Professor Nimi Briggs
-By Victoria Opeyemi
Eminent Professor Nimi Briggs was a professor of medicine in the University of Port Harcourt and Pro Chancellor of Federal University, Lokoja and also Pro Chancellor of the Medical University in Bayelsa State. He was the 5th Vice Chancellor of the University of Port Harcourt.
Speaking recently through a webinar that was organised by the Emmanuel Egbogah Foundation, University of Port Harcourt in Rivers State. Professor Briggs said when he was growing up as a young man in Nigeria in the early 50s the country had a diversified economy and at that time oil was just being discovered from Oloibiri in Bayelsa. In his words, “oil was offering next to nothing in Nigeria.” The country’s economy was diversified based on agriculture, in all ramifications north, south, east and west throughout the country a lot of woodwork was done.
Nigeria’s budget was not in billions then. The budget was in millions yet the country did well, poverty and hunger were minimal. Health services functioned and they were all general hospitals. Private hospitals and health services were virtually unknown, same was the educational system, it functioned satisfactorily.
Professor Briggs added; “There were public schools mainly and most of us attended public schools throughout our life time, we had the best of education you can think about, then came banks also oil came with all its problems and we moved away completely from those things that made us great and divert attention to oil and the problems we have now arose.”
“It is not that oil in itself is bad after all there are countries that have made fortunes from oil. We did not use our money well. One of the things we ought to have done was to have used the huge money realized from oil to diversify the economy, we didn’t do that. We didn’t add value to the petroleum that we dug from our backyard; the country sold it out raw. Nigeria went abroad bought finished product into the country.”
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