LAST week, the Mo Ibrahim Foundation unwittingly reminded Nigerians of their country's lowly position on the development scale in Africa. The country ranked 13th out of 16 West African Countries and the 41st out of 54 continental countries on good governance, having scored 41 out of 100.On good governance, Nigeria is said to have scored lower than the regional average for West Africa, which is 50 and lower than the continental average, which is also 50. At sub-category level, the country's highest rating is in rights and education, which is 26th and lowest in health at 51st.As if that were not enough, Nigeria's business environment was ranked 101st in 2011, worse than her 87th position in 2010 in the Forbes Best Countries for Business Report, which covered 134 countries.In this report, Nigeria is not among the first best 10 African nations with suitable business environment. Of the 15 African countries surveyed, Nigeria managed to come ahead of struggling countries such as Angola, Burundi, Zimbabwe, and Chad.South Africa, Zambia and Ghana were in the lead of countries with best business environment in Africa. Economic indices like Gross Domestic Product (GDP), growth, GDP per capita, technology, corruption and public debt were used in the assessment.On a global scale, development ratings appear to be somewhat distant. They have become a matter of routine, with the implication that they could be taken for granted. Nigeria's position on the list of most corrupt countries has been conformed time and again and that fact no longer cause any stir.Nigeria is one of the countries listed as havens for kidnappers, after Somalia, Pakistan and Afghanistan. The country ranks high on the list of failed states, referring to countries with weak central government, widespread corruption and criminality.The Human Rights Watch is constantly on the case of Nigeria, reporting rights violations and infractions on the Rule of Law.Regrettably, lowly ratings have nearly become synonymous with Nigeria. But last week's brazen affront on the country's giant status within the West Africa sub-region and in Africa, as indicated by the Mo Foundation report and the Forbes Best Countries for Business Report calls for serious and urgent appraisal because, if the ratings are correct, it then means all the reforms and investments put in place by government since 1999 have not moved the country one inch forward.FOR a country that is rated the sixth world exporter of crude oil, raking in billions of dollars yearly and having a huge capacity for economic growth to be so unequally yoked with backwater countries like Chad and Zimbabwe calls for serious concern.Nigeria's image in the international community used to be very robust and inspiring. At independence in 1960, the country was the toast of the world, courted by the Super Powers and wooed by the Non-Aligned nations.Nigeria was blessed with great economic potentials and recorded progressive growth from year to year, and was bound for the top when the military took over government in 1966.Even after that, the country remained on the part of steady growth, at least within the first 13 years of military rule, setting development plans and working hard to realise them. Those were years when the federal government took bold steps to build major highways, dams, refineries, steel industry, schools, hospitals and there were jobs for the younger population.Military governments did not rate high on account of human rights, but Nigeria's first military leaders put the country on the path of sound economic growth. In those years, taps run with clean, potable water in major cities and towns and rural population enjoyed free primary health services. All one had to do was visit the dispensary and he/she was most certain to take home free drugs, after free service.Following the mismanagement of the Second Republic, a new set of military came into town and the image of the country took a dive for the rocks. There were gross violations of socio-economic rights, in addition to the looting of public treasury. The international community watched in awe and began to classify Nigeria among countries with poor reputation.At the same time, there were development plans that were at best fictitious, promising better life when government's structural adjustment policies did otherwise. There were promises to transform the economy, but the reality was that government shied away from the kind of capital investment that would yield future dividends.The target of 2000 was set, by which time education for all would be free, health too would be free and all basic needs would be free. That was wishful thinking because no investment was put in place to realise that dream.Governance was less than average because it was all trial and error and the methods were crude and lacking integrity. Every policy and execution was at variance with global ratings.When 2000 became misty, the next rouge government designed a new vision for the country. Tagged Vision 2010, the idea was a comprehensive policy formulation projection document that was good to behold.The owners of the foresight promised that, 'by Vision 2010 programme, we seek to move our people away from short-sightedness and the daily struggle for short-term gains, which do not seem to get us anywhere, to conceptualise a better future towards which we can channel our individual and collective energies with hope and enthusiasm. Ours is an attempt to finally define where we want to go as a people.It should then be easier to know when we deviate from the desired course.If Nigerians ever had any faith in themselves and their future as a nation, this is the time to demonstrate it.'Meanwhile, the rulers had embarked on barefaced looting, stealing public funds and taking them overseas, to Europe and America. They stripped public utilities of their capacity to make profit; thus, ruining great investments in NEPA, Airways, NNSL, Railway, etc.That was the height of bad governance, as development was put on hold, human rights were abysmally violated and pro-democracy activists were harassed and locked up without trial. Many were killed and all that earned for the country a pariah status.FROM 1999, another set of rulers came on board, initially full of promise and purpose. Because of the rot that was inherited from the military, attempts were made to clean the system and get set for transformation. To get reprieve from odious ratings by international development agencies, concerted efforts were made to sanitse the polity through the promotion of Rule of Law.Government put in place the Justice Oputa Panel to make reconciliations at the political level. A lot of people came forward, believing that it was a genuine effort. 10 years after, the polity is not reconciled. Instead, it is classified to be among states that are bound to fail.On the economic front, various visions were bandied around, with claims to free the economy from government's parasitic interference and to spread wealth among the poor, with a view to delisting the country from the class of wretched of the earth.Privatisation, commercialisation and concessioning have fraudulently yielded a number of public utilities to new owners in circumstances that are still being probed. There is no integrity in the process and global development organisations are watching.Government went on to introduce poverty alleviation policies and programmes, whose visible impact is measured in the increased number of imported motorcycles in the system, as well as keke NAPEP, without local inputs, except the riders, who happen to be former workers of textile and tyre companies that were forced to close down or relocate to Ghana, where the business environment is more friendly, according to Forbes.In those days of real growth, fully-built vehicles (FBUs) imported into the country attracted very high tariff, in order to encourage local assembly plants, whose imports, completely knocked down parts (CKDs) were given less tariff in order to stimulate growth in the local auto industry.Then, there were hundreds of local auto parts manufacturers, which supplied the Peugeot Automobile of Nigeria (PAN), Kaduna; STEYR, Bauchi; LEYLAND, Ibadan; VOLKSWAGON, Lagos and NTM, Kano. DUNLOP and MICHELIN were more than busy, trying to meet local demands. And there were jobs, good jobs. The economic indices and growth were also real, not just on paper.Today, that fledgling automobile industry is completely dead. What exist now are marketing outposts for Japanese, Korean, European, American and even Indian/Chinese automobile companies. And they are not indices for real growth for Nigeria because they repatriate their profits to their home countries.On corruption, the global community had been sufficiently embarrassed by the capacity of Nigerian leaders to steal. Countries in Europe and United States encouraged Nigerian government to fight corruption, so that recovered funds would be set aside for development.The United Nations also set up the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), to encourage developing countries to scale up on critical development challenges that affect the people. Nigeria seems committed to these goals ' eradicate poverty and hunger; achieve universal primary education; promote gender equality and women empowerment; reduce child mortality; improve maternal health; combat HIV & Aids, Malaria and other diseases; ensure environmental sustainability and develop a global partnership for development in by 2015.At the same time, government does not appropriate sufficient funds to realise the goals. More money is paid as salaries and allowances than on development goals.A lot is happening and government is spending money, yet, the country continues to slide down the ladder, in company with lowly backwater countries. Unemployment is embarrassingly high; services in the social sectors of education, health are still poor. Corruption and criminality remain a major threat to the growth of the economy and social life. When will this downward movement stop'The Yar'Adua/Jonathan government promised Nigerians a new vision that would leap the country into the league of 20 most industrialised countries by year 2020, away from her present lowly status. This is a good vision, but if it must be realised, government must work extra hard on all sectors.For a start, government must subdue corruption in very clear terms. Then, government should insist that the economy is productive, not being a retail outlet for Chinese, Korean and Indian products and services.Government must create jobs and insist on an environment that enables the survival of the private sector. Then, there must be accessible and affordable 24/7 power supply, to encourage private participation in the economy.As a matter of urgency, government should reduce by half recurrent expenses and make sure budgets work under regimes of strict fiscal discipline. Otherwise, Vision 20:2020 will be another pipedream, hollow and vacuous.
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