INTRODUCTION
Successive administrations in Nigeria, since independence, have designed and conceptualized various development programs to make the country one of the developed countries of the world. The development programs in the country include First National Development plan (1962-1968), Second National Development plan (1970-1974), Third National Development plan (1975-1980), and other policy statements, such as education for all, health for all, and housing for all by the year 2000, vision 2010,
National Economic Empowerment, and Development strategy (NEEDS), and the seven point agenda of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. However, all of these efforts have not yielded the desired development for the country. Hence the shifting of the period within which the country is expected to achieve substantial development from 2010 to 2020, with the proposal of a new development program tagged “Vision 202020”. The Vision 202020 program is intended to achieve a level of development that would make Nigeria one the twenty most developed nations of the world. This paper will argue that to be one of the twenty largest economies in the world, Nigeria must make human capital development its priority.
Development scholars have asserted that to achieve economic growth and development in any nation, human capital development must be made the focal point of the development program (Essien, 2000; Ovenseri-Ogbomo, 2006; Becker, 1993; Thirlwall, 1986). Some even stated, categorically, that any development program or effort that does not create the enabling environment for human capital development will not see the light of the day. This is because it is the human capital that would coordinate other resources to achieve development in the long-run. As the RIVSEEDS (2004) draft document puts it, “the most important factor in social and economic development is the human resources (otherwise called human capital) for people constitute the ultimate ends of development, as well as the primary agents of development”.
The point being emphasized here is that there is a strong relationship between human capital development and real socioeconomic development anywhere in the world. Consequently, this article seeks to examine the centrality of human capital development to the achievement of Nigeria’s Vision 202020. The paper is, therefore, structured as follows: first, it makes a conceptual clarification on the term human capital development and that of Vision 202020, then it presents a theoretical perspective on human capital development, followed by an examination of the state and human capital development in Nigeria; the state of Nigeria’s human capital, and finally, it presents what should be done in area of human capital development to achieve Vision 202020 and makes concluding remarks.
Successive administrations in Nigeria, since independence, have designed and conceptualized various development programs to make the country one of the developed countries of the world. The development programs in the country include First National Development plan (1962-1968), Second National Development plan (1970-1974), Third National Development plan (1975-1980), and other policy statements, such as education for all, health for all, and housing for all by the year 2000, vision 2010,
National Economic Empowerment, and Development strategy (NEEDS), and the seven point agenda of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. However, all of these efforts have not yielded the desired development for the country. Hence the shifting of the period within which the country is expected to achieve substantial development from 2010 to 2020, with the proposal of a new development program tagged “Vision 202020”. The Vision 202020 program is intended to achieve a level of development that would make Nigeria one the twenty most developed nations of the world. This paper will argue that to be one of the twenty largest economies in the world, Nigeria must make human capital development its priority.
Development scholars have asserted that to achieve economic growth and development in any nation, human capital development must be made the focal point of the development program (Essien, 2000; Ovenseri-Ogbomo, 2006; Becker, 1993; Thirlwall, 1986). Some even stated, categorically, that any development program or effort that does not create the enabling environment for human capital development will not see the light of the day. This is because it is the human capital that would coordinate other resources to achieve development in the long-run. As the RIVSEEDS (2004) draft document puts it, “the most important factor in social and economic development is the human resources (otherwise called human capital) for people constitute the ultimate ends of development, as well as the primary agents of development”.
The point being emphasized here is that there is a strong relationship between human capital development and real socioeconomic development anywhere in the world. Consequently, this article seeks to examine the centrality of human capital development to the achievement of Nigeria’s Vision 202020. The paper is, therefore, structured as follows: first, it makes a conceptual clarification on the term human capital development and that of Vision 202020, then it presents a theoretical perspective on human capital development, followed by an examination of the state and human capital development in Nigeria; the state of Nigeria’s human capital, and finally, it presents what should be done in area of human capital development to achieve Vision 202020 and makes concluding remarks.
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