VISION 2010: IMPERATIVE FOR NIGERIA'S DEVELOPMENT

VISION 2010: IMPERATIVE FOR NIGERIA'S DEVELOPMENT

Nigeria is a country that is abundantly blessed with both human and natural material resources. Yet 42 years after independence, she is still in search of economic, social and political development.

Since the independence of Nigeria in 1960, steps have been taken to define a framework for socio-economic development. Development planning started with the first national development plan (1962-68) which evolved the strategy of laying an enduring foundation for national development. The second National development plan (1962-68), which evolved the strategy of laying an enduring foundation for national development; the second National development plan (1970-74) which was based on enhanced economic fortunes of the country, aimed mainly at achieving post-war reconstruction. The third National Development plan (1975-80) sought to boost the standard of living of the generality of the populace and it introduced the import substitution strategy for industrial development.

Similarly, the fourth national development plan (1981-85) pursued the same strategy as the third plan, although it was based on a much higher level of resources expectations.

It must be stressed that while all these plans suffered from notable deficiencies in scope and conception, their greatest failure was poor implementation. Instead of continuing with the series and living a fifth development plan to span 1986-90, the country under General Ibrahim Babangida adopted the structural adjustment programme in 1986 which was later extended to provide the base for a three-year rolling plan, beginning from 1990, this fundamental shift in planning strategy created distortions and in the end, the country was left with no clear vision or blue print for future development.

The adverse consequences of Nigeria of years of poor national planning and poor programme implementation are there for all to see.

Nigeria slipped into new total dependence on crude oil exports for its survival to the detriment and exclusion of other national resources. In the last three decades in particular the country missed golden opportunities to sources her human and material resources for meaningful development. This led to serious consequences such as the rural-urban drift, which come with the usually attendant socio-economic problems.

Presently, with the global encompassing of the national economics of the countries of the world by the capitalist ideological camps, the fact that most of the countries involved with it are succeeding and prospering coupled with the fact Nigeria is in the serious trouble that we have been in for over a decade and so not have any alternative solution to our problems, how do we see our way forward? Can we ignore the global happening around us? Even if we wanted to, could we remain as an island on to ourselves? Even if we wanted could we expect to be left alone to kill ourselves in pretended civil wars that could result from our national problems?

The answer to these entire questions is 'No" we have serious social, political and economic problems that we, ourselves, want to solve and we must solve them. These questions and answers gave rise to vision 2010.