WHAT ARE OUR PRIORITIES?

You can’t always get what you want. – Mick Jagger

Economists and micro-economists in particular would readily say; “there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch. This statement logically means that in spite of current impressive gains in affluence of some parts of the country, or more succinctly, by some “privilege” people, there is no evidence that economic pressures are about to wither away. Even the likes of Aliko Dangote and Mike Adenuga, have their personal needs surfeited beyond caring, cannot ignore the effect of limited resources on the activities of men and nations. These resources, or factors of production-raw materials, manpower, land, and machinery and equipment-are the ingredients of economic output, and in their business affairs, these business magnates must organize their use of resources in conformity with their availability-economizing on those that are scarce and relying more heavily upon the relatively abundant. To do otherwise is to court inefficiency and, almost surely, to fall behind in the competitive struggle.

Nigeria, although profligate in its use of resources when compared to other nations, cannot ignore opportunities to produce more rather than less with its resources. Indeed, in the developed, high-output nations, economic choices involve a larger number of options and therefore create more perplexing problems in determining what should be produced. Nations such as United States, Canada and those of Western Europe that are well endowed with natural resources, talented labor, and advanced technology nonetheless gain no respite from pressures to expand economic activity. Communities want more and better schools, the military want additional personnel and more sophisticated weaponry; graduates want jobs with higher payments; middle-income groups want longer leave periods, first class education for their children, plasma TV, and overseas shopping. These wants spur competition for resources and force choice among different production options, giving up one kind of output to get another. The economic problem arises when there are scarce means (resources) to be apportioned among competing ends (wants).

This tradeoff, wherein ends are forced to conform to means, is carried out in advanced societies by an economic organization that institutionalizes choice. Whether this organization takes the form of a market economy such as is typical of the United States and Western Europe, or operates through the direction of a planning board, such as in China and Russia, there’s no escaping the fact that there is but one route to maximizing output-allocation of resources according to the scarcity principle. This principle, which guides production and consumption away from the use of more scarce resources, is the cardinal force in directing economic activity.

It’s worthy to note that an economy’s functions can be summarized in terms of what output is produced, how the output is produced, and for whom the output is produced. The second consideration-how production is carried out-depends in part upon deciding what is to be produced. The production techniques in an advanced economy are largely determined by cost considerations and composition of the economy’s output. The production of complex machinery, such as automatic washing machines and television sets, for example, requires a higher level of technology and more capital than can be commanded by the less developed nations. It is therefore paramount for Nigerian’s economic team to be knowledgeable on which output we should consider our utmost economic priority. It’s true the combined team of Iweala, Aganga, Shamsuddeen and to some extent Adesina, the Ministers of Finance, Trade and Commerce, National Planning and Agriculture, respectively, are currently searching for ways to attract foreign investors to boost our economy and create the much needed jobs. But the question is; are they searching for the right industries to come in? Well, that’s for them to answer, but they should bear in mind that we need businesses which would address our immediate needs. We need businesses which majority of the masses can plug in effortlessly without having to think of associated opportunity cost of power, transportation, security and land.

Should we have these costs as our agendas, that’s a thought our policy makers have to look into and pursue, else we would continue to wallow in this state of self-pity and be contented with the snail pace our development is taking despite having the resource to speed things up, in order to meet up with the demands of our exponentially growing population and challenges. There’s a need to go back to our history and find out what made us tick then, as the blind pursuit of technology has left us bereft of ideas, as we follow other people’s footsteps. It’s without doubt that technology and a nation’s standard of living rise together. But innovation alone is not enough. To initiate a diffusion of techniques and new products, there must be a receptive climate-cultural as well as economic and technical factors to absorb them.