The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Nigerian Export Import Bank, Mr. Roberts Orya, on Saturday said he wants Nigeria’s oil to dry up.

According to him, until the country’s crude oil dries up, Nigeria may not harness the resources in other sectors of the economy.

This, the NEXIM bank boss said, was why he decided not to finance investors in the oil sector, stressing that the industry contributed less to the nation’s gross domestic product when compared to what the real sector contributes.

Orya spoke to journalists on the sidelines of an event organised by Lonadek tagged, ‘Business Talk in Summer,’ held in Abuja.

Asked to state why he said the country’s oil should dry up, Orya replied, “If we don’t have oil in this country, this country would have been a very great country. Why I said so is because, in the first place, it was what we got from agriculture that we used in exploring for oil in the 1960s.

“And when we got this oil, what were we supposed to do? We are supposed to have used the proceeds from it to develop agriculture and some other non oil sectors. But we have not done that. And because we get easy revenue from oil, Nigerians have become very lazy; we’ve become consumers. Nobody is into production because oil is easy.

“If oil dries up, because of the potentials we have in the non- oil sectors, there will be considerable changes. How many Nigerians are employed or involved in the oil sector despite the fact that 95 per cent of our export revenues come from oil and 70 per cent makes up the revenue of the government?”

He argued that revenue from the oil sector should have been used to develop the non-oil sectors, stressing that the non- oil industry determines the rate of growth in the economy, not oil.

“What is the percentage of the oil sector to our GDP now?” he asked.

He also said, “But if we have used that money to develop agriculture, manufacturing, solid minerals and others, then we would have boosted our GDP. Right now we say we have identified 34 solid minerals in commercial quantities, but as we are standing here, the solid minerals sector is contributing less than one per cent to the GDP. In fact, it is actually 0.9 per cent. What does that tells us?

“It tells us that we have trillions of Naira that are inside the ground and nobody is looking at it because we have easy revenue from oil. So that is why I say if oil should dry up in this economy, Nigeria is going to be better for it because of the huge potentials we have in other sectors.”

On how his bank was helping in improving the non-oil sector, he said, “That is why I don’t touch oil. In my financing I don’t touch oil. I am only concerned with non-oil export. I’m talking about financing the manufacturing sector, agro-processing, etc. I want a situation where I will stop financing raw agricultural commodities to other countries.

“Let us add value, let us create jobs here, because when I
finance raw agricultural commodities, I’m exporting jobs and opportunities to other countries, but I am not doing that.”
http://www.punchng.com/news/nigerias-oil-should-dry-up-says-nexim-boss/

“If we don’t have oil in this country, this country would have been a very great country. Why I said so is because, in the first place, it was what we got from agriculture that we used in exploring for oil in the 1960s.
“And when we got this oil, what were we supposed to do? We are supposed to have used the proceeds from it to develop agriculture and some other non oil sectors. But we have not done that. And because we get easy revenue from oil, Nigerians have become very lazy; we’ve become consumers. Nobody is into production because oil is easy.

Truckpusher:
I can't just help but respond when iidiots erroneously say that we used proceeds from Agriculture to explore oil even as it is very clear that as the time agriculture was holding sway Nigeria was practicing regionalism which ensures that everything gotten from your region was used up for your region contributing only a small percentage as tax to the FG to keep the military afloat and be able to defend our borders.

When the northern region had their groundnut pyramid , the Western region had their cocoa farms which was one of the major cash crop all over the world and the Eastern region which is today's Niger Delta and South East had rubber, Palm kernel and coal. So, where did these parasites in this modern Nigeria got this idea that agriculture was used possibly from the North to run the entire country and you still have a high level of human development indices ?
Prior to amalgamation no region lived off another region and why can't we be like that in a 21st century Nigeria?
Nigeria has no choice than to diversify the economy like Jonathan was doing before he left else we are in problem.

kkkp:
how old are u?

cc: lalasticlala Seun Obinoscopy

Kastonkastroll:
OK AIT might be a PDP propaganda TV station, but there is this 11:00am program I never miss(money show, the only program I watch on the propaganda station). The other day, one man who was invited on the show said oil is a curse to Nigeria and he was so happy about the fall in price of crude oil in the international market. The man said all the problems we are facing today in Nigeria can to be traced to oil and he was absolutely right.

• The people shouting marginalization today is because the want to have their own share of the national cake.

• boko haram was created because some people thought they have been marginalized.

• The ones threatening the FG that if due attention is not given to them, they will pick up arms is all because of the curse black gold

• The religion sentiment, ethnic chauvinism, greed and avarice in Nigeria today is because of the oil.

• Those shouting Biafra Are doing solely so because of the oil.

• The corruption, laziness in Nigeria was because of the oil

The black gold has done more harm than good to Nigeria. How far will the curse black gold take us as a nation? well only time can tell.

Drops pen*

BekeeBuAgbara:
What a foolish question from a parasite who still believes that money from agriculture developed the oil sector.