Japheth Omojuwa: Nigeria’s Vision 20: 2020 and new realities.

The time has come to embrace this reality and do something different. The World Economic Forum’s global competitive index for Nigeria does not reflect any sign that our vision is being fulfilled as we go on.

The National Planning Commission is responsible for the planning and design of the National Vision 20: 2020 document. By its sheer design, scope and content, the Vision 20: 2020 documents represent a trust worthy path to development for a country like Nigeria that cries for development. That Nigeria has more than enough to succeed is an obvious reality, that Nigeria has never done enough to development is another painful reality.
The Vision 20: 2020 is simple enough. To make Nigeria one of the world’s top 20 economies by the year 2020. That is, to move into the elite of productive countries with global best practices and the attendant rule of law and other crucial appurtenances of development by 2020. Considering the fact that only six years separate us from 2020, one does not need a prophet to know that this vision will not be realized by its simple definition. We will not be amongst the top 20 economies by 2020.
2013 marks the end of the First National Implementation Plan (2010-2013). This particular benefited from the inputs of at least 5000 carefully selected Nigerians and foreign professionals. The three key pillars of NV20:2020 include

• - Optimizing Nigeria’s key sources of economic growth
• - Guaranteeing the productivity and wellbeing of Nigerians
• - Fostering sustainable development.

There are dimensions that guide the medium term objectives and they include:

• Institutional Dimension: Promote responsible leadership, deepen transparency, accountability and the rule of law. Guarantee adequate security of lives and property for Nigerians.
• Economic Dimension: Enhance productivity, diversification of the economy and a competitive business environment.
• Social Dimension: Improve Nigeria’s prospects for achieving the MDGs. Expand opportunities for sustainable employment generation.
• Environmental Dimension: Halt environmental degradation, promote the use of renewable energy and enforce regulations on climate change mitigation and adaptation.

The plan has key assumptions that it believes if fulfilled will hasten the nation’s path to this vision. Some of the assumptions include the fact that the nation must produce at least 2.4 million barrels of crude per day in 2010, and 2.5 million barrels per day in the years 2011, 2012 and 2013. All of these assumptions did not hold. Nigeria has continued to suffer from preventable challenges that have sabotaged the nation’s ability to produce more. Only recently, one of the multinationals Shell, claimed that they were losing as much as 60,000 barrels per day to bunkering and oil thieves. The sheer volume of this suggest that the perpetrators are daring and must be counting on some state force to engage in such a humongous day light rape of a whole country. Another assumption that has failed to hold is our GDP growth rate. The economy in terms of growth has been doing relatively well by about 7% growth in the last five years. You know need to see the NV 20:2020 plan to know that even Nigeria expected to do better than this number. The projection was that we’d grow by 8.2 %, 10.9%, 11.8% and 13.1% in the years 2010 through to 2013. On that projection, we are far from where we planned to be.
The time has come to embrace this reality and do something different. The World Economic Forum’s global competitive index for Nigeria does not reflect any sign that our vision is being fulfilled as we go on. The degree of economic freedom for 2013 also suggest that we are still at our mediocre level in terms global best practices, the fight against corruption, the rule of law and other tenets of economic freedom that help to engender genuine development.
All home is not lost. We once dreamed and we can dream again. In planning a new national projection, it is important to embrace the fact that we are not where we desired to be but that is not enough to hands up and give up. All we need do is look at what we did wrong in the past and why we failed then project a new future with an obsessive desire to make change happen. At least now we know that being amongst the best economies in the world is not by mouth and colourful documents.
 Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only