Leadership and the Nigerian Economy

The Nigerian economy is largely oil-based. Some people would rather say it is a mono-product economy. The economy has been in dire straits over the years, because of a combination of the neglect of education, especially technical and vocational education and science-based technology education, poor leadership and governance, corruption, as well as poor monetary and fiscal policies. All these have made a review of the poor investment in human capital development and infrastructure and institutions that drive the Nigerian economy and national development rather compelling. The political leaders have always raised the people’s hope by painting glowing pictures of their development plans and how they would stimulate the economy and improve the people’s living conditions. Thus, they swore that they would give priority attention to human capital development and national development, and empower the citizens, particularly the poorly educated, unskilled, and unemployed youths, with relevant human skills capital and entrepreneurial skills to enable them to contribute profoundly to national development. Yet the political leaders have, over the years, failed to adequately fund education and strengthen the infrastructure and institutions that would drive the economy and create employment for the teeming population. Both the new-breed politicians, like the old politicians before them, are promising to transform the nation into an industrialized society and the people cannot hold their expectations. The reality though is that Nigeria cannot become an industrialized society without investing abundantly in human capital development (education and health), leadership, and technological capabilities, which means investing in the future development of the nation.