, we can say that there are a lot of untapped resources in this country that would have made Nigeria better than what it is today in terms of the needs of the people. “

Adedoja, who was also a former Commissioner for Education in Oyo State, maintained that Nigeria was neither under-developed nor fully developed.

“We could be right to say Nigeria is developing but the rate at which it is developing is extremely slow compared with the human resources that God has given Nigeria and with the kind of material resources that God has endowed to us.

“In order to have a country that is on the path of greatness, that country must have policies put in place. Nigeria has one of the best policies in all spheres of human endeavours anywhere in the world; one of the best policies in agriculture, education, in health, but we have problem of implementation and problem of continuity.

“And that is why that as from this year 2011 that Nigeria attain 51st year, the leader of our great party, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dr Ebele Goodluck Jonathan has started to lay another solid foundation that will transform our great country, in three major way and once those three things are fulfilled, every other thing will follow,” he stated.

Such transformation, according to Adedoja, are in education, making people to have better access to quality education and also in the power sector and employment generation.

“These three key areas are central to the development of Nigeria and that is why I am happy with what Mr President is doing. That means that it is still not late for Nigeria to attain greatness.

“Even Nigerians in the Diaspora have recognised that Nigeria as a country can still be a great nation and this is because we have started to realise that,’’ the former minister stated.