NIGERIA'S quest to join the league of 20 industrialised nations by the year 2020 got a boost yesterday as the Federal Government unveiled a blueprint to attain this objective.

After about nine months of intensive work by over 1,000 experts, the Presidency yesterday unfolded the draft Vision 20:2020 document. The Vision 2020 blueprint, as the document is known, was presented to stakeholders from different spheres of the country for final vetting.

With a strong belief that Nigeria could make it, a Vice President of Accenture France and a client senior executive for the European Commission, Mr. Antoine Brugidou, has charged Nigeria to borrow from the experiences of France and vigorously implement the Vision 2020 document to win back the confidence of Nigerians in their nation.

Speaking with The Guardian at the presentation of the draft blueprint in Abuja, he asked the current administration to ensure quick results to enable successive governments to adopt the plan wholeheartedly.

A copy of the draft document obtained by The Guardian is anchored on two specific targets: Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of not less than $900 billion and national per capita income of not less than $4,000 per year by the year 2020.

The following critical priority areas were identified for immediate attention: Decentralisation of governance; sustainability; electoral reforms; land use/property reforms; public service reforms; national security; human capacity development and critical infrastructure (with particular emphasis on power and transportation).

From the draft blueprint, government aims to generate 60,000megawatts (mw) of electricity to make Nigeria truly among the league of the 20 great countries by focusing on renewable and sustainable energy sources.

By the plan, government projects that in 2019, Nigeria's per capita would reach $1,700 tripling the figure of 2005, while it projects that at current levels, Nigeria's population by 2020 would rise to over 200 million.

Addressing stakeholders in the economy at the validation workshop on Vision 2020 at the State House in Abuja, Vice President Goodluck Jonathan praised the experts who worked diligently to chart a path towards the realisation of Nigeria's development goal towards the year 2020.

He stressed that the document represented the articulation of the nation's collective aspirations.

Assuring that the plan, when approved by the Federal Executive Council and the National Assembly, would be implemented judiciously, he noted: " I cannot lose sight of the fact that given our national history, and in spite of our unflinching patriotism, many of our people are still understandably pessimistic and skeptical about our ability to attain our Vision 2020.

"Let me at this juncture state that a vision is not a prediction of the future. Rather, what we are saying through this blueprint we are reviewing today is that, given our immense and well-recognised potential, we are no longer content to be where we are today as a country and we are prepared to take the necessary steps to place us in our rightful place in the comity of developed countries."

Noting that though the year 2020 targets were realistic, he, however, pointed out that they could be achieved earlier than that.

He stressed: "We are targeting 2020, but it may come sooner or later. It is far better we define our national aspirations and articulate and implement the necessary steps to achieve them now, rather than continue to waddle in pessimism and skepticism, leaving us where we are or worse."

Minister of National Planning, Dr. Shamsudeen Usman, who unveiled the blueprint at the validation workshop, stressed that after the workshop, the plan would be presented to the National Economic Council on October 6 for approval and to the Federal Executive Council by October 14. The approved copy would be launched by the President on October 15. Subsequently, it would be put in the National Development Plans. The actual implementation of Vision 2020 and the fifth National Development Plan is scheduled to start on January 2, 2010.

Usman said emphatically: "By 2020, Nigeria will be one of the 20 largest economies in the world able to consolidate its leadership role in Africa and establish itself as a significant player in the global economic and political arena."

http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/news/article01/indexn2_html?pdate=250909&ptitle=Govt%20unveils%20Vision%202020%20%20blueprint

From the draft blueprint, government aims to generate 60,000megawatts (mw) of electricity to make Nigeria truly among the league of the 20 great countries by focusing on renewable and sustainable energy sources.

By the plan, government projects that in 2019, Nigeria's per capita would reach $1,700 tripling the figure of 2005, while it projects that at current levels, Nigeria's population by 2020 would rise to over 200 million.

Na joke 2020 be dis!

"200 Million folks"

We need to do something about population explosion. We cannot accommodate everybody on that land and produce food at the sametime.