The Guardian Online - http://www.ngrguardiannews.com Thursday, August 16, 2001 UNDP chief lists ills of globalisation, World Bank policies
By Ayo Adegbulugbe
THE world's two main financial institutions, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), have been accused of not being sufficiently democratised to accommodate the views and opinions of countries in formulating and implementing policies that will address their peculiar problems.
A speaker and chief, Economic Unit of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Dr. K. K. Kamaludeen, stated this in Lagos in an interview with The Guardian recently.
"Democracy is good, I have not seen any type of government that is better. It is representative and gives everybody a say but are global institutions like IMF and World Bank democratised enough?" he asked.
"It is not enough to democratise global men and institutions at national level, if we say we live in globalised world, the equality of all citizens, nations and the institutions they represent should be equally emphasised," Kamaludeen insisted.
He spoke at the Lagos State University (LASU) yearly Master of Business Administration (MBA) lecture entitled: "Globalisation and Telecommunication as Catalysts for Economic Development: Nigeria as a case study."
Globalisation, he observed, has not really benefited (Nigeria) because the country is yet to get what it takes to profitably participate in the phenomenon.
To him, Nigeria's economy is fast becoming Tokunbo economy because the borders have been flung open to all sorts of goods and services, many of which are not very useful to the people.
"If globalisation means that you should open your doors for all manners of goods to come in, then you should be able to produce quality goods for export. Goods that have global consumers.
"But the reverse is the case with Nigeria as our level of production is still largely crude and unable to compete with international standards."
Kamaludeen observed that Nigeria's participation in globalisation has triggered unemployment.
"Apart from oil, we are encouraged to produce goods which prices are very low in international market thereby putting us at a disadvantaged position.
"What Nigeria loses as a participant in globalisation is much more than what our gains are. Globalisation may be good if it enhances development and brings about growth and improves standard of living of the people. But how do we explain when in 1999, Nigeria contributed only 0.001 per cent into the world development. That is a negligible percentage," he declared.
He advised that Nigeria should not be a tool for multinationals but strive for economic inter-dependence.
In his contribution, Mr. I. K. Muo, assistant director, Corporate Development, ESUT Business School, said globalisation has become imperative, as any nation that cannot catch up with the fast-moving trend would be left behind.
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