Historian wants Nigeria to learn from China’s experience

Prof. Terhember Wuam, a professor of economic history at Kaduna State University, has advised the Nigerian government to learn from China’s experience in the quest for national development.

Wuam made the call in a keynote address at an international conference with the theme “Understanding China’s Transformation: Reform, Opening Up, and Capitalism in China 1978: Lessons for Nigeria” in Abuja on Wednesday.

The conference was organised by the Association for United Asian Scholars, Nigeria (AUASN), in partnership with the Department of History and International Relations, Veritas University, Abuja.

Wuam, who is also the President of AUASN, said that the vital lesson for Nigeria to learn from China’s experience was for leaders and people to dedicate themselves to the task of seeking modernization.

He explained that China had a tumultuous 20th century, followed by a challenging 19th century, when the industrialised west and Japan left it behind as dynastic China held onto tradition and its feudal era.

He added that by the close of the 19th century, agents of change in China were already pushing for reforms and seeking new ideas that would modernise the kingdom.

He recommended the study of China’s history and their fervorous quest to industrialise and become a modern, prosperous nation.

“For China, the economic awakening of the past five decades beginning in 1978 has been astonishing, and Deng Xiaoping, who became the paramount leader of China in 1976, was the man behind it.

“He was highly effective in guiding China’s economic rise and equally reformed the political system enough to allow for the changes he envisaged to become a reality within his lifetime and beyond.

“Xiaoping promoted a vision of an economically prosperous China with statements like “To get rich is 26 glorious" and that “For China to get rich, a few people will have to become rich first.”

“He did this alongside working for harmony and security in the country and avoiding the turbulence that was characteristic of the Mao Tsetung era, noting that “prosperity is only possible with stability.”

“He was a firm believer in promoting talented people and believed that a system of capitalism with Chinese characteristics would enable talented people to come to the fore and for the nation to fully utilise their talents,” he said.

According to him, the role of leadership and the people is also very crucial in designing and implementing development reforms.

He said that the leadership commitments of Xiaoping should be studied by all political leaders in Africa and Nigeria.

He explained that Xiaoping’s impact as a committed leader was working in the background with a strong and steady hand, driving change, while eschewing the cult of leadership.

“In this instance, Xiaoping merely pointed the way that was desirable, and the Chinese people were able to execute and develop enterprises themselves.

“It is important to observe that the Chinese, in making possible their spectacular transformation, exploited themselves and worked themselves to the bone to get out of poverty.

“They harnessed their demographic dividend at a point when China was still a very young country and was able to productively harness the energies of its youthful population.

“There was no begging bowl to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. China was not a recipient of development partners’ aid, yet they did it,” he said.

Wuam said that China valued knowledge and partnership with the rest of the world including the IMF and the World Bank.

He added that the country, on its own, reviewed and even went beyond some of the prescriptions of the Bretton Woods institutions while rejecting others that were not practicable in the context of China’s peculiar characteristics of development.

“Significantly, reform in China broke the “iron rice bowl” and weaned the people from the 27 governments and its subsidies, thereby freeing up resources for the state to provide education, security, social welfare, and other essential services.

“These have continued to oil the wheels of the reform process, still ongoing, 45 years after it was first launched.

“The dividends of which have been the astounding rise of China and her industrious people in the last half century,” he added.

After his presentation, Wuam conferred a Special Membership of AUASN on the Vice-Chancellor of Veritas University. Prof. Hyacinth Ichoku.

Ichoku who thanked the association for the honour and promise to contribute to the intellectual discourse on China’s exemplary development trajectory.