summary guide to understanding the problem with economic reform in Nigeria

CHAPTER ONE THE COLLAPSE OF THE AGRICULTURAL SECTOR Nigeria is a country that is considered the giant of Africa, considered a growing economy to become a global power by 2050, but currently is at the brink of economic collapse due to a growing concern in shortage of food supplies and production and the availability of food options, leading to malnourishment of many Nigerians. Nigeria as a country founded its economical roots in the agricultural sector, even the Nigeria flag depicts the original conceptualisation of the entity Nigeria by her colonial masters who taught it would be a great idea to represent green on the Nigeria flag symbolising the fertile soil for agriculture, a projection and vision to assist the country which at that point was a power in food production and natural resources. Agricultural produce was a very highly priced commodity in the 20th century perhaps; it was the rubble effects of the first and second world wars which paved way for economic advantage for the Nigerians. Nigeria grew prosperous over the years and supplied Europe with food materials which were used for industrial transformation in Europe assisting the starving in the war; Nigeria was also aiding collapsed economies of the world. Nigeria’s food production and supply gave some nations of the world hope especially war torn economies of Europe in some cases Nigeria’s agricultural produce served as relief materials for the war displaced, even Asia was a benefit of this Nigeria’s agricultural might. A testimony to this agricultural power Nigeria exercised at her initial stages was the acquisition of Nigerian oil palm seeds by Asia countries like Malaysia. A selection of Nigeria oil palm seed from the abundance of palm fruit trees in Nigeria has turned Malaysia into one of the world’s oil palm destinations in the world. This agricultural advantage once held by Nigeria were not sustainable or followed up by incoming administrators and often those who could speak up choose not to for the sake of job security, inflicting damaging economic realities to the nation. An advantage quickly became a disadvantage because Nigeria government never innovated market strategies as war torn nations of world war recovered, Nigerians were not industrious to a rapid changing world, the authorities then should have realized that as demand slopped and Nigeria’s agricultural produce demand curve pointed downwards because those countries were busy rebuilding their own agricultural sector and their economies and stopped adequate investing in Nigerians agricultural sector, Nigeria at that point should have initiated a new program and put into place new ideas for the strategic survival of the Nigeria agricultural markets, instead Nigeria leaders were hoping that the quantity in Agricultural exports will remain the same, leading to failure in research and management, failure to look into advanced produce types, by selective breeding of agricultural stocks using the best seeds and animals in order to still maintain a level of quality that will still attract a far rewarding client, coupled with the failure to expand her industries lead to the collapse in demand for Nigeria agricultural produce. The Nigeria government and her constituted authorities were locked in a power struggle, power allocation thus resource allocation, leaving the necessary industries to die off and then as a solution, importation became the only way to maintain economic value using her population as a way out since demand from outside dropped this lead to the rise in the price of domestic goods, devaluing the Nigerian currency which at that point had a good exchange rate at the global stock markets. Even worse, Nigerians started depending on countries which they sold agricultural goods to, those countries started to determine the price of the goods even within the borders of Nigeria. There is an adage in Nigeria, one man’s food is another man’s poison, most resourceful Nigerians took to importation of foreign goods as they were encouraged by their market contacts (foreign marketers) it was far attractive and better quality, some distinguished Nigerians felt that importation of foreign goods will save time and money which was spent on bureaucrats in the trade and export industries. Most of these even the cost of transporting goods on bad roads of Nigeria lead to the preference of importation, business men and women imported too many foreign goods which resulted to different prices of the same goods at the different levels and locations within the same constituent in the country, prices were not regulated any longer and copy cat entrepreneurship kicked in. this lead to economic hardship for some Nigerians and some citizens of the country who couldn’t cope resolved to crime (delinquency). Nigeria became a dumping ground for international companies who exploited her growing weakness of poor policies and inconsistent administrative works, often lobbying against national interest via their Nigerian partners. Recently the European union lifted a ban on the importation of Nigeria bean or some agricultural produce, all these bans were strategy on their part to devalue Nigeria agricultural produce and encourage their own local markets. Diplomatically, Nigeria envoys to most other nations hardly are innovative enough to draw in foreign investors into Nigeria’s agricultural sector as most of their focus shifted to crude oil marketing , another natural resource discovered in the 1970s nick named the black gold, but Nigeria’s strategist did not weigh the impact of revenue from food, not considering that there are over 3 billion people on earth who must eat every day, whereas not everybody own cars or machines that would require crude oil products to operate with. As of today as a Nigerian I do not know the holistic data of food reserves in the country which is indeed a threat to the nation’s economy and future , especially these days that crude oil is discovered in some countries which will affect the dominance or edge Nigerians had on the crude oil markets, and with no major investment and backups in the sunny days, one can only wonder what will happen in a darker period ,especially if there was a famine globally as climate change is inevitable.