PARTNERSHIP FOR HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT AND CAPACITY BUILDING: THE CASE OF INDIA AND NIGERIA

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2 PARTNERSHIP FOR HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT AND CAPACITY BUILDING: THE CASE OF INDIA AND NIGERIA BY NUHU YAQUB UNIVERSITY OF ABUJA PMB 117 GARKI GPO ABUJA, FCT NIGERIA

3 INTRODUCTION Certain commonalities between India and Nigeria make partnership a sine qua non. Such commonalities include, among others, a common colonial past; belonging in the British Commonwealth; in the Non-Aligned Movement; in the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU); etc.; have always expressed a common, principled stand on global issues such as imperialism, apartheid, non-interference of countries in other peoples internal affairs; pursuit and protection of global peace and human rights; long commercial links based on private initiatives since 1923 when K. Chellarams Company opened shop in Nigeria. (Other major Indian retail conglomerates that have operated in Nigeria since the pacesetter and are still very much around include Kewalram, Bhojsons, Chanrais; etc.); Nigeria s foremost military academy the Nigerian Defence Academy (now a degree-awarding institution) was started by an Indian General, Late Brigadier-General Varma; etc.

4 BASIS OF PARTNERSHIP Partnership is viewed as a relationship that would involve both India and Nigeria for mutually beneficial purposes. Partnership could find expression in commercial (business), diplomatic, educational (cultural) spheres. Partnership between India and Nigeria must be built on existing diplomatic, commercial and cultural ties. These include, among others: More than 50 years of diplomatic relationship (India opened its diplomatic office two years before Nigeria became independent in 1960); Nigeria is India s largest trading partner in Africa; in 2007 alone the value of trade stood at US$8 billion; Indian teachers and scholars have made their marks in Nigeria s educational system from secondary to tertiary level; Tens of thousands of Nigerian students have studied in India s various educational institutions and with renewed and reinvigorated partnership, more are likely to come to India for tuition (Indian nationals residing in Nigeria particularly have also studied in Nigeria); Indian doctors have played a major role in the Nigeria s health sector; A few Indian women have been married to Nigerians (I also suspect that a few Indians might have married Nigerians); Nigeria is following on the heels of India in the development of its film industry apart from saying that Indian films are staple relaxation outlets for Nigerians, especially of northern origin; etc.

5 PARTNERSHIP PRINCIPLES For mutually beneficial partnership, the following principles must be observed: There must be focus as the two countries do not have the resources in the world to do every thing they both may desire. The role of the state in this affair must never be underestimated; Following from the preceding point, the partnership must be predictable and sustainable; and, finally, It should be based on the usually good and friendly diplomatic understanding (shared values) and mutual respect exhibited by the two countries for one another.

6 BRIEF PROFILES OF NIGERIA Nigeria became independent from Britain in October 1960, after about 60 years of colonialism; It is a federalism of 36 states with a federal capital territory called Abuja; A large part of the political history of Nigeria has been under military dictatorship. Perforce, India s stable democracy must be an anchor in the partnership model between the two countries; Current estimated population is about 140 million; the country has not less than 374 linguistic groups, although three (3) of the ethnic groups are dominant and these are Hausa-Fulani, Yoruba, and Igbo; In religious terms: Muslims are about 50%; followed by Christians with about 40% of the population. The African Traditional Believers constitute the remaining 10%; Literacy rate 68%;

7 BRIEF PROFILES (CONTD.) Nigeria is still a largely agricultural country in terms of employment of labour force (over 70%). Other sectors employ at the following ratios: industry, 10%; and services, 20% (1999 estimates. Current estimates may not be significantly different from these ratios); Agricultural practice is still largely informed and influenced by its traditional practice of being small-holding and is also mainly carried out at subsistence level; The few modern industries are dominated by those in the extractive sub-sector and they are capital-intensive; with manufacturing still light, and import-substitutive; Exports dominated by extractive industries such as crude oil; In terms of GDP composition, the distribution is as follows: Agriculture: 17.5%. Compared to India s, which is 22%; Industry (including the extractive sub-sector): 54.3%. In India, this sector s contribution is 22%; Services: 28.2%. In India, it is 56%.

8 BRIEF PROFILES (CONTD.) GDP (PPP): US$191.4bn. Cf. India US$4.164 trillion (2006 est.). GDP Per Capita: US$1,500. Cf. US$3,800 (2006 est.) (PPP); Nigeria has a total of 91 universities currently; these are owned separately by the federal government, some of the state governments, and some private interests. As of 2005, there were a total of 58 polytechnics, and 60 monotechnics (probably, colleges of education) (Source: The Industrial Training Fund and the Nigerian Employers Consultative Association, September 2007); The combined capacity of these tertiary institutions is not enough to enroll or absorb up to half a million in a year. This is the main area where India could be very helpful in the partnership; Parents and prospective students prefer university education to any other, especially technical and vocational education. Even then, the prospective students only want to read law, management and social sciences, not science and technology. Through the envisaged partnership, the Nigerian government would need to learn the magic the Indian government and people have used to motivate its citizens to take to science and technology programmes.

9 HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT & CAPACITY BUILDING India and Nigeria should partner in the area of human resource development and capacity building, with India taking the lead or the command position. The foregoing suggestion is based on the following facts emanating from India s level of manpower development. According to some estimates: 38% of doctors in USA are Indians; 12% of scientists in the USA are Indians; 36% of NASA scientists are Indians; 34% of Microsoft employees are Indians; 28% of IBM employees are Indians; 17% of INTEL scientists are Indians; and 13% of XEROX employees are Indians; Literacy rate 61.0%. Did I hear someone saying Nigeria is better than India in this area? But what would magnitudes say? Sources: Indian High Commission, Abuja, Nigeria (2008:15); and World Almanac Books, Inc., The World Almanac and Book of Facts 2007, passim.

10 INDIA S OTHER INTIMIDATING CREDENTIALS India is the largest democracy in the world (I shall expatiate on this later); It is currently the fourth largest economy in terms of purchasing power, presumably after the US, the Japanese, and the Chinese economies; The only country other than the US and Japan to have built a superconductor indigenously; India is the largest manufacturer of tractors and leather works; Ranks first in the production of milk and butter, mango, tea, raw sugar, jute, coconut, cashew; Ranks first in the cutting, processing and manufacturing of gems and jewellery; Ranks first in the diamond cutting and polishing trade; Second largest producer of vegetables and fruits; Second largest producer of rice, groundnuts, sugar beet, tobacco; Second largest manufacturer of motorcycles and scooters Source: High Commission of India, Abuja, India-Nigeria: Partners in Progress, Abuja: High Commission of India, 2008, pp The point being made with these figures is that if India could forge ahead as rapidly as it has done with impressive economic development as well as with major technological advance witnessed since the 1990 s, without, apparently, the physical contributions of Diaspora Indians, what else should pre-occupy Nigeria indeed, most African countries if not partnership with this enormously endowed country in human resource development and capacity building?

11 HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT (CONTD.) Based on the foregoing endowments, India is therefore argued to be the better side to catalyze the partnership with Nigeria. What should the partnership entail? Naturally, it should be human resource development and capacity building. Before we look at how this is to be patterned, let it be mentioned that we are aware that a number of agreements (MOUs) (especially those in the realms of economic cooperation, energy, ICT, defence, diplomatic relationship, etc.) have been signed between the two countries in the wake of the respective state visits of the Indian Prime Minister, HE Dr. Manmohan Singh, to Nigeria and the former President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, HE Chief Olusegun Obasanjo. (For details, see Indian High Commission, ibid.: passim.) Apart from partnership at the level of the state system, private initiatives have also taken some seized on the beckoning opportunities to register their heavy presence in the Nigerian economy. Some of the leading Indian multinational conglomerates include, among others, Primlaks Group; Ranbaxy Laboratories Private Limited; the Dana Group; the Parco Group; the African Steel Mills (Nig.) Ltd; etc.

12 HUMAN RESOURCES.(CONTD.) Human resource (human capital) development and capacity building are interchangeably used in this presentation as one and the same thing. Human resource or human capital development is a process of heavy investment in people, human beings; not equipment or white elephant (invariably turnkey) projects. It is a deliberate and planned process that should set attainable targets, which must be seen to being achieved. The purpose of such investment would be to enhance the competencies of those exposed to the training or else the saying that if you develop infrastructure and you don t develop the people, the underdeveloped people will destroy the infrastructure, could become a self-fulfilling prophecy. From the account given so far, India appears to have invested in human capital and that s why it has become for this presentation, at least, the reference point for Nigeria and, I am sure, a number of African countries also.

13 HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT (CONTD.) The Nigerian government should see reason in investing massively in education as India has done or, at least, has encouraged; it should invest in top fliers in education, in order for them to return to the classroom. This should be done along with reasonable incentives to retain them there. Furthermore, it has to meet the minimum target of 26% of the country s annual budget, as advised by UNESCO. Currently, the Nigerian state has never allocated more than12% of the annual budget to the education sector. (How much does the Indian government on education annually, this presenter would like to know.)

14 HUMAN CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT (CONTD.) As a result of the poor funding of the education sector in Nigeria, studies have shown that there is a gap between manpower requirements and what eventually is produced and delivered to the economy (See, in particular, ITF and NECA, A Survey of Contemporary Manpower Requirements in the Nigerian Economy, 2007). In critical areas, such as engineering and technology, medicine, agriculture, mining, health, etc., the shortfall is huge; more than 50% of the requirements are unmet. Some commentators have even argued that the manpower problems Nigeria is facing may not be unconnected with the quality of education that is being given to the recipients. It is not education per se that has to be given, but its quality.

15 PATTERN OF PARTNERSHIP Principles of partnership has already been mentioned. The pattern of human capital development should be classified into: huge investment in the educational infrastructure: building of more schools; overseas training by giving scholarships to enable those unable to get placement in local schools to go abroad particularly to India and other Third World countries; recruitment of teachers (especially in science and technology fields) and the provision of generous incentives in order to retain them;

16 PATTERN OF PARTNERSHIP (CONTD.) Retraining of the workforce, i.e., capacity enhancement of those adjudged to be experiencing declining productivity. Another aspect of this capacity enhancement is with respect to the training of democratic vanguards for Nigeria s still fledgling democracy. In both respects, India has comparative advantages: experience and history, low cost, sincerity and commitment. According to the Indian High Commission in Nigeria (op. cit.:28),

17 PATTERN OF PARTNERSHIP (CONTD.) India s interest in the educational advancement of Nigerian youths dates back to 1955 when the Indian government set up a scholarship scheme for African students. Initially, Nigerians were reluctant to go to India for studies. But[,] gradually, interest in Indian Education began to grow to the extent that by 1985 approximately 5000 Nigerian students were studying in India. The Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) has also instituted scholarships to qualified Nigerians under the Cultural Exchange Programme. This opportunity is open [to] doctoral and post-doctoral programmes. It would be advisable that those to benefit from the scholarship scheme should come from science and technology background.

18 PATTERN OF PARTNERSHIP (CONTD.) It was Francis Fukuyama that argued in his book, The End of History and the Last Man, that countries of liberal democratic bent do not war amongst themselves. This was on the premise that with a strong capitalist system to undergird the political superstructure, liberal democracies would have no reason to fight themselves. Rather, they would be pre-occupied to render assistance to one another and those embarking on capitalist development.

19 PATTERN OF PARTNERSHIP (CONTD.) India, by all accounts, is a capitalist country and it is also a mature liberal democratic state; Nigeria is not in both counts; but is aspiring, especially with the recent reforms it has carried out on both the economic and political fronts. By Fukuyama s theory, India is in a position to assist Nigeria and should be prepared to do. With the spate of bilateral agreements between the two countries and given that without a stable liberal democratic system in Nigeria, its capitalist aspirations could be scuttled, India, to me, has no business but to build on the history of excellent relationship between the two countries, to ensure the consolidation of democracy and the engendering of capitalist development. India, to my mind, has disproved the theory that democracy cannot thrive in a poor country or that democracy could not be used instrumentally to foster capitalist development. Thus, capacity building in democratic politics is equally a desideratum in the India Nigeria Partnership in the 21 st Century. India should package appropriate democratic pedagogy for Nigerian political leaders and would-be leaders. It would be a win-win situation for both countries, especially the Indian companies and by extension the Indian people that have the advantage of reaping the positive spin-off effects first before any one else. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION