Nigeria, Creativity in
Nigerians and the Missing Link
Nigeria is stupendously blessed with both
human and natural resources making other countries grin with envy. Nigeria is richly endowed with a variety of
Natural Resources raging from precious metals and various industrial stones
such as Barites, Gypsum, Kaolin and Marble. Each of the 36 sates and FCT has
several mineral resources needing to be tapped. For instance, Kaduna has over
ten mineral resources such as Amethyst, Aqua Marine, Asbestos, Clay, Flosper,
Gemstone, Gold, Graphite, Kaolin, Hyanite, Mica, Rock Crystal, Ruby, Sapphire,
Sihnite, Superntinite, Tentalime, Topaz & Tourmaline. Other states like Nasarawa,
Ondo, Plateau, Sokoto, Edo, Imo, Zamfara and Katsina states have varieties of
mineral resources similar to those in Kaduna State. In fact, each of the 36
states in Nigeria has a minimum of three mineral resources in appreciable
quantity waiting for exploitation. Each of these mineral resources is reported
to be in large quantity spread over large area. For instance, there are about 3
billon tons of iron ore deposits in Kogi, Niger states and FCT, 10 million tons
of zinc/lead in Abuja, Kano and Cross River. There are over 2 million tons of
rock salts and over 3 billion tons of coal deposits in Plateau, Enugu and Anambra
states. Large quantity of gold is found in Zamfara, Sokoto, Oyo, Niger, Kwara
and Kebbi states among others. These mineral resources provide tremendous
investment opportunities for economic growth and nation building. If tapped,
the country could be Eldorado.
In addition to mineral resources, there are
other natural resources such as water and land resources. Nigeria has seven
distinct climate zones, which provide average annual rainfall ranging from 700
mm in the far north (Sahel savannah) to 4,000 mm in riverine and mountainous
areas in the south. Rainfall provides billions liters of water annually in
addition to several other billions liters of water from River Niger. The river
passes through the country and drains an average discharge of 5,589 m3/s
into Atlantic Ocean. River Niger with a length of 4,180 Km and drainage basin area
of 2.1 million Km2 is the third largest river in Africa after River
Nile and Zaire. River Niger has six
major perennial rivers as tributaries crisscrossing the length and breath of Nigeria
making it the most endowed country with unlimited water resources available for
development.
Land resources are similarly in abundance
in Nigeria. The country has 91 million hectares of arable land with merely 50 %
utilization despite the quantum of water resources, soil fertility, favorable
topography and climates. Land and water resources are certainly important
natural resources available for exploitation to develop the agricultural sector.
Among the major minerals in Nigeria, the two most important and dependable resources
are oil and gas as they constitute 90 percent of foreign exchange earning with
all other economic contributors making the 10 percent. Oil also contributes
about 70 percent of annual income to the three tiers of governments (Federal,
States and LGAs).
Nigeria is the largest oil producing
country in Africa. Experts have estimated that Nigerian oil and gas reserves
are 23 billion barrels of crude oil and 160 trillion cubic meters of gas www.nigeria.gov.ng. The major part of oil deposits is
situated in the Delta basin in Abia, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta,
Edo, Imo, Ondo, and Rivers states. The deposits are multi-layered. The depth of
productive layers on land is between 1500 and 2000 m while on the shelf is
between 2500 and 3600 m. However, when the areas are multi-layer, the depth of
productive strata on land is between1500 and 2000 m while on the shelf is
between 2500 and 3600 m. Many oil deposits in Nigeria have gas caps. The
quality of Nigerian oil is of high grade with low-sulfur and high paraffin
content. The Nigerian oil is attractive at the International market because of
its quality; its gravity is 36 API for light types and 20-23 API for medium and
heavy types. Despite oil massive contribution to the foreign exchange earning,
it nevertheless contributes a mere 9 percent of the Gross Domestic Products
(GDP).
The analysis on the mineral resources in
Nigeria indicates the level of underdevelopment of the resources with exception
of oil, the highly dynamic and unpredictable economic sector. This means that with
the exception of oil, other natural resources are mere potentials and not yet
transform to reality that can propel the development of the nation economy.
Potentials are like fertile land with adequate water for both crops and
livestock productions left unattended and become vulnerable to infestation by
dangerous reptiles. In any community or society, human resources are the driver
of transformation of potentials into tangible reality. How capable are human
resources in Nigeria to transform these potentials? What is the demography in
Nigeria and its adequacy to meet the developmental challenges?
In 2015, population estimate for Nigeria
was 186,988,000 with male population of 95,253,000 and female population of
91,734,000 and population density of 201.3 per square kilometer. Today,
Nigerian population is estimated to be 201,102,939 making the country to be the
7th most populous country in the world. The six countries with more
population than Nigeria are China, India, USA, Pakistan, Indonesia and
Brazil. At the time of the Nigerian
independence in 1960, the country recorded a total population of 45.2 million
people and then Nigeria was 13th most populous country in the world.
With average population growth rate of 2.533 percent from 1960 to date, Nigeria
moved upward to occupy the 7th position and is still moving with
this (2019) year’s growth rate of 2.6 percent. This growth rate is higher than
growth rates for Pakistan 1.88%, Brazil 0.72%, Indonesia 1.03% and USA 0.71%. From
1960 to 2019, Nigerian population was increased by 444%. Today, Nigerian
population is equivalent to 2.6% of the total world population meaning that one
person out of 39 people in the World is a Nigerian. In the next thirty years,
Nigeria will have an estimated population of 450 million people and will occupy
the 3rd position of the top most populous country in the World after
India and China. Interestingly, more than 60 percent of Nigerian population is
under the age of 24 years. The rate of population growth in Nigeria is “one
birth in every four seconds and one death in every fourteen seconds”. This
demographic analysis clearly shows that Nigeria is tremendously endowed with
human resources. How qualitative are the human resources?
The major qualitative indicator of human
resources in any society is the level of her human capital, what is the level
of human capital in Nigeria? Human capital refers to the stockpile of
competencies, skills, knowledge and personalities attribute embodied in
individuals. These attributes are
responsible for the creation of qualitative labor force with appreciable
economic, social and personal values. Labor is the most important factors of
production. Human capital is therefore a primary factor, which converts all
resources for the use and benefits of mankind and nation development. World
Bank defines human capital as “the knowledge, skills, and health that people
accumulate over their lives”. How is human capital developed? Human capital is
developed by massive public and private investments in health and education of
the young people. Human capital is evaluated using five indicators
periodically. The indicators are “child survival, school enrollment, quality of
learning, healthy growth and adult survival”. Nigerian human capital index in
2018 was averaged 0.34 as reported by World Bank (https://www.undispatch.com/chart-of-the-day-the-world-bank-ranks-each-county-based-on-its-human-capital/). This means that the earning
potential of Nigerian youngest generation over their lifetime is only 34
percent of what it could be with complete education and good health. In other
words, the country is losing 66 percent of its productivity by not fully
investing in human capital. While the result of the World Bank ranking of
Nigeria human capital index among the 157 countries looks discouraging,
dispiriting and gloomy, the reality shows that several Nigerians are creating
waves and excelling in several human endeavors globally. This may not be unconnected with the large
human resources that keep growing in the country. The relative few Nigerians with
high human capital index are large enough to make the name of Nigeria rings
bell in every continent in the World. Perhaps this may be the positive aspect
of population explosion. These few Nigerians are endowed with creative
capacities and innovative thinking and thus, impacting positively on the nation
image home and abroad. What is the creativity in these few Nigerians? What is
the missing link between these Nigerians and Nigeria? (To be continued next
week)
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