Taking the Leap: Nigeria's Fear of developing industries

Nigeria is the largest producer of oil in Africa and the 4th in the world. The oil sector supplies 95% of foreign exchange earnings and over 90% of total exports. Nigeria has proven oil reserves of 22.5 billion barrels.

Let's consider this hypothetical scenario...

What if, Nigeria didn't have crude petroleum deposit?

Wouldn't we be forced to develop other industries?

Nigeria needs to be "forced" into diversifying the economy. Oil should not be the only viable industry. And our over dependence on Oil has kept us slaves to a commodity which ordinarily was meant to be a gift but which is now sadly becoming a curse.

A country which has many potential industries but relies on only one is a country that will naturally not grow to its full potential. And this lack of growth or stunted growth, at best, is a result of the inability to change.

Fear suppresses productivity! There is naturally a reluctance to take that leap...it is part of our humanity to want to stay safe...staying safe, for fear of failure. keeping things as it is.

Also, we have limited ourselves by putting up with a poor maintenance culture which has led to infrastructural decay crippling a number of promising industries.

I'm not sure what's worse; building infrastructure, and then refusing to maintain them. Or not building at all. Undoubtedly this has been the undoing of Nigeria's economy.

Sadly, the trend over the years has been to massively invest in infrastructure and then turn around and allow them to deteriorate in a manner that makes us look petty and wasteful.

In order to realize our full potential, the entire nation cannot afford to depend on one stream of revenue. We need to fix our infrastructure and diversify into alternative sectors. The government must identify new and ailing sectors and use legislation to support investment in those areas.

More industries would translate to more jobs--less anger--- more security. It is sad that Nigeria is one of those countries that can boast of some of the most educated armed robbers and prostitutes. This is a consequence of high unemployment rates, economic uncertainties and the absence of a social safety net, that can act as a buffer for the unemployed, the poor and the vulnerable.

Let's look at some important industries we have in our country. One of them, arguably the second biggest visible export to the world, Intellectual property (Nollywood movies and Music).... then others include Tourism, Iron and Steel, Natural minerals, food processing , Rubber, Paper, Pharmaceutical plants, tyre factories, Paint factories, to name a few.

I will state the obvious, what harm can the revamping of these sectors do, other than economic and social stability?