The Barriers to Community Wealth
In the opening quote, Achebe shows how mobilisation of the population, based on education and a moral code, can lead to the advancement of democracy. We need to build on this formula to show how Nigeria can address its multiple challenges in a way that leads to systemic and inclusive change. Let us start with the problems.

Nigeria suffers from poverty and extensive unemployment, particularly with younger workers. Unemployment reached 33% in the fourth quarter of 2020. In 2022, Nigeria was ranked 162nd in the Environmental Performance Index developed by Yale and Columbia universities. The country suffers from growing deforestation, which compounds the threats associated with global warming. Nigeria was also ranked 107th in the Economist Intelligence Unit’s 2021 democracy ranking. The country was ranked 154th out of 180 countries in Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index.

Nigeria has suffered from security problems because of intra-ethnic conflicts related in part to the distribution of oil wealth and underdevelopment, with some turning to violence as a vehicle for advancing claims or grievances. Cyril Obi, a Nigerian scholar presently at the Social Science Research Council in New York has explained key facets of these problems in a 2009 contribution to the journal Africa Development. Obi explains: “Oil pollution, extreme poverty, high levels of youth unemployment, pollution, perceived discriminatory employment practices against locals by oil companies and socioeconomic and political marginalisation and neglect by successive administrations constitute the main grievances against the oil companies and the government.” A key source of conflict and inequality is the transfer of wealth from local communities to national and global actors.

The youth unemployment problem has turned into a security issue. Many educated Nigerian youths cannot find a job to secure their future or even meet their day-to-day needs. Unemployment has driven millions of Nigerian youths into anti-social activities like kidnapping, banditry, internet defrauding, drugs, human and child trafficking, and cultism. A vast number of these youth are used as thugs by politicians during the elections at various levels of politicking.

Women as a group face their own problems. Taiwo Ajala, at the Faculty of Law, at Lagos State University, focuses on the barriers to equitable economic development tied to gender discrimination in land ownership in the country. She argues in the International Journal of Discrimination and the Law that access to such ownership “constitutes a major source and means of wealth creation and economic empowerment.” In contrast, the unequal and inaccessible arrangements governing land distribution have led to poverty. Land is a critical resource for developing agriculture, gaining capital or serving as collateral security for business start-ups.

Given these vast economic, environmental, democracy and governance problems, Nigerians need a way to support comprehensive change, meaning change that responds simultaneously to these multiple problems. Any reforms must reach and aid millions of persons. Given ecological tipping points and multiple crises, “comprehensive” must mean changes that can be scaled up and solve problems sooner rather than later. Comprehensive change must be broad, have extensive reach, and fast.

The barriers to change are rooted in how we organise economic, political and cultural resources. Change might come from social movements, but these often lack an entrepreneurial or economic aspect. We need a way to combine the dynamic aspect of community activism and the system-changing aspects of innovation. We need to link democracy and innovation in popular mobilisation. Such a mobilisation is possible because many young persons in Nigeria have the energy and enthusiasm to make their nation a better place in terms of growth and development.

Nigeria has many assets that could promote such a mobilisation. As a country of more than 200 million persons, Nigeria represents a huge market for goods and services in Africa, if not the world. A central issue is how we can link this market potential to investments and systems of accumulation that produce jobs, wealth and sustainable outcomes through green manufacturing and diversification of the energy and forestry sectors.

There are several barriers to converting market potential into jobs and green growth. First, Nigeria has a systemic problem of corruption which drains government procurement possibilities and the viability of businesses. Second, Nigeria is subject to global economic pressures, with increasing imports from China and efficient and low-cost foreign producers. Third, a vicious cycle of security crises and increased military spending depletes the civilian and ecological budget. Fourth, forests have been pillaged for energy and short-term gains, as employment and energy alternatives are lacking. Fifth, the financial system has rewarded the oil industry at the expense of the manufacturing and agricultural sectors as explained recently by Richard E. Itaman at Kings College and the University of Johannesburg and Oluwafemi E. Awopegba at the Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research. Finally, various forms of plundering from bunkering or stealing oil, illegal foresting and corruption by criminal actors rob the country’s wealth.

Overcoming Barriers to Community Wealth: Nigerian Leaders and Leveraging Foreign Capacities
How then do we overcome these various barriers? A key solution is to build up regional networks where the economy is run by local communities who work with others to develop innovations and diversification (or new business) opportunities in two critical areas. The key goal is to leverage national and global resources to advance local needs (a reverse of the process identified by Obi in which localities end up advancing national and global interests at the expense of community interests). In other words, we need to start somewhere and that somewhere is in a local community. We propose a local project that would work towards long-term solutions and could be replicated throughout Nigeria to meet the needs of various regions, spread over a large territory and population. Before elaborating on how the process of expanding and replicating such a local project would work, we need to focus on some potential elements of a local project.
To be continued tomorrow
Dr Feldman is an associate Professor at Stockholm University  and Rev. Dr Bature is the Executive Director of the Foundation for Peace, Hope and Conflict Management, Nigeria.([email protected] [email protected])