Don blames ailing economy on improper planning

BENIN—A Professor of Economics at the University of Benin, UNIBEN, Prof. Mike Obadan, has attributed what he described as the failure of the nation’s economy to grow rapidly since the inception of democracy in 1999 to deficiency in plan formulation and implementation by the Federal Government.

The university don, advocated the re-introduction of development planning in the country so as to achieve the Millenium Development Goals, MDGs, in 2015. He argued that in developing countries where the quest for economic growth and development is urgent, bottlenecks in the market and market failures are the rule rather than the exception.

According to him, “a lot is expected from the government in terms of driving development.”

Prof. Obadan spoke while delivering a lecture entitled Nigeria at 50 and its National Economic Development Paradigms: The Benefit of Hindsight, on the occasion of the Nigeria’s 50th Independence Anniversary at the Federal Polytechnic Auchi yesterday.

He said: “If Nigeria is to move out of the present unsatisfactory state of economic and social development, into the realm of sustainable, high quality growth and development to put her in the league of developed countries, the government must not only give sane democracy and good governance, it must also come up with good policies and macro-economic stability."

“There is serious need to take national development planning seriously to serve as an important economic management strategy. It is a good decision that planning is being reintroduced. If planning did not yield the desired results in the past, it was not because planning is flawed as an instrument, rather the handlers of planning were to blame.

Now, development planning has become compelling against the back drop of the global economic crisis and the failure of the market strategy” he stated.

Rector of the institution, Dr (Mrs) Philipa Idogho, in her address, regretted that the economy of the nation had refused to grow despite all efforts by government, adding that “it was as result of our quest for solution to the problem, we decided to organized this anniversary lecture”.