THOMPSON AYODELE OP-ED: Free Markets Give Options To The Poor

Asserts the director of the Institute of Public Policy Analysis, a libertarian think tank based in Lagos, Nigeria: "A widely erroneous held view is that poverty is as a result of a market economy that thrives on, and in turn generates inequality and injustice. In this view, markets are seen as inimical to the interests of the poor who need in some way to be protected or insulated from them. Nevertheless, several evidences from China and India, which have reduced the number of poor people within the last decade, suggest that the only long term and durable solution to poverty lies in the well functioning of the market. Africa is not alien to the institution of free market. A study of African traditional system reveals that there were free markets, free trade and of course free enterprise before the advent of colonial institutions. However, shortly after independence many postcolonial African leaders imported a development pattern that favored central planning."

Mr Ayodele adds: "Private entrepreneurship is necessary for economic development. This is because it is the discovery of new resources, wants, knowledge and means of production to meet human wants. Central government entrepreneurship has rarely been very successful in development and has left many countries in Africa with a legacy of white elephant project and huge foreign debt. Politicians and civil servants lack knowledge and incentives to discover the right knowledge. Instead of meeting people’s demands and informing them of what is possible, they tend to employ their energies to finding opportunities to line their pockets. Profit chasing individuals, on the other hand, tend to do what market demands and adjust to evolving circumstances in the course of economic change."