Nigeria economy will grow at 6% for 20yrs – Chidoka

The Minister of Aviation, Chief Osita Chidoka, said this when he delivered the 44th convocation lecture of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
He said, “Nigeria has highly skilled, hardworking people with huge natural resources and large population that make the country a big market for goods and services which are key areas that would serve as stimulant to her economic growth.”
Chidoka said Nigerians are fastidious and therefore have the tendency to criticise their country even when it is unnecessary, adding that although that attitude is seemingly wrong, it spurs the citizens and government to do things better.
“The most virulent critics of Nigeria are Nigerians. When two or three Nigerians are gathered, their topic is usually Nigeria;  its missed opportunities, its poor outcomes and, particularly, the giant strides of other countries. A few years ago, Nigerians celebrated one year of no blackouts in Ghana. Even though no such celebration took place in Ghana. They talked about how the Ghana Cedi was equivalent to the US Dollar though it was just a decimalisation. Now that the Cedi has turned out to be one of the world’s worst-performing currencies, losing nearly 300% of its value within a couple of months, and blackouts have become a common feature in Ghana as its budget deficit balloons, the Nigerian media has curiously kept silent. I don’t see any media commentaries on the fact that Ghana has fallen back to the International Monetary Fund (Talley, 2014), and indeed to Nigeria, for assistance,” Chidoka said.
He added that Nigeria has great opportunities that ensure better future for its citizens, noting that these opportunities should be harnessed by young Nigerians who should be creative and make use of any chance that comes their way.
“Nigeria has many things going in its favour. We are regarded as Africa’s largest economy, with an annual growth rate of six to eight per cent.  As Cosmo pointed out, we have one of the largest mobile phone markets on the continent. And nearly 40 percent of our population has access to the internet. That is almost as much as South Africa at almost 47 percent and far higher than Indonesia at only 16 per cent. Even Brazil has only managed to connect 53 per cent of its population online (CIA, 2015),” the minister said.
He noted that Nigerians have inherent elements to succeed in every endeavour and those elements include superiority complex, hard work and the readiness to sacrifice today for better tomorrow.