Desperate situations sometimes call for desperate measures. Should Nigeria take a leaf out of China's book and introduce internment and labour camps to boost industrial output?

Ayo Akinfe

[1] I recently found out that one of the key factors in China’s growing manufacturing prowess is the fact that it runs Gulag prisoner camps where hardened criminals are made to work in a productive manner, churning out industrial goods

[2] As terrible as they are, Gulags have played a vital role in history. In their hey day during the Stalin era, they housed about 100,000 people at every point in time and helped the Soviet Union achieve year-on-year gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 28% over about a 15 year period

[3] Now, in Nigeria, we have a chronic low productivity problem that requires radical action and we need to have a national debate about how to address this crisis. Our national budget is only about $30bn when it needs to be about $100bn and our GDP is a mere $450bn when it needs to be at least $1trn. Until we raise these two figures to the required level, we are simply whistling in the wind. Anything else is at best a Band Aid solution and at worst hot air

[4] With a population of 200m that is fast growing and us poised to become the third most populous nation in the world by 2050, unprecedented radical action is required. It is naive to think that organic growth will suffice. Nigeria needs something like 15% annual GDP growth between now and 2050 if we are to enjoy improved living standards. Take it or leave it but we need to have a debate on how to force the pace of development

[5] Just to put everything into perspective, the Johannesburg to Durban high speed rail link costs $30bn. An Abuja to Lagos high speed rail link that can get you between both cities in about two to three hours will cost the same, so we have to decide how to fund this. You cannot build a $30bn rail link when your national budget is a lousy $28.8bn

[6] Let us have this debate ladies and gentlemen. Should Nigeria operate prison labour camps for the following categories of hardened criminals in our society:

(i) Boko Haram fighters and other terrorists

(ii) Murderous cattle herdsmen

(iii) Kidnappers

(iv) Armed robbers

(v) Murderous bandits

(vi) Thugs who carry out political assassinations

(vii) Ritual killers

(viii) Cult members

(ix) Human traffickers

(x) Arms smugglers

[7] Basically, we will be recycling our garbage and putting it to productive use. Now ask yourself where Nigeria would be if we had such gulags that manufactured 20m solar panels a year. Would this not solve our power crisis?

[8] Today, China’s labour prisons known as Laogai camps are much more humane than what existed during the Mao and Stalin eras as human rights are respected, prisoners are well fed and skill levels are quite high, resulting in them producing consumer goods for export to Europe and the US. I would not be surprised if most of the Chinese food bought in Nigeria came from Laogai camps

[9] China’s way of addressing Islamic fundamentalism is to sentence violent jihadists to Laogai prison camps where they are put to productive use. Have you not noticed that extremists do not set off bombs in China and they have no religious clashes there?

[10] What we now need in Nigeria is to have a national debate about whether the end justifies the means. We simply cannot build a rail network, power plants, social housing, modern hospitals, provide education for 100m kids, lift about 50m people out of poverty, get rid of our numerous tags as the global capital for polio, poverty, out of school children, etc with our current GDP growth rate of 1.9% a year. It is utopian and naive to think that we will resolve these problems without taking unpopular decisions. Are we ready to swallow the bitter medicine?

Ayoakinfe@gmail.com