Following the announcement of the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the winner of the 2023 presidential election, Nigerians have called on the President-elect to first address the issue of national unity and insecurity to reboot the economy.
The respondents who spoke in separate telephone interviews said without security it will be difficult to attract investor to invest in the Nigerian economy.
National President of Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN) Comrade Tommy Okon said the very first thing the incoming government should focus on is tackling insecurity so that people can go about their businesses freely.
He said it is only under a secure environment that investors can invest in the country and farmers will be able to go to their farms to produce food for the nation and for export.
“The other area I want the new government to focus on is the welfare of workers, especially the civil servants whose pay has remained static while inflation has kept rising,” Okon said.
“He should reinstate the payment of gratuity to retirees because it is sad to have someone serve his fatherland for over 30 years or more only to retire and be left at the mercy of the pensions commission.
There should be an amendment to the contributory pensions Act to accommodate the issue of gratuity.”
On the issue of fuel subsidy, the labour leader said the President-elect should remove the fuel subsidy because as a union, ASCSN don’t even believe there is subsidy. “It is a scam which the government pretends to be helping the masses, but in the real sense it is for a few.”
Also speaking, the National President of All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Arc. Kabir Ibrahim said the first two things the new government should do is to unite the nation and appoint competent hands even across party lines especially in the area of Agriculture.
“That is the only way this country can move forward. He has said he will restore hope, we are going to hold him to that,” Ibrahim said. .
He also supports the removal of fuel subsidy. “We should pay for petrol. It is only when our economy becomes stable and things begin to to work, then you can bring subsidy to incentivise certain operations that rely on that resource that you have in large quantities.”
Professor Simon Irtwange, National President of Yam Producers Association of Nigeria said the new government should focus on funding commodity associations just like the Anchor Borrowers programme but in a better refined way to give better results than what the country had with the anchor borrowers programme.
“We also want them to increase the number of commodities,” Irtwange said, noting that what happened under Buhari is a situation where the CBN just on their own selected the crops that they wanted without consulting the Ministry of Agriculture
“We expect better synergy between the CBN and the Ministry in terms of commodities that such an intervention can cover.”
Also reacting, President, National Palm Produce Association, Alphonsus Inyang said the incoming President should focus on making the nation secure from bandits so that farmers can go back to their farms. He also said the government should focus on developing commodities that Nigeria has a comparative advantage on.
He said that countries prosper developing commodities. “The new government should articulate the policy towards the development of key commodities that Nigeria has comparative advantage in order to promote them, he should focus on the tree crops which are perennial crops which we call trees of life, trees like oil palm, cocoa, cashew, coconut, cola nuts and so on, and make them national commodities.
“If all the money that was put into developing rice was put into developing these tree crops, by now we would have moved forward.”
On his part Professor Godwin Oyedokun, a university lecturer, said he believes in the ability of Tinubu to deliver on the economy.
According to him, “He has the ability to manage the economy and he also has a way of selecting the right team. I am sure because of the way the election went, he will do everything within his power to do well at least to prove to those who worked for his election that they made the right choice.”