Ten years ago, the strategic and critical issue of national development plan was raised on this page. The fact that all the reasons given to justify and support the need for the country to revive the all-important culture of drawing up and implementing National Development Plans (NDPs) have failed to compel, or even inspire leaders to heed the call makes a revisit of the subject-matter, after one whole decade imperative.
It is persuasively baffling that projections of Nigeria’s ever-growing population do not, over the years, seem to be an issue that appeals to the country’s leadership. This reckless national character simply suggests how less we all care for the country’s posterity. Because of our repeated failure as a country to conduct national census after several postponements, we most often yet embarrassingly rely on statistics generated by foreign donour agencies, which because of the motives that drive such organizations, are largely not reliable. As a 65-year old independent nation, it’s ridiculous that we do not and how to care about where we want to be and how to get there within the context of global targets and realities.
If we know, let the minister of health, for example, tell us how many medical doctors, dentists, nurses, pharmacists, lab scientists, radiographers, morticians, and community health officers Nigeria need by the year 2050. Let the minister of education also tell us how many basic schools, secondary schools, technical colleges, colleges of education, polytechnics, universities, and the number of teachers and lecturers Nigeria need in these schools and institutions by the year 2030. Let the minister of livestock development, too, tell us how many cattle, sheep, goats, poultry, the country need for daily consumption by 2050. We appear to take the role of statistics in national development for granted.
Even if we assume that we have the projected statistics, did we fashion out any strategic plans for meeting up with the projections? Figures from the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) show that only 915,913 teachers are currently available for the 31,771,916 Nigerian pupils in public and private primary schools nationwide. Neither the minister of education nor UBEC is there to tell you how government intends to deliberately bridge this huge gap. Last year, a newspaper reported how 18 states of the federation failed to recruit teachers between 2019 and 2024; a span of five years.
The country seems to have officially abandoned the culture of development agendas by replacing NDPs with executive bills or motions on the floors of federal and state legislative chambers where a legislator would move a motion for the establishment of a university in his/her constituency. And it thereafter stands. It was never like this before. As a developing nation, we can’t and shouldn’t continue this way. The second generation of federal universities were established through the third NDP. Today, the country has universities more than its resources can cater for simply because everyone wants a university in his community.
Only reckless people bite more than they can chew, and in this case, create universities by fiat or motions; not by NDPs. Establishing universities that are short of graduating quality graduates is tantamount to growth without development; or simply “love without care” as Profs Pate and Andrew Haruna (respectively serving and former vice-chancellors) both describe the trend. The relevance of planning to make universities sustainable and relevant to national economic and manpower needs has, for long, ceased to be a priority to leaders in Nigeria. Any desire for development that ignores the relevance of planning is an aspiration doomed to crash. ‘Failing to plan,’ they say, ‘is planning to fail.
Past development plans include the First NDP (1962-1968); Second NDP (1970-1974); Third NDP (1975-1980); and the Fourth NDP (1981-1985). It was, for instance, through these NDPs that Nigeria built some of its infrastructures, including the Jebba paper mill, the bridge across River Niger, and all its oil refineries. Five years after the Fourth NDP ceased to exist, former military president Ibrahim Babangida re-introduced the NDP with a modified time frame from the traditional five years to three; and named it the National Rolling Plan (NRP).
The First NRP (1990 -1992) which aimed at consolidating the gains of the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) unfortunately failed to achieve its purpose. Since then, the country’s attempts at designing and implementing development plans have been haphazard, including Vision 2010 of the late General Sani Abacha, the National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS) initiated by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, and the economic transformation blueprint of late President Umaru Musa Yar’adua called Vision 2020.
A National Development Plan NDP) identifies, in order of priority, a nation’s critical needs. It also outlines what needs to be done within what period and by whom with a view to achieving common national objectives. With a well-thought-out NDP that is supported by strict adherence to implementation guidelines, Nigeria stands better chances; given its ingenious human and naturally-endowed resources, to overcome its multifarious developmental challenges in a comparatively shorter period of time.
With a political will committed to executing an all-inclusive NDP, Nigeria has the potential to adequately mobilise its resources for a deliberate departure from the failures of the past and lay a solid foundation for achieving sustainable poverty reduction, employment generation, food security, wealth creation, economic stability, and value re-orientation.
The need for NDPs finds justification in the reality that the one-year period of the annual national budget is practically inadequate to reflect government policies and reform agenda as critical areas such as infrastructure most often require more than a year to establish, expand, reform, and revive. It equally requires longer time to bring budget deficit to an acceptable level of stability. The growing significance and relevance of prudent fiscal management for the success of every strategic development plan must be appreciated by planners and managers of a country’s economy.
