The pan-Nigerian social welfare group Afenifere has called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to reassess his approach to addressing the country’s economic challenges.
The group expressed concern that his recent response during the Patriot Group’s visit to Aso Rock Villa did not align with public expectations.
In a statement released yesterday, signed by National Leader Chief Ayo Adebanjo and National Publicity Secretary Prince Justice Faloye, Afenifere criticized President Tinubu’s focus on economic reforms.
They argued that his emphasis on fiscal and monetary policies, which they view as poorly conceived and lacking coordination, should not take precedence over a comprehensive approach to restructuring.
Afenifere contended that restructuring is fundamental to economic recovery and addressing other complex issues in the nation. They urged the President to adopt a more holistic strategy, addressing both economic and political reforms simultaneously rather than sequentially.
The group highlighted that politics and economics are deeply intertwined, stating, “Politics organizes how we achieve objectives, while economics provides the means. Our current economic issues stem from political foundations designed for control and dependency, rather than prosperity.”
Afenifere also reviewed that the constitution should serve as a social contract between the government and its people.
They criticized the Nigerian government’s over-centralization and shifting of social responsibilities to market forces, arguing that both government and citizens are underperforming and need a restructuring to create a more effective social contract with balanced political and economic responsibilities.
“The 1929 Great Depression that prompted US President Roosevelt’s New Deal, British Keynesianism, was not half as bad and long as our ten year economic collapse, with Naira losing 1000% value, real wages more than halved, unemployment and inflation skyrocketing, and our Gross Domestic Production halved since 2014. Therefore a responsible Nigerian leadership is expected to come out with far reaching fundamental economic and political Restructuring, rather than mere reforms tackling our economy with indices and absolute figures,” it stated.
It further stated that restructuring and devolution of power to federating units, even at the minimum as contained in the President’s own Party El- Rufai Committee report, is necessary for peace, harmony and our continued corporate existence without which there can be no economic prosperity. It noted that devolution of power to enable polycentric political authorities and responsibilities is necessary for a polycentric bottoms up economy.
“For example, Agriculture, the largest contributor to our GDP, is threatened due to over-centralization of our police that hampers effective local policing. Also, our states are constitutionally wired to be economically dependent on federal allocations of crude oil proceeds, while our vast resources go to waste under states restricted by the constitution from exploiting their resources.
“Like Roosevelt’s New Deal massive public works programs to provide employment and necessary infrastructure, President Tinubu must institute an Emergency comprehensive infrastructural development programme involving building in 3 years at least 5000 kilometers of railway, (Lagos-Calabar, Ilorin-Yola and Sokoto-Maiduguri), massive low cost housing and solar energy panels, while simultaneously engaging on constitutional amendments towards devolution of power to empower federating units, traditional polities and local production, with a social contract with the unemployed masses to optimize and sustain the new economic infrastructure.
“The belief that we first need to resolve our economic problems is guided by neo-liberal economic perspectives of balancing budgets then throwing money at the future restructured federating units, with no social contract, left to free market devices. This is a wrong approach to believe the newly restructured entities will just need palliatives, instead of identifying and filling necessary infrastructural and constitutional gaps to not only resolve current issues but long term sustainability.
(allnews.ng)
Leave a Reply