NIGERIA HAS THE POTENTIAL TO LEAD A NEW AFRICA

             '' NIGERIA HAS THE POTENTIAL TO LEAD A NEW AFRICA''

                              BY GORDON BROWN

The recent bombings in Nigeria show the threat that innocent people continue to face from terrorism and the forces of extremism. Many millions of Nigerians, all around the world, were preparing to celebrate the strength and success of Nigeria in the 50 years since independence. Instead, Nigeria is now a nation bereaved. Those whose friends and family have been killed or injured must know that they will never stand alone, that even in the midst of their sorrow the world stands with them in defending the values of freedom and democracy which Nigeria represents 50 years after it secured its liberation. My thoughts and prayers are with those whose grief knows no bounds today.

Despite this despicable crime, Nigeria has the best prospects of any African country for the next half century ahead. Last night I watched pictures of the handover from British rule when the Union Jack was pulled down and the new Nigerian flag was hoisted. I saw thousands of young Nigerians hail the break from colonialism with cheers and celebrations and I heard the voices of young Nigeria men and women resolute on a brighter future.

Sixty years ago Nigeria did not have the oil revenues, nor the educational progress, nor the industries that would be a lift off for high levels of growth. But today Nigeria is the world’s seventy largest oil producer and has one of the world’s fastest growing economies. You have significant uncultivated cropland. An important potential source of growth when you consider that world-wide food production has to rise over 70 percent in the next 40 years, and if your finance sector can find ways of getting capital into the hands of farmers.

At the turn of the millennium there were only a handful of mobile phones in Nigeria, but Nigeria now has more mobile phone users than any country in Africa. Nigeria is already Africa’s second most important financial center and has a vibrant film industry.

All the best estimates suggest that by 2020 Lagos will be a $23 billion a year city and by 2050 Nigeria could have passed Canada, South Korea and Italy for levels of spending and growth.

Nigeria has the potential to lead a new Africa and a global society where we can finally say there is no third world or second world or first world-just one world of growing prosperity. However, big reforms – the reforms that your president Goodluck Jonathan championed in transparency, anti corruption measures and economic openness – are necessary to steer that path to prosperity.

Infrastructure, electricity and education needs in Africa are still enormous. So today I say, let donors and the private sector bridge this gap and front load infrastructure and education investment by sponsoring a new S100 billion dollar Africa fund.

Let them create this fund by issuing Africa development bonds that channel investment into Africa. And in so doing, let them seize the opportunity of putting Africa at the centre of the growing world. To create the fund, I believe the main global banks should come in to back the venture and Nigeria should contribute a portion of its oil revenues. I believe moreover that the developed countries should underpin it by contributing S6 billion of aid money a year to help meet interest payments on the bonds.

With its current trajectory and with additional investment from the fund I have outlined, I believe Africa will soon be a genuine and much-needed dynamo for the largest prize: a rise in African growth helping the return to global growth which will in turn help Africa grow even faster.

The speed at which Nigeria grows will in part be determined by the investment you make in your young people. Nigeria still suffers from inadequate electricity and infrastructure provision, and 8 million children do not go to school. A quarter of a million Nigerian infants still die in the first months of life, and too many hearts are broken when mothers and fathers lose their children before their birthday.

When Nigeria became independent in 1960 it led the way for another 44 countries to break with the impartial past. In the last twenty years we have also seen the impossible happen – the end of the cold war and of apartheid. Nelson Mandela said that having climbed one mountain, he found there was another still to climb – that of securing the right of every child to fulfill their potential. In the next fifty years Nigeria can take the world to the top of that mountain – and I look forward to celebrating the achievement of this great goal with you all.