You waste Oil Money: Clinton to FG

Former United States President Bill Clinton yesterday came hard on federal government when he said the country has not managed resources realised from oil money effectively.

The 42nd president of the U.S. spoke in Abeokuta during the 18th edition of Thisday Awards, organised by Leaders and Company, publishers of Thisday newspapers.

Clinton lamented the growing rate of poverty in Nigeria, saying if the trend is not reversed it portends a great challenge to the country.

He said: “I would say you have  challenges. First of all, like 90 percent of  countries who have one big resource, you haven’t done well with your oil money. You should have reinvested it in different ways. You don’t do a better job of managing natural resources.”

Clinton said the country can only achieve its potentials if “you bring economic opportunity to the people who don’t have.”

“This is not a problem specific for Nigeria. Almost every place in the world, prosperity is heavily concentrated in and around urban areas.”

He argued that the poverty line in the whole of Africa has taken a very alarming dimension and called on leaders to salvage the situation through proper education and empowerment of the youths.

“With qualitative and efficient education, the continent could be liberated and empowered through the use of different technology that are evolving daily,” he said.

Clinton added: “And then, you have to empower people with education so they can succeed at home as well as around the world so that all these political problems and religious differences, and all the rhetoric of Boko Haram, could be surmounted.”

While attributing the crisis in the country to poverty, Clinton said, “The truth is the poverty rate  in the north, which is three times greater than what it is in the Lagos area. And to deal with that, you have to have both powerful stake in the local governments and a national policy that work together.”

He opined further that “there has to be a way to take the staggering intellectual and organisational ability that Nigerians exhibit in every country in the world in which they are immigrant and bring it to bear here so that the country as a whole can rise.

“One of the people on my trip with me today who unfortunately could not come up here because he had to go visit his family is a young Nigerian-American named Nnamdi. He is an all pro-quarter back footballer for the Philadelphia Eagles. He’s a wonderful man; he does great work in America for poor kids in Arkansas City and he became a friend of mine.

“Both his parents have PhDs, his sister has a PhD; he often says ‘I’m the failure in my family and I only have a university degree and I play football.’

“My point is: there are Nigerians who are like this all over the world! What you have to figure out is how to keep those people in Nigeria and how to ensure their success leads on into the rest of the country.

“I think solving the economic divide that is in your country will help the political divide; making better use of your resources, advising that the country should invest more on infrastructure.

“Nigeria is trying to set up an investment fund where the federal government will set it up and the governors are being consulted so that they can concentrate the capital.

“That is the problem in India. They have unbelievable entrepreneurs but they are not very good at collecting capital and investing it in infrastructure so that they can unite the poor part of the country with the rich part.

That’s what you have to do”.

The event was witnessed by former President Olusegun Obasanjo and governors of Ogun and Delta states, Ibikunle Amosun and Emanuel Uduaghan respectively.

At the event, which had as its theme “Celebrating Teachers”, about 18 teachers were given cash award of N2 million each.

Some other individuals were also honoured at the occasion.