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Chinelo Obogo
Immediate past governor of Osun State and minister-designate, Rauf Aregbesola, has said despite previous reports that Nigeria has the largest economy in Africa, in reality, the country is poor “with a very tiny economy.”
He said this in Lagos on Wednesday during the launch of Eleniyan Perspectives, a book written by Olusegun Olulade, immediate past chairman, Committee on Health in the Lagos State House of Assembly.
Aregbesola said because Nigerians have been told repeatedly that the country has the largest economy in Africa, they have come to believe what he describes as the fallacy that Nigeria is rich. He said many people have the illusion that the country is wealthy, noting that only a few people have access to the crude rents coming from oil.
“We have been living on free money, which is why our economy is very tiny and we have an illusion that we are rich. Nigeria produced 2.3 million barrels of oil a day and the .3 million can be the cost of production. The two million barrels is what we share. If it is 100 dollars per barrel, that is 200 million dollars and that means each Nigerian gets 1 dollar per day, which is N366 for each person per day. Last year, Britain announced a ban of fuel and diesel by 2040, painting a gloomy future for oil- producing countries like Nigeria. So, we have just about 20 years to go, which is not far.
“The number of people that have access to the money is so small and they live large. We have been living on free money such as rents and government patronage. We have no incentive to earn anything that is productive. Any economy that is so driven can never be prosperous. To be successful and to create wealth, we must be productive. Productivity is the act of adding value to everything we touch or we are asked to work upon. The efforts we could put into achieving this is work. If you don’t produce or work to add value, then you are a parasite,” Aregbesola said.
He also spoke on the need for the youth to live within their means and emulate people like Olulade, saying that it is the pressure to get rich quickly that has pushed a lot of youth into crime.
He said: “Olulade was one of the few young men that devoted their lives to ensuring that Bola Tinubu became the Governor of Lagos State. There is something remarkable about him. He wears a look that commands respect and he is always smartly, neatly and elegantly dressed. That is his greatest virtue as a young man.
“You should learn to discover your needs and separate them from your wants. Needs are your daily needs such as food, water, shelter and others. Wants are things like houses, cars and others. A car is a necessity in our society, but your choice of cars should be according to your capacity. I didn’t receive a salary for the eight years I spent as governor in Osun State and I never operated a bank account anywhere. I lived in a Government House. I passed government roads. My security was provided by the government.
“Also, my children are grown and the government provided my clothes. My guests are taken care of by the government. I didn’t have a house of my own in Osogbo, the capital of Osun State. It is now that I am thinking of getting a house in Osogbo and I have been contacting friends to help me. I have friends that have houses in Ilesha, Osun State who are begging people to live in the houses. Building a house there is a want and not a need.”
