Nigeria is among the largest oil and gas producers in Africa and the majority of the government revenue comes from the sector. Any drop in global oil prices or production will have a negative effect on the country's earnings.
Prof. Soludo who is a member of the newly constituted Economic Advisory Council made this call while delivering a speech at The Platform on “Re-Designing the Nigerian Economy with New Ideas”; The Covenant Place, Beside the National Theatre, Iganmu; October 1, 2019.
The Platform is an initiative of Covenant Christian Centre, designed to facilitate growth in the areas of personal capacity, productivity and national development within Nigeria.
He said, “for the national economy, it will be difficult to have a competitive and prosperous post-oil economy of the future (with additional hundreds of millions of citizens and dwindling land space) with the same legal and institutional foundation designed for the consumption of oil rent.
“A post-oil economy requires that all agents maximise their fullest potential, and what is required will be a national rather than a federal response. You can’t clap with one hand. Once the focus is wealth creation rather than sharing and consumption of oil rents, we need a new national business model. Unfortunately, the link between law- Constitution- institutions- Judiciary, etc and economic transformation seems to be the weakest link in our design of national agenda. In the future, hopefully, the National Assembly, Ministry of Justice, the states and other stakeholders might take up the assignment…”
Prof. Soludo said although over the years, successive governments have tried to restructure or diversify the economy, the economy is still tied to the oil economy, peasant agriculture model and largely informal services while poverty and unemployment remain common features.
“The urgency of the moment is warranted by the context of the new and complicating realities. Oil will be history in less than 20 years but the pressures of peculiar demographics and geography are upon us.”
