By Lawrence Freeman
As the case of Nigeria makes clear; we must finally end the fraudulent practice of measuring economies by misleading monetary statistics. They are false and not only do not reflect the real economy, but hide the true state of economy. The only true measure of a successful economy is the increase in per capita physical wealth as a result of advancing to higher levels of energy-flux-density embodied in the country’s infrastructure, especially in energy, water, and rail transportation.
While Boko Haram is murdering Nigerians almost at will in the north-east section of the country, Nigeria’s abysmal physical economy is also killing its population. Nigerians desperately seek employment. Over this past weekend, when the Nigerian government advertised openings for 4,556 jobs, more than 500,000 applicants showed up, leading to the deaths of 16 people when the massive crowds go out of control. While many ignorant so-called economists and think-tank wonks sing the success of the growing Nigerian economy, the truth is quite the opposite. It is estimated that 40 million of Nigeria’s total population of 170 million are unemployed–approximately 24%. According to official statistics, unemployment for Nigerians ages 16 to 24 is recorded at 38%, with the World Bank figures as high as 80% for Nigeria’s young. Now consider that approximately 110 million of Nigeria’s population is under the age of 25, and according to a 2012 poverty survey, as of 2010, almost 100 million Nigerians live on less than a dollar a day.
What most so-called experts in the West and Nigerian elites have so far failed to understand, is that the eminent explosion caused by the lack of a future for Nigeria’s youth will be more deadly than Boko Haram.
THE NEW YORK CITY BASED CENTER FOR MEDIA & PEACE INITIATIVES (CMPI) has released its 29-page conference report, “Understanding Africa’s Waves of Democracy: Media’s Impact on Global Policy & Perceptions.” The conference was held at the African Union headquarters in New York on May 28, 2013, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Organization of African Unity-OAU. EIR’s Lawrence Freeman’s full presentation, “Africa’s Great Deficit: Challenges of infrastructure Decay, Peace and Economic Development” with slides of NAWAPA, Transaqua, and other great infrastructure projects for Africa, is prominently featured. In his remarks Mr. Freeman analyses the case of Nigeria to expose the false assumptions by World Bank and IMF.
Quoting from the second paragraph of the CMPI report’s Executive Summary: “Lawrence Freeman, a journalist, spoke about the need to create Hamiltonian banks, focused on facilitating lines of credit for industrial and infrastructural investment for real economic growth.” The link to the full conference report is: http://167.99.239.142/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Conference-Report-11.pdf
