For a child, watching a dog frantically chasing its tail is an amusing sight; more so when the dog suddenly stops only to resume its forlorn pursuit in the opposite direction. In contrast, an adult is usually less mesmerised by such a spectacle, knowing fully well, from jaded experience, that the dog’s playful action is an unproductive, futile exercise. Does this scenario perhaps serve as a metaphor for a person or a society that is stagnant?

For over two centuries, progressively more-sophisticated tools have become available to economists that conclusively instruct us that it is not sufficient to work hard or simply exert oneself in the quest for gainful return. What really counts is the cumulative value realised from work done. A simple universal illustration is the yield of crops realised per hectare of cultivated land. Natural factors exempted, farm output will vary significantly from region to region, based on the technical definition of productivity as “the measure of output from production processes per unit of input, typically labour-hour”. Almost invariably, richer nations are those that have successfully incorporated scientific and technological knowledge, and expertise, to boost productive ventures, be it in agriculture or any other area of human endeavour.

Indeed, labour productivity growth aggregated over the workforce ultimately determines a nation’s prosperity. Discounting inflation, the average standard of living of a society improves by way of productivity gains achieved through research and development, innovation, and optimum utilisation of scarce resources. Assuming that our economic managers have always been well-schooled, what factors are therefore responsible for Nigeria’s perpetual state of underdevelopment? For reasons difficult to ascertain, it would appear as though we have deliberately turned our backs on agriculture, the one sector that is fundamental to our long-term security and well-being. Not only that, as a less-industrialised nation, where over 60 percent of the population still live off the land, we have negligently underinvested in agriculture and condemned our rural areas to shameful desolation. Unchecked rural-urban migration has intensified because of undue neglect of villages and settlements, where the majority of Nigerians dwell, and where the harvest on every Naira invested could dramatically transform the lives of countless millions.

Sadly, disregard for the rural economy has not translated into planned and sustained investment in the real economy. Nowhere in the world has any nation successfully industrialised without commensurate, almost lockstep increase in energy consumption. Again, how can we explain the near-collapse of the power sector, despite the fact that Nigeria is blessed with abundant supplies of gas, coal, and hydropower sources, not counting alternative sources like solar, wind and geothermal. Having failed to develop the energy infrastructure needed to run a modern economy, the reliance on generating plants for domestic and industrial use is emblematic of all the defects within our economy. The incongruity in our energy profile, combined with other structural factors, means that the cost of doing business in Nigeria remains relatively high and uncompetitive. Meanwhile, the manufacturing sector continues to groan under the weight of having to provide basic inputs such as power, water, remedial training, even security, that ordinarily should be the responsibility of the state. In this scenario, cottage, small and medium-scale enterprises cannot thrive, or even survive. Measured against the performance of SMEs in other parts of the world, the real engine for employment creation, labour productivity of the Nigerian real sector is abysmally low, thus dampening our economy’s growth potentials.

Optimists would point to the rapid boom in the telecommunications industry for what is possible in the service sector. However, we should remember that the underlying technology, just like the technology that powers the upstream oil sector, is all imported. Furthermore, the employment headcounts in oil exploration, telecommunications, information technology, and such are very low relative to the size of the Nigerian unemployment queue. The budding local film industry, otherwise known as Nollywood, is a rare bright spot. However, the relative success of Nollywood would seem to have occurred by accident, and the jury is out whether practitioners can continue to improve product quality sufficiently to achieve the ultimate breakthrough internationally. Unless government improves deteriorating, or provides non-existent, public infrastructure, lucrative service sectors like tourism, which could be a robust foreign-exchange earner, will all continue to underperform.

If we fail to invest in our human capital and boost domestic production capacity across the board, how exactly do we intend to provide employment and social security for our teeming, unemployed young population, whose numbers are multiplying daily? Where will the real jobs come from, since we cannot all be shop owners or street-traders? Outside of oil revenues, what can we do to reverse our current state of economic stagnation?

Coming full circle, the basic drawback is that our individual work ethic remains endemically lax. Capitalism thrives only when the contribution of labour is in multiples of what the employees take. Sadly, we as a people appear to have lost the dignity of labour. We have become self-seeking to the detriment of the group interest. Essentially, we do not appear to grasp the relationship between individual endeavour, work output, productivity level, and economic growth. If we do not change course, how would we cater for the welfare of a projected population in the region of 300 million by the year 2050, when there would be over twice the number of mouths to feed?

Indeed, it is about time we stopped chasing our tails. Instead, let us forsake indolence and imprudence for productive labour, one and all.

We at the Honeywell Group wish all Nigerians a productive and prosperous 2011.

LET US PRAY

Dear God, open our eyes and minds to perceive how truly blessed we are as a nation. Following the scriptural injunction that any man who does not work does not deserve to eat, help us to conquer our poverty mindset and indolent attitude. Increasingly, give us a new spirit of selflessness, industry and restore us with dutiful self-pride and dignity of labour.

Honeywell Group