Recently, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Finance minister and coordinating minister said that the country’s dependence on crude oil as major export has reduced significantly. According to her, crude exports now accounts for 70 percent of Nigeria’s exports with the rest being agricultural produce, manufactured goods, among others. This, indeed, is reassuring!
However, the chest-beating claim has been pooh-poohed by some pundits who said that government was being economical with the truth.
For decades, Nigeria has depended on oil in total neglect of other sectors that boosted its economy in the pre-independence era. Over the years, experts have had to raise the alarm on the danger of this over-dependence. Calls had been made for a return to the groundnut pyramids of the North, the abundance palm oil and coal in the South East, and cocoa in South West.
In many states across the country, there are abundant natural resources which could be tapped to boost the economy. Despite expressions of intents, leaderships of the country have not really matched their words with actions.
