opinion
By Ikeogu Oke
This is a sequel to an article entitled “PIB as Panacea for Fuel Crisis” (The Guardian, December 18, 2015, p. 17). It argued that the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) would be a significant step towards permanently ending the country’s perennial fuel crisis and the attendant economic problems. Also, that it would boost job creation in the petroleum and related sectors of the economy, and engender economic growth in the face of shrinking income from oil – the country’s major revenue earner.
However, it is evident that excessive or near-total reliance on oil has negatively impacted the country’s economic stability, especially following the recent sharp drop in the price of the commodity which the country seems unable to influence. This explains the need for a new ameliorative option of developing a knowledge economy.
Investopedia defines a knowledge economy as “a system of consumption and production that is based on intellectual capital.” It is defined complementarily in “The DTI Competitiveness White Paper” – quoted by Ian Brinkley in a 2006 “Knowledge economy programme report” for The Work Foundation – as an economy “in which the generation and exploitation of knowledge has come to play the predominant part in the creation of wealth.”
While we anticipate the rallying of oil prices, it might be more useful to explore other avenues for improving the Nigerian economy in the short and long term. And I mean improving the economy both in terms of improving our per capita income and improving our capacity to grow the economy through ventures that are reasonably within our control – something our dependence on oil seems ever unlikely to afford us.
Of the lessons we may learn from the current drastic fall in oil prices and its negative impact on our economy, perhaps the most important is that our country should cultivate as many more streams of income as possible. To offer better prospects for economic stability than oil, such streams of income would have to originate from our people’s resourcefulness and primarily depend on it for their sustainability.
While speaking on Sunrise Daily, the Channels TV programme, on December 22, 2015, Prof. Pat Utomi noted that Star Wars, the movie recently released in the United States, grossed more income than Nigeria is likely to earn in 2016. Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, and the late Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, are among the world’s richest entrepreneurs. Worth billions of dollars and having links to chains of businesses that support millions of people in their home country and beyond, they are among the best embodiments of the success and sustainability of a knowledge economy.
Even more intriguing is what Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook said to be worth over $4 billion, has achieved with his social media platform as a pacesetting business venture. His is also a remarkable example of how knowledge can transform into a huge economic asset to an individual and by extension their country, contributing to the strengthening of the country’s knowledge economy and overall economic wellbeing.
Back home, in Nigeria, the burgeoning movie industry known as Nollywood, a variant of the knowledge industry, is a veritable exemplar of how the knowledge industry can contribute to economic growth and the attendant job creation, besides creating a cultural (or technological) brand that is distinctively ours, recognised and respected within and beyond our borders like Hollywood, Bollywood, Ghollywood, Microsoft, Apple, Samsung, etc., from other climes.
For a people described by Chinua Achebe as “prodigiously gifted” in The Education of a British-Protected Child, and with our vast human resources, we cannot continue to stand in the river of plenty and wash our hands with the spittle of lack.
The conscious and aggressive cultivation of a knowledge economy for Nigeria, as a complement to our reliance on oil and solid minerals, can be a panacea for the economic instability that defines our lot, accentuated by the recent decline in oil prices.
Faced with the need to give the country a new economic direction, the government of President Muhammadu Buhari should consider creating policies and establishing structures for harnessing the intellect and creativity of Nigerians for economic production that would have an export component.
However, it is incontrovertible that a knowledge economy is best developed and sustained by a well-educated and knowledgeable citizenry with the capacity to produce, consume and promote the goods of such economy. And it is not surprising that the countries with the strongest and most advanced knowledge economies like the United States, Germany, Britain, Canada and Japan have the best educational systems at all levels. Nigeria’s case cannot be different if it must develop a robust knowledge economy like these countries, thereby improving its chances of achieving economic stability.
This brings to mind the significance of the recent call for the reform of education in Nigeria by Director General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Mr. Benjamin Ezra Dikki “to ensure [the] enforcement of standards at the primary and secondary levels”, while noting that the regulatory institutions for tertiary education meant to ensure the enforcement of standards are “lacking at the primary and secondary levels” – as reported in the story entitled “Delayed passage of PIB frustrating economic growth” (Daily Sun, December 14, 2015, http://sunnewsonline.com/new/delayed-passage-of-pib-frustrating-economic-growth/). He also noted that “the lack of regulation at these levels has resulted in falling standards at the foundation level of education in the country” and that “students finish secondary schools and cannot read or write properly.”
Furthermore, he said the BPE was “hamstrung to undertake reforms initiatives at the primary and secondary levels of education because of constitutional provisions”, explaining that “what at present obtains is that the Federal Government controls only the tertiary institutions in the country, while the states and local government areas control secondary and primary education. And until we bring the primary and secondary levels under a regulatory regime that enforces uniform standards across the nation, the decline in standards will continue,” with some schools not meeting the standards and wasting the formative years of our youths.
Given that the youths in question are the future of our knowledge economy – as potential producers, consumers and promoters of the goods of the economy – we should give serious consideration to this proposition to reform our education to adequately prepare them for such critical roles. And the reform should include a curriculum that encourages creativity and development of entrepreneurial skills.
Whether we define a knowledge economy in terms of its relationship to “intellectual capital” or “the generation and exploitation of knowledge”, one thing is clear: its success is inextricably linked to a good education.
– Oke, a public affairs commentator, wrote from Abuja.
Leave a Reply