For far too long, politicians in Nigeria have prioritized infrastructural development to the detriment of human capital development. They seem never to miss the opportunity for a photo-op (or should I say selfie?) session, where they are commissioning roads, airports (often in states with limited air traffic), government buildings etc.
Not that any of this is bad in itself. Indeed, infrastructure is critical for economic growth and development. It is just that, when all this is happening side by side with millions of Nigerians struggling with poor healthcare, overcrowded classrooms, unemployment, rising poverty, and declining living standards, one begins to wonder…”to what end is all the infrastructural hurly burly?”
This is a question that is increasingly being asked by economists, policy analysts and civil society advocates. They argue that governments at various levels are increasingly prioritizing politically attractive projects while ignoring investments that directly improve the lives and productivity of citizens.
The criticisms ring true. You hear states that are struggling with salary arrears announcing multi-billion naira projects. Communities lacking primary health centres being overrun by flyovers. Given political motivations as regards re-election or leaving a legacy, I guess the current state of matters is not surprising. A governor can point to a bridge or airport as evidence of performance. Human capital investments, on the other hand, often take years to produce measurable outcomes and may not yield immediate political benefits. The result is a governance culture that rewards visibility over impact.
There needs to be better balance between infrastructural and human capital development. Infrastructure is only as useful as the quality of the people who make use of it. Nigeria needs to take a leaf from the development book of the “Asian Tigers”. Let’s take a look at two of them.
In the 1960s-70s, South Korea invested heavily in education and skills training as well as industrial infrastructure. Doing so gave them a literate, and skilled workforce enabling them to rapidly industrialize through making the best use of the investments in infrastructure, and thus move from exporting agrarian commodities to creating high tech industries in the space of about 30 years. The lesson here for Nigeria is that infrastructure projects must be paired with strong investments in education and vocational training to ensure citizens can use and sustain them.
At roughly the same time as South Korea, Singapore built world-class ports and airports but simultaneously prioritized human capital — universal education, healthcare, and continuous skills upgrading. As a result, infrastructure became a platform for trade and investment, while a highly skilled workforce attracted multinational corporations that brought high quality jobs that employed highly skilled Singaporeans. Another lesson here for Nigeria is that infrastructure alone doesn’t attract investment; it must be complemented by a healthy, educated workforce.
Hopefully I have convinced you that there is need for reform, and if I may, I would like to suggest ways that we can go about it.
In the short term, we can cut spending on wasteful projects and redirect funds toward education and healthcare. We could also link vocational training to infrastructure. For example, every new industrial park or construction project could include training centers for local workers. Community health clinics alongside road and housing projects to ensure a healthy workforce. Care however, must be taken to make sure that clinics and training centers should be planned with education pipelines, retention strategies, and private sector partnerships baked in from the start. For example, medical and nursing schools could be expanded, with quotas tied to new clinic openings, while companies operating in industrial zones could be tapped to co-fund and co-staff training centers. NGOs and international donors could help co-finance clinic training and staffing needs. Without these, clinics and training centres could end up being more of the same; underutilized infrastructure because of the lack of quality people to make use of them.
In the medium term, Nigeria could work towards building integrated industrial clusters where manufacturing hubs are paired with technical colleges and apprenticeship programs. The educational infrastructure could also be improved by investing in modern classrooms, labs, and teacher training.
In the long term, we can do things like linking farms to processing plants and agricultural universities to boost productivity and exports, and also expand universal healthcare coverage to ensure a healthy, productive workforce that can sustain industrialization.
These for sure are demanding asks, but without working to reduce the skew in the balance of infrastructural and human capital projects, Nigeria risks building “empty shells” of infrastructure that fail to translate into inclusive prosperity.
