Imo, a state grappling with high unemployment rate and serious security issues, took up the gauntlet recently when the government held an economic summit that attracted personalities across the globe. Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and former United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon were among the international figures that attended the summit that was held with the theme, ‘Unlocking Imo’s Economic Potential: Partnership, Investment, and Innovation’.
While a good number of persons commended Gov. Hope Uzodimma of the state for a job well done, others think the summit was only a jamboree scheduled to pull some publicity stunts, embellish the politics of the day and put some money into private pockets. Why was it necessary to invite characters such as Johnson and Moon who had served their terms long ago in their various countries and institutions and are no longer in a position to influence decisions effectively?Besides, they have not been fully associated with international trade and investments. Did they pay their way to Nigeria or were they here at the expense of the state? Answers to these puzzles would exonerate the summit from the jamboree label. Had US tech titans like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos (Amazon), Mark Zuckerberg (Meta), or UK moguls such as Jim Ratcliffe (Ineos), James Dyson (Dyson), and Richard Branson (Virgin), been in attendance, the questions would not have arisen. These are people with wealth spanning technology, retail, finance, and energy, and reflecting global market dominance.
No Nigerian should be blamed for thinking in that line, especially in juxtaposition with our politicians’ unfettered tendencies to corruption as the days progressed. Besides, should a serious government hold a summit just to beg investors or should it simply prepare grounds for the investors to flock in like hungry men to the dining table and do business smoothly? Investors and good business environments are like ants and sugar. The ants search for and find the sugar wherever it is. If it’s not sugar, count the ants out. In other words, a good government makes the bed that investors lie comfortably in.
Has the Imo State government done this? The answer, to a great extent, is in the infrastructural drive of the government. The Gov. Hope Uzodimma administration had consistently tackled the roads infrastructure vigorously since its inception and the result was that, for instance, a commuter from Owerri to Umuahia needs only one and half hours of potholes-free drive to get to his destination. Motorists need not worry about the darkness of the night as street lights illuminate the more than 60-kilometers of macadam. The road, by schedule, is the Federal Government responsibility. But the administration took it up and worked on it, hoping to get a refund. Ditto the Owerri-Okigwe and Owerri-Orlu roads. Other roads in the Owerri metropolis are receiving adequate attention as the government prepares a robust road network crucial for trade and economic growth.
In the power sector, the state says it plans to launch the Phase 1 of the Light Up Imo Project before the year ends, an initiative that promises to provide a steady, 24-hour power supply to the state through Orashi Electricity Company. The first phase will start in Owerri metropolis, followed by extending electricity to the 27 local councils of the state.
The hitherto haphazard land acquisition and title deeds process which had posed serious threats to investors in the Eastern Heartland, according to the government, is being streamlined to ensure a smooth investment experience. This, indeed, is a bold step considering that many investors have been victims of these ugly practices as they seek land in the state. If the aim of the summit is to create jobs and catalyze growth in all sectors, so nice. Industrialization, however, is key to the realization of that dream. Among the guests was Aliko Dangote, the peoples’ billionaire with business dragnets around Nigeria and the globe. He was the only noticeable private man with the deepest pocket among the bunch. He spoke, asking the government that invited them where he could come in. It was a rhetorical question. Dangote knows the in and out of Nigeria and is capable of choosing where to invest.
We must note that the government in Nigeria is the sole repository of mega funds that could galvanize quantum business and turn an economy around. Dangote can attest to this because much of the Dangote Refinery funds came from, or were guaranteed by, the government. Many, for this reason, advocate government support for small and medium enterprises which the private men can handle and actually give a leap to employment rate. How far has the Imo State government hosting this summit extended its help to these SMEs? In the past, there were government established industries that dotted the landscape. What plans has the administration to revive these moribund industries capable of giving jobs?
Let’s get to the vital but most touching issue of security. It’s not likely that investors would flock to unsafe environments. Southeast on the whole is not free from the ravaging disturbances that have engulfed Nigeria in recent times – kidnapping, ritual killings, herdsmen menace, separatists’ activities, among others. Twenty-four hours to the summit, gun men had attacked officials of Abia State along Sam Mbakwe Airport Road. Strong suspects were the bandits from the North who appeared to have taken over the forests in the state and beyond.
Crimes and terrorism rooted in agitation are better handled using non-kinetic means. The late President Umaru Musa Yar Adua taught us this when he arrested the Niger-Delta disturbances that disrupted oil explorations and threatened the nation’s economic mainstay without the help of the police or army. Did we learn? Force chases animosity into the innermost recesses and gets it bottled up. We get deceived by an eventual peace of the graveyard, unaware that we had built pockets of grenades that could explode at a time we least expected. Dialogue, consideration, circumspection and ultimate force on the ones who choose to be recalcitrant appears to be the best way to go. Johnson said that he was feeling safe. But we know that he would want to say what would be music to the ears of those who brought him here.
Tax matters! We are yet to feel the effect of the Tinubu Administration’s tax formula and how, in combination with the local taxes, it would impact on businesses and the state’s economy. Most certainly, though, excessive tax stifles business and drives away investors. Can one lift the bucket standing inside it? Tax holidays do some magic in attracting and retaining investors.
Interesting is the Orashi Special Energy Free Zone (OSEFTZ). The Managing Director and CEO, Dr. Chioma Nwachuku, spoke glowingly about it at the summit. According to her, OSEFTZ anchors on energy and power industries ranging from LNG to methanol, to fertilizer, petrochemicals.
“We are integrating a direct inland port linkage with the Atlantic Ocean. An international cargo airport is being revived. Marine and aviation support systems are being put in place. We are connecting people to global and regional linkages that have never been done before.”
This is a tall dream that must come true for Imo and the entire South East to breathe, free from the hostile Lagos ports the owners of the land. At the summit, founder and chairman of Zinox Group, Dr. Leonard Stanley Ekeh, promised to invest N5 billion in educational institutions in the state next year, while Alhaji Dangote showed interest in fertiliser production, stressing on internal investments that would invariably attract foreign investors.
Already, Imo State, endowed with several natural resources, including crude oil and natural gas, suffers the general malaise of Africa where raw materials are not turned into finished goods that bring in more money. In the state also is an abundant deposit of solid minerals, including calcium, carbonate, gypsum, granite, lignite, marble, salt, shale, bentonite, kaolin, pyrite, lead, and zinc.
At the moment, agriculture dominates the local economy as food crops, oil palm, rubber, iroko, bamboo, cotton, obeche, and mahogany have great potential to be grown in commercial quantities.
The world has seen and heard what Imo is capable of doing and how the government plans to lift the people out of poverty. The Igbo would say that the sound of the bitter kola in the mouth must match its taste for the eater to enjoy it.
Dr. Odu can be reached through [email protected] or SMS 07016722929.
