We in Delta state feel flattered that the Nigerian Guild of Editors is keying into this initiative of thinking of Nigeria beyond oil, an adaption of ‘Delta Beyond Oil’ vision we have championed since assuming office six years ago. It means our message and accomplishments are getting out.

Are we prepared for life without oil? Even before that, should there be a collapse in the price of oil in the international market, can the governments and people of Nigeria cope? I shudder to think of the consequences.

We are invited to pause and think, for a moment, about the future of our country without oil. Nigeria, as the World Bank Country Director, Ms. Marie Francoise Marie-Nelly, told Economic Confidential, in a recent interview about Nigeria echoes the theme of this conference. Her point, which I shall quote, is that: “So far, the government survives mainly with oil revenue, which accounts for over 90 per cent of exports and well over 70 per cent of consolidated government revenues. As oil resources are not indefinite, it is important for Nigeria to plan now what it wants to be after tomorrow.”

Speaking further, she said: “The issue is how Nigeria can use the available oil resources to invest and prepare itself for the non-oil economy period. We think the agricultural sector is very important for Nigeria. Today, Nigeria is importing 2.5 million tonnes of milled rice annually.

“With the projected population growth, in 20 years, Nigeria will need 35 million tonnes of milled rice. So will the country afford importing all this rice? This is why Nigeria needs to invest in agriculture, so that Nigerians can feed themselves in 20 years.

“Even if you continue to have oil, you may not have all the resources to import what would be needed to feed the population. Nigeria needs to put in place not only the infrastructure, road, electricity, but Nigeria needs to invest in agriculture.”

This comment is not new but reminds me of the golden years and the sad decline that set in as oil export began to displace agriculture. At Independence non-export was the main stay of our economy—from oil palm, cotton, cocoa, groundnuts, rubber, etc., this country made good economic progress. In structural terms non-oil export accounted for

80% of total exports between 1960-1970. In GDP terms, non-oil contributed 98.4%, while oil accounted for 1.6% as balance.

Looking at the two-sector economy of oil and agriculture, you can say that trouble began in 1970 when oil contribution went to 17.94% and agriculture declined to 34%! The slide in agriculture continued such that by 1995 oil exports represented 97.3% of our total exports. Till date, oil export constitutes over 90% of our export revenue.

My point in stating the above is to remind us of when we started to derail. We stopped industrializing and we stopped expanding our agriculture output. What then resulted was decline in food production; shortage of raw materials, rapid monetary expansion not matched by domestic productivity. In addition we had and continue to have soil, water and air pollution, from oil production especially in the Niger Delta zone.

In all this, I am not saying that oil does not have its good side. It does. We have economic growth driven by oil export, infrastructure development from oil revenue, increase in national income, improved balance of payment, etc.

However, and this is the problem, it is clear that relying solely on oil export has narrowed our vision and opportunities to build a diversified and more prosperous country. Amidst oil export, Nigeria spends 1.3 trillion naira on food imports every year, with our import bill rising by 11% annually. This is frightening. Oil dependency is quite clearly responsible for the high unemployment rate estimated at 23.9% amounting to about 40 million Nigerian youths from available data that are without jobs.

Youth unemployment has given me grey hairs as so many leaders across the world. In the news and around us, tight job market has remained a troubling issue. We just have to slay this monster. Another issue of increasing concern is the high population growth, which the World Bank country director, I quoted earlier referred to. The fact is that with 2.8% population growth Nigeria is sitting on a ‘population bomb’.

What we do not often realize and this can be crosschecked by anyone, no developed nation as we know it today had the same population growth as we currently have. In actual fact, economic historians are skeptical that industrisalisation would have succeeded in the West, if they had similar population growth.

Many Development theorists are clear on this: high population growth leads to deeper poverty, and deeper poverty leads to high fertility. It is a vicious circle, which should have no place in our economy.

Yet to escape the poverty trap, we simply have to improve our food production to support rapid population growth. We know that rising food production per capita was central to the success of the Asian tigers. And so as a Low Middle Income country, Nigeria with a gross national income per capita of about 1,500 dollars stands a great risk of being caught in bigger poverty trap, if it does not diversify her economy. Why this is so urgent is that time is running out. No one knows how long high oil prices will continue to drive our economic growth, before it nosedives. Having lived with high oil price for too long, without diversification, we might have an equivalent of an economic Armageddon sooner than we expect.

Our oil production is threatened in two fronts. First, illegal bunkering and there is no shortage of the havoc this is doing. The International Energy Agency recently sounded the alarm that Nigeria had been losing about $7 billion annually to vandalisation of pipelines, oil theft and illegal bunkering. The chairman of the Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparent Initiative, Mr. Ledum Mitee said recently while presenting the organisation’s Audit Report of the Oil and Gas sector that, between 2009 and 2011, the country lost about $11 billion to activities of oil thieves. The figures may differ but the sums are huge.

Nigeria crude oil production is also facing another challenge with the discovery of alternative in Shale gas. Right now that resource is evolving and it is believed that in future as the technology to explore it matures; it will become more commercially successful and a real competition to the crude oil in the international energy market.

For us in Delta State, at least this administration, we were very clear in our mindfrom the beginning that we must do whatever we can to initiate programmes to protect and diversify the economy of the state. This is in spite of the fact that Delta State accounts for 30 percent of national oil production and export with oil and gas accounting for 65 percent of our GDP and 85 percent of our revenue from federal allocation. From 2007 when we came into office, we articulated our programme with the intention of investing in critical infrastructure (social and economic) that can expand our economy beyond oil.

Though it was our focus to get this programme fully implemented, but one point has to be stressed here, diversification is both possible but not easy to achieve. It does not happen automatically but we know it can be done and we are determined to do our bit. My hope is that the next administration will see the wisdom to sustain and continuously invest in further expanding the infrastructure and human capital development that is abundant in the state.

What we know and which is why we are so determined in the direction we are pushing is that it is clear that economic development in Delta State is going to be shaped greatly by its location (as an emerging regional hub) with access to the sea through the Warri seaport, two airports, several dualised roads forming strategic network grid interconnecting the two growth poles of Warri and Asaba, with the many urban and riverine areas.

We were also clear in our mind that for economic growth to be impactful, it has to be inclusive. Deltans must feel they have a government that cares about them. Deltans must feel the impact of government wherever they reside. We were careful to avoid anything remotely suggesting lopsided development.

And so in building Delta beyond oil, it was obvious we must invest in some key infrastructure such as the 250 megawatts Oghareki power plant, which we hope to commission late 2014. We have major investments in generation and distributions companies that have just been privatized. We have invested in NIPP power plants that have also been privatized. We are attracting international partnership to pursue aggressively opportunities in renewable energy. We are developing both policy and regulatory framework to give comfort and attract investment into our renewable energy sector.

The heavy investment in power infrastructure is because it is economically profitable to do so and secondly, we know that it is just the right way to guarantee energy security we urgently need to give Deltans power and to support our industrial base.

Our Asaba airport project is now at a finishing point; this airport is easily the best in the country and hopefully in future can become one of the busiest and most profitable. Its location makes it an airport to watch in the future. I am certain that its completion is at the centre of the rapid growth and urbanization of Asaba capital city.

The Osubi airport improvement project is on course. We are spending considerable sums of money to build a 4km runway and upgrade the terminal building to become one of the best in the country. Osubi serves the Warri commercial hub and the oil industry sector located in that

area.

So far I can say that our road infrastructure programme has been a resounding success. Since coming into office as an administration in 2007, we have constructed over 1,006 kilometres of roads bringing the total length of roads in the state to 3,236 kilometres, well on course to meeting our vision 2020 target of a minimum of 5000 kilometres of new roads.

Our industrial programme is anchored on setting up special economic zones and construction of industrial parks. In partnership with the Federal Government through the NNPC, Delta State is the host to the multi-billion dollar Gas Based Industrial programme. The GBI aims to host a Central Processing Facility (CPF), fertilizer and petrochemical plants as a strategy to convert gas into economic assets.

The Warri Industrial Business Park (WIBP) conceived by the state as a plug and play model is to enable companies and investors to share common services and to establish their plants with minimal hassles. That project in partnership with the private sector is on course and has elicited huge interest from the business community. When it takes off, the WIBP promises to be a commercial success.

We are also through our Economic Advisory Team headed by Mr. Bismarck Rewane in the process of reviving moribund industries.

We are also building the Asaba ICT Park, which the Federal Government through the Nigeria Communication Commission (NCC) has shown interest and is already constructing a major facility there. Around the state, there are so many investors that have shown interest, some are already setting up plants while some have advanced in their plans to do so in the near future.

As I round up, I want to make the point that the ultimate success of Delta State Beyond Oil, can only be assured if the economy of the state is linked to international trade and this is why it so important to have the full activation of Warri port.

I want to note that though activities at the Warri port have picked up but the challenge of access has to be fully addressed. We appeal to the federal authorities to direct the NPA to speed up work in the dredging of the channel to the port.

I want to place on record that our administration fully endorse and support the transformation agenda of President Goodluck Jonathan’s Administration. Some of the issues and challenges I earlier highlighted are clearly being tackled by his administration and I am satisfied he is making good progress to end Nigeria over reliance on oil.

•Being excerpts of a speech entitled “Oil, Soil and Toil: The Role of Editors in Promoting the Nigeria Beyond Oil Campaign” delivered by Delta State Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Eweta Uduaghan (shown in phto) at the opening of the Nigerian Guild of Editors Conference, holding August 21-24 at the Conference Centre, Asaba.

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