A Development Economist, Pof. Egwaikhide Imoudu, has identified corruption as the biggest impediment to Nigeria’s development.
Mr Imouda, a lecturer at the Nigeria Defence Academy, stated this at the 10th professorial inaugural lecture series of the academy, held on Thursday in Kaduna.
The theme of lecture was, “That Nigeria Shall not Remain Economically Underdeveloped: Question for Solution”.
According to him, the concentration of wealth in the hands of few Nigerians and the highly expensive politics being practiced are also contributing to perpetuating corruption in the country.
He listed other factors to include, dearth of good governance and reliable statistics, policy inconsistency, insecurity, infrastructural decay as well as technological backwardness.
He noted that though Nigeria was endowed with human and natural resources, these potentials were not properly harnessed to the overall benefit of the nation.
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Mr Imoudu pointed out that for Nigeria to develop, efforts should be geared towards investing in education and youths.
He also advocated for the strengthening of the nation’s institutions, respect for rule of law, transparency and accountability, promotion of domestic investments and improving Nigeria’s domestic business environment.
The lecturer also advocated for stiff penalties against corrupt persons and other criminal elements.
Earlier, Commandant of the Academy, Adeniyi Oyebade, tasked cadets in the academy to be dedicated to their studies, stressing that only hard work would take them to the top of their military career.
The Commandant said that the academy remained committed to ensuring that its over 2,000 cadets were groomed to be patriotic in defending the territorial integrity of the country.
“As I came on board as commandant, I took advantage of opportunities to make a difference, and I thank God, collectively we have achieved that. It was challenging, but we all contributed.”
Mr Oyebade expressed optimism that with clear focus, Nigeria will grow to the level expected of it.
“Each time I travel abroad, I become angry. I see so many things going right and I ask myself why can’t we do same in my country. We thank God things have started to change,” the Commandant said
NAN
