‘Nigeria needs $65b to tackle infrastructural deficit’

Nigeria needs to invest not less than $65 billion in the next five years on infrastructure to meet the status of a developed nation, an expert, Patrick Okigbo, has said.

The keynote speaker at The Patriots In Leadership And Service (PILAS) Awards in Abuja, Okigbo recalled that the World Bank recently estimated that $400 billion of the nation’s oil revenue had been stolen since independence on October 1, 1960.

He lampooned the political class for spending more time in scheming their ways to feed on the nation’s wealth while sparing a little thought for economic development and betterment of the citizenry.

Okigbo expressed disappointment that Nigeria failed to invest in economic infrastructure when oil revenue at a time hit the rooftop before the current glut at the international market.

According to him, “for the country to be able to diversify its revenue base, it must create the impetus for reforms, decide on the economic goals and enablers, prioritise the sectors, develop good ideas, focus on implementation and manage the results.”

Okigbo continued: “Most of the strategy documents do not focus enough effort on the reasons why we have never been able to implement and then propose how best to navigate the implementation process.

“Nigeria has over 40 different types of precious minerals and floats on a sea of natural gas and crude oil. Almost in a bid to spite the rest of the world, in addition to the above resources, providence spared the country from significant natural disaster.”