As Candidates Unveil Economic Agenda at Presidential Town Hall Series

It was a golden opportunity for the presidential candidates of the frontline political parties to burnish their credentials last week at the first in the series of town hall meetings, organised by ARISE NEWS Channel in Abuja. Festus Akanbi captures the highlights of their economic agenda as campaigns for the 2023 elections gather momentum

As the election days draw nearer, the leading contenders to the position of president of Nigeria seemed to realise that their messages to the electorate have to be measured and targeted in line with the current political and economic realities in the country.

Last week, some of these politicians were able to take advantage of the opportunity provided by the first townhall meeting, organised by ARISE NEWS Channel, where four of the frontline presidential candidates in the 2023 general election presented their programmes with which they seek to win voters support at the polls. 

Present at the meeting, were a former governor of Kano State and presidential candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Rabiu Kwankwaso; a former governor of Anambra State and presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Mr. Peter Obi; the Governor of Delta State and vice-presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ifeanyi Okowa, who stood in for his principal, Atiku Abubakar, and the presidential candidate of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), Mr. Kola Abiola. It was a programme where the flagbearer of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Senator Bola Tinubu was conspicuously absent.

Kwankwaso: We will Stop Oil Theft

The NNPP candidate talked about issues ranging from the war against corruption, the stoppage of the controversial fuel subsidy programme, the war against corruption and the need to focus squarely on agriculture.

According to Kwankwaso, “It is very critical to us that we work on how to stop stealing of oil and other assets owned by the nation. On the issue of subsidy, we are aware that there is a lot of corruption in the field and the first area of attack on subsidy is the issue of corruption. Subsidy overall doesn’t do any good to anybody but at the same time, we are concerned with the welfare of Nigerians.”

Promising to draw inspiration from his experience as a former Kano State Governor, he boasted that he never borrowed in the eight years that he governed the state and that he left so much money amounting to over $43 million in the account of electricity generation. 

He said: “We inherited a budget, which recurrent was 70 per cent, capital 30 per cent but by the time I was going in 2015, we reversed that. I believe that in this country, we have enough money, enough resources and all we need is leadership that will ensure that every kobo goes into the right place.”

He assured Nigerians that his government if voted into power would not be vulnerable to any moneybag, saying, “Our party is not based on the leadership of the moneybags. Everybody knows that we have an ideology and beliefs on governance. We have done it before and by the grace of God, if we have the opportunity, we will do it even better.”

 Obi: We Will Use Resources Efficiently

 Obi who drew a link between poverty and insecurity, expressed disappointment over the level of poverty in the country, especially, in northern Nigeria, where he said leaders had failed to leverage the huge arable lands in the region to create employment.

“Today, in Nigeria, you have 35 per cent unemployment with our youths. With your youths, who are in productive age, you have 60 per cent of youths unemployed. You can’t have that, and won’t have a crisis. That’s where the guns are domiciled. 

“So, you replace that with the job, you replace it with employment, and you invest in your micro small businesses, where these youths are domiciled by supporting them, pulling them out of poverty.

Obi, who earlier alleged that people in government were involved in oil theft, said his government would remove subsidy to develop other critical sectors of the economy.

“The quantity of consumption is unacceptable and you can compare with countries like Pakistan with about 215,000,000 to 220,000,000; they have more roads than we have and they have more vehicles than we have but their consumption is below ours. That shows that something is wrong. It’s the criminality that we need to deal with immediately. 

“What will I do? We will remove the subsidy. Use the resources efficiently, set up refineries and channel the rest of the resources to other critical sectors,” he said.

Atiku/Okowa: We Shall Improve Export Economy

Although the presidential candidate of the PDP, Atiku, was absent, he was ably represented by his deputy, who is also the current Governor of Delta State, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa.

On the economy, Okowa said the Atiku/Okowa presidency would be on top of the Nigerian situation like the Obasanjo/Atiku combination from 1999 to 2007.

 “From 1999 to 2007, we knew where President Obasanjo and Vice President Atiku, met the country and where they left it. Because of them, we were able to pay back a lot of our debt and we had debt forgiveness. “In Delta State, we used to have agitations in oil-producing communities. But now, we have partnered with these communities to create jobs, create a new class of entrepreneurs and show people that we care about development. 

“The right path is to use government resources to develop entrepreneurs, make people’s lives easier, and grow the economy so that people will live in better conditions,” he said.

Cautioning against the narratives of claiming to save money instead of using it directly, because money was losing value, Okowa gave instances of how he developed the Delta State economy as well as the

healthcare system in the state, explaining that the Atiku/Okowa presidency would do the same if allowed to lead the country. He further advocated the use of technology in intelligence gathering to track criminals, saying there should be training for the security officials to attain their maximum efforts.

He described subsidy as a scam, explaining that it was impossible for Nigeria to consume 60 million barrels of fuel, let alone 90 barrels. To address the scam, he called for the quick completion of the Dangote Refinery in Lagos and the introduction of the operations of modular refineries in the country. He equally advocated a production economy as against a consumption economy, explaining that it was the only way to tackle the effect of the dollar on the naira, stressing that it was alarming that the official dollar rate would be N430, whereas the parallel market rate would be above N800.“An Atiku/Okowa the presidency will improve the export economy and less on import,” he said. 

Speaking on power, he thinks that where we are today is not good enough. “The laws have tended to hold us back. The fact is, we need to ensure that the private sector is heavily involved, from generation to distribution to transmission,” he stated.

Abiola: Subsidy will Move from Consumption to Mortgages 

 Abiola said if he is elected, his government would stop subsidising consumption but added that his government would rather subsidise mortgages, even as he condemned the fixed exchange rate that was twice the rate of the parallel market.

“Forex is a big problem. You can have the biggest foreign exchange in Nigeria, which is the oil and could go up and down from time to time. Like during COVID-19, it was at its lowest but your exchange rate remained fixed.

Raising the hope of more jobs for the people, Abiola said the PRP was not here to share billions with people but to serve Nigerians by creating jobs and giving a level playing field to help create those jobs.

He pointed out that if the security problem in the country was not solved,  nothing would work in Nigeria and nothing would give investors the confidence to invest in Nigeria.

Abiola noted: “We’re going to create that environment. We are here to correct the falls from the old parties from the old generation to try to do differently for you.”

Abiola, who observed that Nigeria’s economic challenge could best be realigned by shifting focus on internal factors instead of external ones, suggested that the country would have to increase its revenue base “by making sure that we stop all theft” and harness the potential of the informal sector.”

“Presently, we have an informal sector that is about 62 per cent of the formal and if we can get that sector into our economy, it will make a huge difference in our revenue base.”

To realise the objective, the presidential candidate emphasised the need for politicians to start by making a commitment to the people through the establishment of good governance, adding that the government of the day have to earn the trust of this sector, which has existed over the years on their own.

On the issue of power, he said his administration would look at the potential of each region with the intent of coming up with a solution for the energy mix, explaining that areas with hydro potential and capabilities would be encouraged to develop along that line, while areas with solar and renewable energy would also be supported.