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Nigeria, others urged to develop economy, stop capital flight - THE GUARDIAN
By Kehinde Olatunji
In a bid to reduce poverty, stop capital flight and create employment, thereby developing the economy, Nigerians and Africans have been urged to develop their natural resources.
The Chief Executive Officer of Nature’s Renaissance International, Prof. Clinton Odiagbe lamented that though Africa is blessed with durable nature’s produce, it focuses on artificial products, thereby, neglecting its economy.
Odiagbe, who spoke at a mega summit and car presentation in Lagos, noted that currently the world is in a synthetic state where nature holds the answer to climate change.
He said: “The reason why there is inflation is because our currency has lost strength completely. The Western world has told us to our face that our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is low. This means we are unproductive, therefore, we cannot control the foreign exchange, that is the reason why there is inflation and that is why the cost of commodities are on the rise.”
“There is a need for us to look inward. There is a need for us to look within and develop our continent. We can achieve this, we have the resources, our natural and human resources are abundant.
“Africa is the second most populous continent on earth. That is to say we have the ready market. We can develop ourselves, we just have to dare, we need to start from somewhere. This is most important. There is a need for Africans to dare. There is a need for us to accept ourselves the way we are, we need the mindset to think and act global.”
“We are not going to blame the government of today for any of this predicament. We will continue to look inward and develop the economy from the micro level and empower more people. What we intend to achieve is to have more people come to the realisation that we need to collectively build our continent.
“There is a need for a revolution of the mindset of Africans. The biggest challenge in Africa today is hunger and poverty. A lot of people are challenged in their health because of poverty. Poverty would naturally deprive one from discovering who they are.”
