Change Agents In An Emerging Democratic Process (4)

Forward To A Permanent Revolution In Osun

In the two years of Aregbesola administration, much has been achieved in respect of restoration of order, high moral values and responsible governance. The positive impact of probity and democratic accounting is being felt by the electorates who were hitherto victims of the corrupt and greedy administrators,. The revolutionary mission of the government is enunciated in the six-point programs of banishing poverty, hunger, and unemployement, restoring quality life, promoting functional education and communal peace. The prudent management of public resources is exemplified in the three fold increase in internal generated revenue from about N200m to N600m in two years.

Yet the annual budget of N150billion is inadequate to support the gigantic transformation envisage in the six point integral agenda. for Osun to qualify as an emerging democracy, the state must enter the phase of what Marxists call permanent revolution. This was a slogan created during the high tide of anti-imperialist revolt on the scale; it refer to the imperative need to initiate and sustain the tempo of qualitative leap in science and technology to meet social-economic needs of a liberated people. I am invoking this notion to undergo the urgent to provide material basis for the political and ideological changes being implemented in the State. I will conclude by saying the highlighted of this economic agenda and how it has been attempted in countries like China, Iran and Brazil.

The first priority is to rapidly expand the economic base through industrialization, education and agriculture. The structure of the national economy from colonial times made Lagos and its hinterland the center of gravity. Due to import-dependent character of the economy, Osun and other State are the backwaters of Lagos. This situation is potential harmful to the sustenance of the democratic gains made so far. Even if Osun were to become a minerals’ rich State, this may not alter is periphery position in Lagos because, as the experience of oil and gas in the Niger Delta has proved, endowment in extractive minerals makes an area more vulnerable to plunder and exploitation by so-called international investors.

To industrialize and prosper, Osun should design a self-reliance economic master to become a major hub of technological production and invention in the areas of comparative advantage. The plan should identify the areas and plan to exploit them in next one decade and beyond. A good model of what to do is offered by the experience in China which as ingeniously combined the thoughts of socialism and private ownership to create the second largest economy in the world. The economic has been the fastest growing in the past 30 years and it is dominated by 160 gigantic State-owned enterprises that account for 50% of production of goods and services and employment of labour. To maximize the advantage of its link to Lagos, Osun should prepare packages of incentive for investors to see it as a preferred destination. As China, Indian and other Asian countries have done, the investors to be targeted should include the Osun Diaspora in Lagos and foreign countries. They have the financial resources and global network to attract the right volume of capital and technical inflow.

The design of the industrial master plan can be patterned after what Chief Awolowo did in the 1950s. it is reported that his team of experts met every Sunday for two years without fail to produce the plans for industrial estates in Ikeja, Ilupeju and Apapa. The experts included the brightest and the best in education and ideology at the time. The secretary of the meetings was the Late Chief Simeon Adebo. The Awolowo initiative in Lagos was the first of its kind in Africa at the time and the legacies have remained in spite of the massive damage done to the Nigerian economic by irresponsible military rulers and their cohorts. Osun should reinvent this heritage of revolutionary and action by appointing a think-thank to work out how the State can become an economic entreport.

Transport infrastructure is at the core of this proposal. The governments of the southwest States should invest in a railway network to link the hinterland to Lagos and other maritime state. This rail track must be different from the antiquated one that runs from Lagos to the north of Nigeria. Rather, the rail should connect Lagos to Ogun, Osun, Ondo,and Ekiti with future link to Abuja via Kog State. Let us recall that about 120 years ago Osun entrepreneurs based in Lagos planned to invest in a Lagos-Ilesha rail system. The consortium of indigenous investors was led by one DaSilva, an Ilesha-Brazilian business man. The British colonial regime frustrated the plan because it was to compete with their economic interest. Governor Aregbesola may wish to reinvest the dream of these pioneer industrialists and nationalists.

In view of the location of Osun, a revolutionary transformation of agriculture is inevitable. The system in practice Is too primitive to support economic prosperity. Mechanization is inescapable and the State can not afford the volume of investment. The economic blue print suggested above should make agro industries the focus of change. Farm produce must be processed with value added. Cocoa from Osun should not be exported in unprocessed form. Cassava, yam and other tubers will do well as raw materials for industrial products. Cassava for example, has potential to generate a sustainable economic system. The model to examine is that of Brazil where the production of ethanol and fuel from cassava and sugarcane will soon displace the reliance on oil and fossil energy.

Not much progress can be made in the fields indicate above without a strong knowledge economy of science and inventions. Osun is a favoured host of tertiary institutions. Dozen more are needed to facilitate the exacting work of original research for industry and promotion of comfortable living. The State is not expected to establish the institutions required; what it can and must do is to international linkages. This arrangement is to struck with investor and producers of services. For example, osun need to generate surplus electricity to power industries and sell to other users. The osogbo control center is an asset in this regard. The government can engage the Obafemi Awolowo University and others to specialize in renewable energy sources which can attract industrialists to the State.

The government tertiary institutions will be entitled to subvention only if they are involved in research and inventions that are relevant to the economic priorities of the State. This is one of the surest ways of stimulate the knowledge economy. The Islamic Republic of Iran is an inspiring example of this approach to economic self-sufficiency. In 2011, Iran ranked the first in the world in scientific growth and fourth    in the science production. The country has about 80% literacy rate and less than three percent of the population lives on about $2 a day. In the, over 50% of the people are below the poverty line. This is the desperate situation that the State of Osun is working hard to free itself from. Osun will attain liberation from neocolonial capitalism by embarking on a permanent revolution in all areas of development.