Innovation, Regional Integration, and Development in Africa by Samuel Ojo Oloruntoba & Mammo Muchie

Author:Samuel Ojo Oloruntoba & Mammo Muchie
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783319921808
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

Encourage the participation of women in scientific specialties and in the establishment of policies and decision-making in sciences, etc.

The above was designed to form the fulcrum of the development agenda in ECOWAS. Indeed, Nigeria like all other member-states is expected to key into the agenda, by collaborating with the Commission and the other member-states to attain national development.

Nigeria’s Development Challenges

By all standards, Nigeria can be regarded as one of the world’s most richly blessed countries. Buried under Nigeria’s earth across the length and breadth of the country are various categories of resources; metals (tin), precious stones (marble) and industrial minerals (barytes, gypsum and coal). This is in addition to large deposits of the much treasured crude-oil and various agricultural products, such as; groundnuts, palm-oil, cocoa, citrus fruits, among others. Furthermore, Nigeria is home to huge measures of natural gas, columbite, bitumen, limestone, iron ore, asbestos, etc. It is officially acknowledged that “precisely forty four (44) solid minerals are found in commercial quantity and are spread across the 36 States and FCT Abuja of the Federation” (see http://​www.​nipc.​gov.​ng/​index.​php/​opportunities-by-sectors/​solid-minerals.​html). The high volume and quality of natural resources is complemented by the human resource as represented in the relatively high population of over 100 and 70 million people. According to the 2006 Census Figures, 53.2% of the population is in the working age-group of 15–65 years of age. This condition should invariably translate to high capacity output in terms of overall development and economic benefits. Furthermore, the human-resource is of high quality and value as shown in the number of Nigerian professionals in many fields of human endeavor both at home and in the diaspora.

It is therefore expected that such a country richly blessed in human and material resources should be one of the most developed countries in the world, essentially because the two major elements or factors (human and material resources) that can galvanize development: a buoyant economy as predicated on world-class industrialization, exist in Nigeria. In effect, the missing link in the combination of abundant human and material resources is a collection of visionary leadership that could articulate coherent policies with the support of the critical mass of the people that would provide the enabling environment for the development of the state. On this score, Nigeria has failed woefully, and therefore the country remains a potentially great country, while being unable to reach its potentials. The contradiction in the available resources and the level of development in Nigeria is aptly described as “development exceptionality” (Akanle 2013). The author argues:Nigeria remains one of the developmental puzzles in Africa. This state of affairs largely reflects the disconnect between the abundance of Nigeria’s natural and human resources and its extraordinarily reversed socioeconomic development. The interrelatedness of this trajectory is one of disjuncture, even when the developmental potentials of the nation are not in doubt (Akanle 2013: 31).

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