The National Security Adviser (NSA) Federal Republic of Nigeria Major General BM Monguno (Rtd) has said that the economic performance of every nation is a major pointer to its development stride.
General Monguno stated this in his keynote address at an international conference on Defence, Security, Economy and Development in Nigeria organized by the department of History and war studies of the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) in Kaduna.
Represented by Alhaji Abba A. Ibrahim, the NSA said, the relevance and significance of academic discourses, whether national or international in the development of nation states in general and Nigeria in particular cannot be under-estimated.
According to the NSA, when the present administration came on board, there was over reliance on revenue from oil to the neglet of other sectors of the economy.
“Currently, the premium the present regime places on agriculture in order to diversify the economy have started to yield positive results despite the complaints of insufficient forex for importers in the manufacturing sector”.
While stressing without contradiction that the present administration has demonstrated sufficient political will for the repositioning of our military as well as its industry, the NSA stated however that, “the diversity in human needs require the use of more than a singular policy strategy or institution in the provision of solutions to human challenges.
“In the course of Nigeria’s historical experience, the successive wars including Nigeria civil war and the on-going war against insurgency and terrorism, among others, have tested the resolve of the Nigerian state in aspects of defence, security, economic stability and overall predisposition towards national development” adding that inspite of the myriad of challenges starring Nigerian state in the face, it has stood the test of time.
While describing the theme of the conference as apt, he expressed optimism that the conference will generate the desired intellectual and academic input needed in correlating theoretical and practical dimensions of defence, security and economy to Nigeria’s national development as it is only by doing that the Nigerian nation could harness it’s vast intellectual resources to benefit the country’s development trajectory.