The Catholic Archbishop of Abuja Diocese, Most Rev. Ignatius Kaigama, on Sunday, warned that the Nigerian economy would continue to lag behind if the people seeking political offices refuse to put industrial development in the centre stage.
According to him, it would be dangerous for Nigeria to remain a consumer nation without commensurate manufacturing activities to support the economy.
He said the pervasive poverty in the land and the gross under-utilisation of the abundant natural resources in Nigeria was due to a lack of sound production culture.
The cleric raised the issues while delivering his Homily at Holy Rosary Parish, Wuse in Abuja.
He said, “It is mind-boggling that in many parts of Nigeria, many people are living in great poverty. Yet, we see the display of affluence by the few who have access to public funds or during electoral campaigns, when they play with money, completely oblivious to the suffering of Nigerians.
“The gap between ‘the high and mighty’ and ‘the low and downtrodden’ ever keeps widening. Oxfam reported recently that three wealthy persons in Nigeria are wealthier than 83 million Nigerians put together.
“In this month of our election when the political climate is getting heated up, those aspiring to occupy high political offices must be convinced that when they win, they will use their positions to bring relief to the needy, liberate the poor from poverty, since poverty is largely at the root of our insecurity and violence.
“They should revisit why Nigeria is an expert in consuming but very poor in production. Other than oil what else do we export? But we import everything ranging from toothpicks, matches, shoe polish, and pencils to soft drinks.
“We have a poor production culture, which explains why our groundnut, cocoa and cotton-related industries have collapsed. We cannot even refine our oil to meet our domestic needs.”
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