By Aliyu DANLADI
A Former United Kingdom Foreign Minister, Baroness Lynda Chalker, has called for synergy between all tiers of government in Nigeria in order to meet the needs of the citizens.
Chalker said in Lagos the Federal and State governments must learn to work together in the interest of the masses.
TBI Africa reports that Chalker, in Nigeria on the invitation of Lagos State University (LASU), delivered a lecture on “Africa in a Competitive World, Development and Business.” at the institution.
“Nigeria’s government at all levels must learn to listen to one another and work together to provide social amenities that the people want.
“The federal and state governments must learn to listen, learn and work with one another to provide what the people want.
“It is not right to say a road is a federal road when it damages; so the government must learn to talk together and listen to one another in order to satisfy the needs of the people,’’ she said.
Earlier in her lecture, Chalker said most African economies, including Nigeria’s, would not achieve sufficient sustainable growth unless there was progress in raising competitiveness, productivity and business digitization.
“The capacity to offer Nigerians greater opportunities and better living conditions would depend on how successful it was at increasing competitiveness, controlling corruption and smartening up its offer to both Nigeria and foreign investors,’’ she said.
The UK former minister said success could only be achieved by reinforcing education, creating a stronger ecosystem where the private sector could develop.
“Over the last five years, Africa has seen the highest rate of population growth at about 2.5 per cent annually and by 2050 a quarter of the world’s population will be on the continent,” she said.
According Chalker, in Nigeria alone, two to four million young people are estimated to join the labour market yearly.
She said job creation measures were not keeping up with the number of working-age people in the continent, which was expected to grow to 450 million over the next three decades.
The former minister said Nigeria needed to emulate world’s biggest economies such as India which were utilising labour-intensive industries to bring employment to the population.
She said the development would be based on effective institutional coordination, sound infrastructure, well-educated human capital, efficient markets and modern technological advancement.
“So much is needed to bring Nigeria up in global ranking and the future competitiveness is in the hands of the future.
“Poor transportation is one of the major challenges worrying the nation and more than 50 per cent of its agricultural product is ruined before it gets to its destination.
“Nigeria is producing 25 kilowatts of electricity per 100 persons which is below production of other African countries like Ghana and it is not a question of generating but distributing,’’ Chalker said.
Gov. Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State, who was represented by Mr Kehinde Bamigbetan, the state Commissioner for Information, lauded Chalker for honouring the invitation extended by LASU.
“Chalker was a very good friend of the state and had hosted the Lagos mega city nine years ago during the tenure of former Governor Ahmed Tinubu.
“She had presented a need to manage the increasing population of the state which was already at an advanced stage and would be concluded by 2022,’’ he said.
Prof. Peter Okebukola, Former Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission (NUC) said countries would forever live in a competitive world.
Okebukola said any nation which failed to take care of the needs of its citizens would go into extinction.
“Once the country strengthen its leadership, improve education and tackle corruption, its battles over competitiveness in development and business is achievable,’’ he said.
LASU Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Olanrewaju Fagbohun, said Chalker’s visit to the university marked the beginning of a long relationship that would be mutually beneficial and treasured.
“We are putting our hands on deck to reposition the institution to being a competitive 21st century tertiary institution. Our aim is to make LASU a national and continental pride,’’ he said.
