Gombe state governor, Muhammad Inuwa Yahaya, says the economic and other challenges plaguing the nation are fueled by the country’s failure to plan and make commensurate investments with the country’s population growth.
According to him, the population of the country has doubled by five places since independence, noting that such had dire consequences on infrastructure.
Yahaya also revealed that the way out of the impending challenges would be investment by both the government and individuals. The Governor stated this while addressing a gathering of businessmen and women during a two-day workshop that was organized by the Nigerian Exporters Development Council (NEPC) in Gombe.
He said, “When Nigeria had independence some 61 years ago, the country’s population was around 46 million people but today we have over 210 million, the population has doubled almost 5 times.
This means for us to enjoy or live like those in the 60s we have to double everything we are doing to about five,” Governor Yahaya said.
Adding, “Now that it has gotten to this stage that people are suffering, we all have to work hard to build bricks and bridge the gap, we must all work towards filling the vacuum to ensure a genuine development of the country. We have the resources in the country but it was never planned for such population growth we are having,” he said.
While urging the community to rejig their thinking as they have the potential of changing the country’s fortune, the Governor said, “Yes, Nigerians might have suffered in the 60s, but it paid off, because the education system then was good and given free, health was there, security was intact and nobody was depriving anybody anything”.
The Governor who spoke in Hausa noted that it is unfortunate that since independence Nigeria has been growing by the day with no proper plan for the growth: “No strategies were put in place, so, in other to end our misery we seriously have to work hard.
“We are the ones to do it, we need to stand together and firm in addressing our challenges, we have no reason not to move along with rest of the world in terms of development, all we need is proper planning and strategies to achieve the goals.
“We have the resources, the knowledge and know-how, we just need to use what we have and it has to be through entrepreneurship and more investments.
“We shouldn’t be afraid of entrepreneurship; we should invest in businesses for a better outcome. There are a lot of opportunities around, the government has rolled out several policies, programs and initiatives that we should take advantage of,” the governor said.
