Kalu noted that in 1984 he was a Commissioner in old Imo State, before that, he had media discussions on all the significant issues of the day, things happening with our debts, how do we develop our country, and what we do about corruption. He said oil prices were relatively high at the time, and most of that did not empty into developing the other sectors, which is what the blessing was supposed to be. We ended up frittering away our wealth.
I used to come home from Washington, I was supposed to know the best brands of Brandy, Whiskey, Wine, etc., and I always amused myself, I’ll say, “Are we producing all these brands here now?” They’d look at me like, “You don’t know this one is the best from Paris?” This is the kind of mentality that we grew up with.
“All the money we made from Oil was supposed to go into Agriculture, other sectors.
“All the money made from oil was not used to develop other sectors, it ought to have been invested in agriculture, Man Power Development, and Research, these are things that make nations grow but we were busy, and we are still busy, doing it, we import from all over the globe, expensive drinks, Hair, and gadgets we don’t produce here.
‘Look at China and India, we should be riding on their backs, everything we produce they can swallow up like that! But look at them, they are taking us up as people they should be producing for instead of us producing for their markets.
‘These are nations we should have been producing for in the last 40 to 50 years, but what do we have, problems everywhere and but for the sheer immensity of our resources’ endowment, that’s what gives us the impression that we are making progress but the real indication of progress is lacking, no production. Moving Nigeria’s capital to Abuja by building a new city is not a measure of development, rather, that can only be achieved through production.
When I showed up in South Korea in 1972, in the typical, rash Nigerian way, I told myself that we were better than these people. They were manufacturing everything within. With the tripping of the oil price in 1974, of course, we advised them that, you don’t have oil, you don’t have gas, the best way to make up for your Terms of Trade is to go into the Middle East – Saudi Arabia, Egypt, etc, and earn the money. They came in droves, the SAMSUNGS, DEAWOOs, the HYUNDAIs of this world poured into the Middle East, and they are now in Nigeria too, they are here earning money.
They had no resources there, but within 8 years, Korea moved from where they were. In 1976 I know a Nigerian who came there to buy the first product of Hyundai. Go there now you see Deawoo cars, SAMSUNG cars.
“I was in Transport here in Nigeria and I introduced Mass Transit, they never allowed the programme to go. Like I said, don’t say it’s the military, our own colleagues, our professionals, our civilians who could not stand on principles that they understood. We would have had a chance; we still have a chance to do it. It’s a matter of getting this virtual circle going, once it gets going, we keep pushing on it.
We’ve lost a lot and we are way behind, but we better get serious, if we get serious, we stand a good chance. Nigeria is estimated to be the 3rd most populous country in the would by 2050. The simple part is that you can marry more wives, have more children etc, but you will need a good healthcare system in place, our health sector is one of the shambles we’ve got. This was not the case in the 60s and 70s, then Niheria benefited from Medical tourism frlm neighbouring African countries and the rest of the world.
Dr. Kalu said Nigeria will need the infrastructure to sustain that kind of population, in terms of healthcare, education, roads, food, etc., hence he has always maintained that we need to get serious.
After the discussion there was a sumptuous dinner served as Buffet.
