Tambuwal: Nigeria has utterly failed to harness its enormous resources

Aminu Tambuwal, senator representing Sokoto south, says Nigeria is yet to take advantage of its enormous resources.

Tambuwal spoke on Thursday at the 2023 law week of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) in Abuja.

The immediate past governor of Sokoto said legal practitioners have a major role to play in reforming the country’s socio-political economy.

He described the factors setting the country backwards as “nauseating”, adding that inefficient political institutions, corruption, economic inequality, and poor democratic culture must be tackled headlong to put the nation on the path of greatness.

“The fact that Nigeria is richly blessed with human and material resources is no longer in the realm of debate and so is the reality that the country has refused, neglected or utterly failed to harness these enormous resources,” he said.

“The factors responsible for this nauseating state of affairs are multifarious but are firmly camped into social, political, economic, and to a lesser extent, cultural framework.

“Only recently, Tomola Obamuyi and Oladapo Fapetu identified Nigeria’s prominent socio-political challenges to include corruption, poverty, unemployment, insecurity, politics and governance, among others.

“Several other analysts have expanded these to include inefficient and ineffective public institutions, income inequalities, lack of democratic culture and perhaps more.

“Of course, as a realist and indeed participant observers, one should no longer admit such mundane factors as political instability, regime change and colonialism.”

Tambuwal said the country needs the skills and knowledge of legal professionals more than ever before. 

“Under chapters 5, 6 and 7 of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, the structure of government is delineated into the legislature, the executive and the judiciary,” he said. 

“It is indisputable that legal professionals, more than any other professionals, possess the versatility to operate with distinction in all the three arms and nearly exclusively in the judiciary.”