Raw Material Amendment Bill will Address Poverty, Insecurity and Grow the Economy – Prof. Theophilus
By Pan Afric Reporters, NASS, Abuja
Nigeria set to unlock economic potentials as senate moves to amend raw material Bill
In a significant move to revamp Nigeria’s economy, the Senate is set to amend the Raw Material Research and Development Council Establishment Bill. The amendment aims to accommodate current economic realities, and stakeholders are optimistic about its potential to address unemployment, insecurity, and boost the nation’s economy.
Professor Theophilus Odubuaku, Executive Secretary/Chief Executive Officer of the Academic Staff Union of Research Institutions (ASURI), has commended the Senate and the Raw Material Research and Development Council for initiating the amendment. Odubuaku emphasized that Nigeria’s practice of exporting raw materials to other countries, only to import them back as refined products, is detrimental to the nation’s economy.
“When they said they don’t have employment problem, what it’s means is that we employed their labour, bring your raw material to us. Infact, they don’t even have labour anymore, they now employ our people as slaves, work in these industry that refined these raw material and then return it back to us.”
Expressing displeasure with the manner the country’s raw material were exported to other countries at its crude level while
addressing journalist shortly after the Senate Public Hearing on the bill for the amendment of the council bill, Prof. Theophilus says…
“We are talking about a situation where you just dig up your raw material, export your raw material to a country where they employ labour to refined that raw material and send it back to you. What you done done is to pay for the labour of that country you have exported that material to. We are the people paying for their labour, we are people employing their labour.”
This essentially means Nigeria is paying for the labor of other countries, while our own people remain unemployed,it is astonishing that it has taken us this long to recognize the need for change, especially when other countries made this transition decades ago.
“You keep wondering why did it take us this long to do something every country has done some 50, 1000 year ago. And you begine to understand the need to appreciate the initiative been taken by the raw material research and development council DG and also the zeal you saw today, you see how the chairman of the committee talked about the need for us to do this.”
He argued that the proposed amendment when assented to will attract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), create employment opportunities, and stimulate economic growth. Odubuaku noted that with the amendment, investors will be compelled to establish processing facilities in Nigeria, thereby adding value to the country’s raw materials.
“With this bill been assented to, the people that come here to carry our our raw material will be force to come and invest here, That’s Foreign Direct Investment thereby creating employment for our people and growing our economy. Addressing insecurities; you know all this banditry, kingnapping are as a result of unemployment, people graduated, no work.”
This development is seen as a landmark moment in Nigeria’s economic history, with the potential to eliminate poverty, reduce insecurity, and propel the nation towards sustainable growth. As the Senate continues to work on the amendment, stakeholders remain optimistic about the prospects of a brighter economic future for Nigeria.
