Nigeria's quest to develop her obsolete transport
infrastructure may continue to be elusive due to low level of private
investment inflow occasioned by weak property rights in the country. Governors
should stop the needless and indiscriminate revocation of Certificate of
Occupancy (C-of-O) and other land titles.
Funds for the development of transport and other
infrastructure do not come from the national budgets. The revocation of C of O
frightens foreign investors from coming. This development makes it expedient
for government to remove all impediments to inflow of investments into the
country. Government should strengthen the country's property right laws.
People do not invest in a country where property rights are
threatened. In Nigeria, governors revoke C-of-O's that were approved by their
predecessors in order to reallocate such titles to their cronies and friends.
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| Pro. Pat Utomi |
We are talking of landed property that people have invested
billions of naira to acquire and build only to be revoked due to political
considerations. People do not come to countries like that.
Over the years, capital has remained in the hands of a few
people, in California for instance less than 10 people have enough capital that
could address the infrastructure gap in Nigeria. These people are looking for
where to invest. The right environment must be put in place to attract such
huge capital into Nigeria. The federal and state governments must jettison
political interference in contracts and concessioned projects.
The country needs to create an enabling environment that
supports indigenous and foreign private sector investments to develop transport
infrastructure. The practice of frivolous interruption of legitimate
infrastructure concession agreements and contracts has scared Nigerian private
sector investors as well as foreign direct investments. The result of this is
that the nation suffers the consequences of dilapidated transport
infrastructure.
We need to develop strong institutions that can hold
politicians back. Politicians in the United Kingdom or anywhere in the world
are not different from those in Nigeria but the only thing is strong
institutions that hold them back. This is absent in Nigeria.
I tell you one thing; Nigeria is central and crucial for the
development of other parts of the African continent. It has become expedient
for the country to develop her infrastructure and systems so that other African
nations will take a cue from her and develop theirs. The flying geese concept
of the Asian nations is a topical example.
In the same vein, transport and logistics are key in
economic development. China's dramatic rise is due to the fact that they were
able to turn around their logistics sector.
Africa will not make the progress that it is destined to
make, unless Nigeria leads the flying geese. What transformed South East Asia
economy? One country, Singapore, began to get it right, and others looked
across the border and joined in the development stride. Before you know it,
Malaysia, Thailand and others had their economies transformed.
Source: DailyTrust
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