Dependence On Oil, Bane Of Nigeria’s Dev -DG, NIPSS

The Director-General, National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Prof Tijjani Barde, has attributed the country’s underdevelopment to over dependence on oil revenue.

Barde, made the declaration yesterday in Jos, when he led participants of 2012 Senior Executive Course (SEC) 34 on a courtesy call on Governor Jonah Jang of Plateau State.

The Director-General said that it was “very necessary’’ for the country to diversify its economy so as to break away from its present shackles of underdevelopment.

He told the governor that President Goodluck Jonathan had mandated the participants to carry out extensive research on the topic: “Diversification of the Economy as a means of Bringing Sustainable Economic Development in Nigeria.”

“The sole dependence on one commodity for the sustenance of the nation is a major problem the country is facing over the last quarter of the century”, he said.

Barde said that the participants were determined to come up with useful suggestions on the issue that would be of immense benefit to the country.

He, therefore, sought for the cooperation and support of the state government to enable the course participants come up with an excellent document on the topic.

The Director-General commended the President for the directive to relevant government organisations to fully implement all the recommendations made by the participants of SEC 33 in 2011.

Responding, Jang noted that there could be no meaningful economic development in an atmosphere of insecurity and lamented the prevailing security situation in the country.

Jang tasked the participants to also investigate the current security problem in the state and the country, and make recommendations on how to tackle it.

The governor noted the “devastations” left behind by tin mining activities across the state and called on the Federal Government to reclaim the sites.

“The tin mining from Plateau fed the whole country but left devastations and inflicted open wounds on Plateau; unfortunately, the Federal Government has been ignoring us over our predicaments.

“We are calling on the Federal Government to come and rehabilitate the devastations they caused us by reclaiming some of those lands and save the people from the agony of cancer from radioactive materials in the mining pits.”

Jang said that his administration was already diversifying the state’s economy “by changing the face of agriculture in the state”.

“If all states will do what Plateau is doing in agriculture, Nigeria will feed the whole world’’, he asserted.

Governor Jonah Jang of Plateau State (left), with Director-General, National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Prof. Tijani Barde, during a courtesy visit on the governor in Jos, yesterday.