Trump card and prospects of a North Central Presidency: positive implications for the geo-political zone »

By Fanisi Babatunde .

Every four years in Nigeria, there is a race of plenty with an aim to occupy the highest enviable position in the country. While some sees it as a race towards acquiring a Gold Medal, others sees it as an honor and privilege to leave an indelible mark that shall stand generations to come.

As coveted as the role appears to be, it remains demanding and stressful with so many responsibilities to the Nation followed by all secondary importance.

There is a large balancing act associated with the highly coveted office which is majorly an attempt to carry everyone along and appease everyone. Evidence overtime have shown that it is usually an onious task to appease everyone. However there is this constant fact associated with such office, which is the opportunities it offers and doors of development it opens to the zone that produces the president.

Lately, there have been drumings and clamour by various interest groups on the need for all well meaning Nigerians to see reason why fairly the North Central Geo-political zone should produce the next president of Nigeria. Aside from the issue of justice and equity, parts of the prosperity it potends for the zone will be the address of major sprouting security concerns of the zone and accelerated development of the economy of the zone.

The North Central Geo-political Zone has a lot of developmental prospects ranging from the vast tourism potentials of the zone to the grand availability of Mineral resources in large and commercial quantities to the agricultural prowess of the people of the Geo-Political zone.

For instance Plateau , Niger, Kogi, Nasarawa and the FCT are states in the North Central Geo-political Zone with untapped massive tourism opportunities due to the host it plays to major tourist hills and sprawling waterfalls. Despite this massive opportunities, these areas of developments have remained under-harnessed even despite the fact that globally, Tourism remains a major foreign exchange earner for several developing and developed nations like the United Arab Emirates, Paris, Maldives in Southern Asia. This listed countries attracts tourists year in year out which has remained one of the sources of forex for thier countries. Tourism has been described as an important venture to bring or take employment into the rural areas (where there are few or no industries) with the ultimate goal of alleviating poverty when properly and maximally harnessed. Plateau State in particular has a very friendly climate that will give a boost to the sector.

In may 2013, the government of Dubai launched what was called the Dubai Tourism Strategy with key objective to attract over 20 Million Tourist to Dubai in year 2020. The strategy has yield positive results going by the trends of visits to the country which by records showed that over 15.92 Million people visited Dubai in the year 2018 alone. A total of $30.82 billion was spent in 2018 by overnight international visitors in Dubai, a 3.8% increase over 2017 ($29.70 billion). This makes Dubai the city which brings in the most tourist dollars worldwide, with Mecca coming second at $20.09 billion. On average a visitor spends $553 a day. I have not also mentioned the employments and other prospects these great potentials offers a nation. This will also open series of sectorial doors in the aviation and hospitality industry. The benefits are numerous.

I also have a futurist impression of the Geo-Political zone transforming into an hub of agricultural processing, storage and export. This is going by the large massive land available for agricultural purposes and the commercial production of some major cash crops in states like Nassarawa and Benue state. Presently Benue State Nigeria is the major feeder of the nation as far as yam is concerned and several other agricultural products. Nasarawa State in the same North Central zone is known for the farming of economic cash crops like Yam, Maize, Cassava, Groundnut, Garden Eggs, Rice, Sorghum, Sugarcane, Pepper, Cowpea, Benniseed, Mellon, Soya Beans, Cashew nuts, Sesame Seed and Shea butter. These crops are major exports used in producing several finished products imported back into Nigeria. I am optimistic that with a president from the North Central Geo-political zone, there are great possibilities that the nation can be a major exporter of these agricultural products. I also believe that processing industries with be attracted to the Geo-Political Zone to process agro-comodities to international standards and exported. This will not only generate foreign exchange for the country but will also address issue of unemployment and other restiveness in the zone.

Statistics by Xinhuanet in 2017 shows that the nation of Israel gains an increase of 3.2 percent on agricultural fruits and vegetables exports on an annual basis. Israel’s agricultural output in 2017 amounted to 30 billion new shekels (about 8.22 billion U.S. dollars), the report added that the country’s agricultural exports totalled 1.19 billion dollars last year. The main export crops were potato, carrot and pepper, which accounted for 89 percent of the total quantity of vegetables exported.The main exported fruits were avocado, date and mango, taking up 84 percent of the total amount of fruit exported. Most of the agricultural exports were transported from Israel by sea, mainly to European Union countries and Russia. We have the long stretch of River Niger passing through Several states in Northern Nigeria particularly Kogi State in North Central Nigeria. Talking prospectively, a deep water port is likely to be sited somewhere in Kogi State Nigeria. This alone will transform the economy of the Zone and Country at large. States like Benue, Kwara , Nasarawa, Kogi and Niger with vast lands for agriculture will triple it’s capacity in the areas of farming and more persons will be motivated to venture into the sector as it will become lucrative to do so.

Recently, Kogi State in North Central Nigeria was granted the status of an oil producing state by the Revenue Mobilization and Fiscal Commission coupled with the fact that I recently attended a lecture at the Federal University in Lokoja, North Central Nigeria where a professor of Geology was the guest lecturer. His expositions and overtime findings shows that the basins in the entire North Central Zones are rich in Crude Deposits. This offers great prosperity and industrial turnaround in the less developed Geo-political zone if voices are put together to ensure someone from the zone emerges. These deposits am sure will not only be explored and processed in the Geo-Political zone but will create an array of opportunities like employment, allied businesses and improved internally generated revenue for the states under this description. One of the gains of being an oil producing state aside from the economic derivatives that accrues includes the speedy transformation of the zone into an industrial hub with consistent influx of foreign Direct investment that will increase the fortunes of the various oil producing communities. States like Kogi, Niger, Kwara and benue stands to profit from this opportunities. Evidential fact shows how rich the north central region is in Solid minerals like iron ore, coal, gypsum, limestone, Gold and granite stones. All these have not been properly harnessed to an industrial scale that will translate into something meaningful for the Geo-Political Zone.

Ports development and operations globally is a major cash cow in any economy and it represents a major source of revenue for many developing and developed nations of which Nigeria is not an exception. Reports from the Nigerian Ports Authority shows that contributions to the Consolidated Revenue Funds (CRF) was about N18 billion in 2016, N30 billion in 2017 and N30 billion in 2018. This is aside revenues made through the Nigerian Customs Service and other funds raked in from other forms of taxes. The convergence point here is that states like Kogi are positioned to host a port that could become a major shipping hub in the entire Northern Nigeria just like the way onne serves the south south region of the nation with it’s major focus on Oil and gas iimports and exports. It also spells great prospects for port allied businesses like Logistics and Maritime ventures that will serve as a big revenue source to the states around the region. These are what a North Central Presidency could guarantee.

The North Central Geo-political Zone will fair better when handed over the reigns of leadership in the area of Mining of Mineral resources deposits like Uranium and Gold which are in commercial Quantities in states like Plateau and Kogi state. Kwara State also in the same region also boosts of Mineral resources such as Gold, limestone, marble, feldspar, clay, kaolin, quartz and granite rocks but as of today, this sector is still in the hands of quacks and have not really benefitted the respective states of Domicile. Benue State is blessed with abundant mineral resources which include Limestone, Gypsum, Anhydride, Koalin, Natural Gas, Salt, Petroleum Oil, Lead, Zinc, Barytes, Clay, Coal, Calcite, Germstones and Magnetite. Unfortunately, most of these resources remain untapped. North Korea has historically been the global leader in anthracite coal exports, most of which were sent to China. The country’s coal exports generated slightly more than $400 million (about 22% of total exports in terms of revenue) in 2017, down from $1.2 billion (about 40% of total exports) in 2016. A country like Australia earns $19.9 trillion U.S. dollars from mining, and it is number 10 on the list of countries generating massive revenues from the mining sector. Australia, which is about 80% the size of the United States, is known for its large reserves of coal, timber, copper, iron ore, nickel, oil shale, and rare earth metals and mining is the primary industry. Australia is also one of the leaders in uranium and gold mining. The country has the largest gold reserves in the world, supplying over 14% of the world’s gold demand and 46% of the world’s uranium demand. Australia is the top producer of opal and aluminum. North Central has same potential but unfortunately, the sector have been on the same spot for a very long time.

North Central has an under-utilized Renewable energy solution potentials. Hydro power that happens to be one of the sources of electricity for Nigeria as a country has its major roots in one of the states in the North Central. Shiroro and kanji dams in Niger State provides electricity to several states of the federation for industrial purposes and residential uses. The jebba dam in kwara state is also in the north central Geo-political zone. It has a power generating capacity of 578.4 megawatts, enough to power over 364,000 homes. More upgrades and investment in this sector offers great potentials to the industrialization of the zone and the nation at large. We also have the Omi Dam somewhere in Kogi State which has no major investor and has remained fallow for ages and only used for agricultural purposes. The United States hydro-electric power industry alone in 2011 generated a revenue of about $6Billion USD. The industry according to reports by Statista.com have tremendously improved by about 0.5percent on an annual basis. When investors are attracted to this sector, industries will spring up, jobs will be created and unemployment can be eradicated.

Another area of benefit is the industrial scale maximization of the vast forest resources of the Geo-Political zone. Several states in the North Central Zone has in large abundance economic trees that are used to produce several household items. The zone boosts of forest resources like woods of various quality in high quantity. This alone provides raw materials for the Furniture sub sector of the Manufacturing industries. Let’s take for instance a country like Turkey. Turkey’s worldwide export of furnitures between 2001 to 2020 netted $3.9Billion USD. Majority of high ends doors and household furnitures in Nigeria are imported from same turkey. Raw materials are taken away daily from Nigeria to countries like china and turkey to produce furnitures and import back into Nigeria at highly expensive rates. All these I believe will be properly harnessed to the benefit of the Geo-Political zone when the zone produces a president.

It is not only selfish but an act of Gluttonous wickedness seeing statesmen with strong political background and experience running fiercely after the position of the National Chairmanship of a political party. Party positions adds little or no value to the economic development of a Geo-political zone. As a matter of fact, it denies the zone of several goodies as references are consistently made to the fact that they have compensated the zone. It is on this note that I call on respected vibrant qualified politicians from Plateau, FCT, Nasarawa, Kogi, Kwara, Benue and Niger State to give the number one position a shot as this offers a lot of prospects and opportunities to the zone than the dangling carrot of the chairmanship of a political party. I have consistently said it that zoning arrangements are the products of political parties and does not represents the views and thoughts of the entire population of Nigeria.

Towards a prosperous North Central.