Buhari’s plan to lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty, a mirage if…’
Success Nwogu
The leader of the Nigerian Red Card Movement, Dr. Abdulmumin Yinka Ajia, has said that the proposal by President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration to lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in ten years, will be a mirage if Nigerians would not discard their alleged mutual distrust of one another and learn to work together towards a common and a collective goal.
Ajia, in an interview with Saturday Times, on Friday, said Nigerians must collborate, unite and work together to address insecurity, seccession threats, kidnapping, banditary, herders’/farmers clashes, dwindlling economy and other developmental challenges confronting the nation.
He lamented that Nigerians currently faced food insecurity, poor electricity supply, inflation, fall of the naira and other socio-economic and industrial challenges.
He said, “From having constant electricity, water supply, good schools, cheap and affordable food, and good medical care in the 70s and early 80s for men and women of my generation, the reverse is the case in today’s Nigeria.
“The greater irony is that Nigeria has birthed two generations that were born and are living through a Nigeria that never worked for them. These two generations, precisely, the millennials and Generation Z have been served the short end of the stick by the Nigerian state. We should all work to avert the same fate falling on the Alpha generation. And yet, there is hope that if we work hard at it, we can reverse the tide and build a Nigeria that works for all.
“We can engender a nation of consequence, a place where positive action is rewarded and negative, harmful actions are vehemently sanctioned and punished. The Nigerian people have had enough of maladministration and deepening poverty. In recent time, we have faced and continue to face, an unprecedented level of insecurity but we cannot give into fear, we must come together to defeat all the non – state actors and win the future for ourselves and our children.”
He added, “It should concern each and every one of us that the generation of children born since 2010 (the Alpha generation) have already started witnessing the daily struggles of life in Nigeria. Yet, between my generation – generation X, the millennial generation and Generation Z, we constitute the largest voting bloc in Nigeria. According to the most recent data on Statista, Nigerians aged 15 to 54 years constitute 49. 7 percent while Nigerians aged zero to 14 years constitute another 43.3 percent. The rest of the population share just seven percent.
“The question now is: How did we arrive at a point where the minority is lording it over the majority and mismanaging their affairs?
The answer is that we allowed it to happen to us. Because we did not realize the power in our collective hands. Going forward, I declare before the Nigerian people, that minority rule will not persist in Nigeria anymore.”
He urged the Federal Government to build ecosystems that will foster innovation, create jobs, and brings foreign direct investments.
He said it important to retrain unemployed workers to get jobs in new emerging industries as according to when families are working and ther children are in school learning, the future of the nation becomes brighter and better.
He canvassed for the digitisation of all government transactions, adding the government should pursuepaperwork reduction to foster continuous ease of doing business.
According to him, it is also important to ensure import substitution, reduce government participation in the oil and gas sector to regulatory only; and institute a regime of tax refunds to eligible individuals and households annually.
Ajia said, “FG should set the deadline for filing annual tax returns to June 30th of every year; eliminate oil subsidies; liberalize port operations and adopt global best practices.
“FG should invest 30 percent of the national budget on education and education related areas because investing in our teachers and students is investing in the job creators of tomorrow, today. There should also be free and compulsory Primary 1 to SSS3 education.
“Government should also create the Education Bank for the financing of post – secondary education; grant post – secondary institutions full autonomy while retaining statutory government regulatory oversight; promote STEM education and institute scholarship schemes for high achieving indigent students attending post – secondary institutions.”
He also said that there should be a new primary and post – primary education curriculum to meet the challenge of the 21st century.
He also called for political reformation, national census, encouragement of states to create local government administrations for every 100, 000 people.
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He added that each state should replicate security outfits like the Police, State Security Service, and Correctional Centres.
He said that the gendarmes will double as the state national guards that can be activated by state governments during times of emergency in liaison with the federal government.
Ajia said, “There should be the creation of an Elders Advisory Council to comprise foremost traditional rulers from each state of the federation and Federal Capital Territory. This list should include others with sterling reputable. This will help us to form a society where we govern with consensus not force.
“Work with the national assembly to amend the law as it relates to the FCT in order to create a stronger local administration in the Abuja Municipal Area Council and amend the law to remove unelected Federal ministers administering the federal capital territory.
“These policies are not exhaustive but are some of the clearest and most meaningful ways by which we can reposition Nigeria given the level we have sunk into. These are the policies that will stop the hemorrhaging of the Nigerian state and position us to gain a competitive edge in the 21st century.”
