President Tinubu should call a meeting with all the 36 state governors over the next 48 hours where they should agree on some drastic measures to combat Nigeria’s runaway inflation

Ayo Akinfe

[1] Hyper-inflation is tearing Nigeria to shreds and a 2022 KPMG report on Nigeria said among other things that unemployment is expected to hit 40%. It is time for drastic and Draconian action to slay the beast

[2] Just to put things into perspective, our population is growing at a rate of 3% per annum, so we need at least 5% economic growth annually just to maintain living standards. We are currently getting about 2% growth, meaning living standards are falling. If you ask me, Bola Tinubu has to think the unthinkable and do what no other mortal has done before if he wants to lift the 80m Nigerians out of poverty

[3] For me, President Tinubu needs to basically grow Nigeria’s GDP to about $2trn from its current $400bn over the next two years. He needs to create about 10m jobs annually and has to get something like 10% economic growth every year for at least the next five years

[4] Just look at the budgets of nations in the same socio-economic bracket as us: South Africa - $103bn, Algeria - $70bn, Egypt - $55bn, Brazil - $780bn, Mexico - $315bn, Saudi Arabia - $295bn, Indonesia - $155bn, Vietnam -$79bn, Malaysia - $60bn and Pakistan - $60bn. I am sure all these countries just laugh when they see how paltry Nigeria’s $30bn budget is. They must ask themselves if we have any brains in our heads at all

[5] Nigerian has the largest gross domestic product (GDP) in Africa but the government is not benefiting from that as over 90% of state revenue comes from the export of crude petroleum products. We have one of the lowest tax-to-GDP ratios in the world of 6%. Do you know that the average African tax-to-GDP ratio is 26%?

[6] Take it or leave but the only way forward is for the government to dramatically increase its tax intake. If we had full employment with income tax, corporation tax, value added tax, etc all flooding into the treasury that would be ideal but to create those jobs, we need to first of all invest

[7] Aliko Dangote once said he does not know of any economy that was developed by foreign investment. According to Dangote, it is always local investors that spearhead the growth of an economy. Now ask yourself who are the ones with capital to invest in Nigeria?

[8] I put it to you that about 80% of the domestic capital in Nigeria is in the hands of the evangelical churches and the general overseers. We simply need that money invested in infrastructure, job creation and wealth creation. A failure to do this will just lead to all of us perishing like fools

[9] Private investment also needs to be backed with an array of unpopular but highly needed taxes. Chief among these will be an Owambe or entertainment tax. We party so much, this would generate billions a year. Other taxes I would introduce would be inheritance tax, religious worship tax, luxury goods tax, special private jet tax, polygamy tax, chieftaincy title tax, annual durbar tax, foreign schools tax, overseas party tax, SUV tax and international health travel tax. I do not care if every Nigerian hates me for these but were I president, I would force them through because they are necessary to sort out our public finances. Sometimes, the end justifies the means

[10] No matter how you look at it, our president needs to summon two sets of wealthy Nigerians to Aso Rock and give them annual investment targets. One lot should the wealthy business people like Dangote, Otedola, Adenuga, Alakija, etc, while the other should be the general overseers like Oyedepo, Adeboye, Okotie, Suleiman, etc. I believe that between the two groups, they can raise $80bn of the $100bn required. Aggressive taxation can generate the rest