10 unpopular decisions I would take at the start of 2022 to stimulate the Nigerian economy were I in President Buhari’s shoes

Ayo Akinfe

[1] I would tell all the state governors that as from October 1, we plan to scrap the federal allocation regime. They thus have nine months to get their states self-reliant

[2] I would scrap government subsidies on all religious pilgrimages. If you want to go to Saudi Arabia or Israel, you are on your own

[3] I would scrap all government payments to traditional rulers. If any community wants a monarch, they must find ways to fund it themselves

[4] I will give the evangelical churches an annual investment target of $50bn. They are sitting on a Pentecostal Pot of Gold and must invest that money in infrastructure, job creation and manufacturing. If they do not, we will tax that money at an 80% rate and invest it as a government

[5] Muslim clergymen would be told they must match whatever investment the pentecostal movement comes up with. If the evangelicals invest $60bn in the Nigerian economy, I want to see $60bn worth of Islamic Finance invested in our economy too

[6] Our agricultural boards will be given production targets for cash and food crops like cocoa, rubber, palm oil, cashews, coconuts, groundnuts, ginger, shea nuts, kolanuts, bananas, pineapples, yam, cassava, millet, sorghum, gum arabic, papaya, coco yams, etc. In all these areas, we must become the world’s undisputed number one producer. At the moment, the only area where we are that dominant is in yam as we control 70% of world production

[7] I would refuse to import products from industrialised countries that refuse to invest at least $5bn a year in Nigeria. For too long, we have been a dumping ground for their finished products

[8] I would send a bill to the National Assembly to introduce laws making it compulsory for every state contract with a foreign company to carry a caveat that they open a production facility in Nigeria to produce the goods they are selling us

[9] I would also send a bill to the National Assembly on fair wages. This would link the pay of all politicians to a grade in the civil service and under it, no public servant will earn more than four times the minimum wage

[10] I will also send a value-added bill to the National Assembly under which it will be illegal to export raw and primary commodities. Everything we sell must have some value added to it