Friday, January 31, 2014

"THE TWO ISSUES THAT NIGERIAN LEADERS SHOULD HAVE SLEEPLESS NIGHTS OVER"

The first one is the oil. The entire Nigerian national economy and her yearly national budget are both oil-dependent and built solidly on the oil export since the late 1960s to date. The oil experts estimated that the Nigeria's oil reserves of about 1 billion barrels of untapped oil will be fully depleted by 2050 at the present daily rate of about 2.5 million barrels of oil that are tapped and exported. Another important issue with the oil is the fact that the world is now shifting into green technology and renewable energy resources instead of the oil. Nigeria is about to be left behind by the rest of the developed and emerging economies in the world of energy.
The second most important issue in Nigeria today is her rapidly growing population that is unsustainable into the future. The natural resources that are needed to support this huge population are not expanding. The arable land that is needed for food production is fixed and the waters from her rivers, lakes and underground supply are also fixed. Nigeria has one of the highest population growth rate in the world at 2.8% per annum or 5.6 new babies a year. Nigeria also has one of the world's highest fertility rate of 5.5 babies per woman in her lifetime. In conclusion as the population grows, the natural resources that are needed to support this growing population remain the same or depleting rapidly. Is the Aso Rock occupant watching this inevitable events of the future in Nigeria or is he putting the politics and the 2015 president election as his main priorities for now? Time will soon tell.

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