By
Dear President,
Congratulations to you on becoming the 16th president of our beloved country. Although, I do not envy your position due to the circumstances and perpetual decline in our economy and standard of living since we attained independence in 1960. Wrong decisions have been made in the past that led us to this state of economic collapse. However, your effort to sail the Nigerian ship back to safety cannot be denied. As a concerned youth, I and my team came up with some researched solutions to alleviate the effect of inflation and corrupt practices in Nigeria. If our suggestive solutions could be considered along with the effort your cabinet is putting to make Nigeria great again, we believe our desired Nigeria is a birth away.
His Excellency, you inherited a nation with a dilapidated economic structure, a crumbling infrastructure and a corrupt political system. We constantly borrow money for consumption and to maintain the political strata. Where there is a problem also lies a solution. Now is the time to renew the hope of Nigerians as your campaign slogan professed. Before I delve into the subject matter, I would like to highlight 2 successful financial raids done by former presidents.
The highlighted supposedly successful financial raid was aiding criminals. Having said that, I am of the opinion that His Excellency should go after the previous administration and retrieve looted funds, jail and make an example for public office holders to know what will become of them when they also steal public funds. We need money to execute projects that will alleviate the economy and not constituency allowance for political kleptocrats.
Here are the researched solutions we opined that if you add them to your strategy to improve the state of the nation, Nigeria will be greater than it was before:
FOOD AND AGRICULTURE
UN research revealed that extreme poverty in developing countries is inextricably linked to the global food insecurity crisis.This is the order of the day in our beloved nation. Farmers don’t have the technical know-how, no access to agricultural machines, insecurity, poor road network, poor storage facilities, lack of fertilizers among others. Over the years our focus has been on crude oil that allowed the agricultural sector to deteriorate. It is disheartening to see Ukraine that is in the middle of a war with Russia sending grains to Nigeria. Like I said, our focus is to proffer solutions to these menaces. Considering the World bank conditions, we invest in local food production without ignoring export crops production. This is the new way to go.
Our Idea
We have a shortage of food and the available food is quite expensive. We have designed a food production project titled “FOOD LOCKER.”
FOOD LOCKER is a food farm designed to help the government solve the problem of food scarcity. It’s a 10 years plan that will project Nigeria as a supplier of food to west african countries and beyond. The first 2 years will see food production in circulation, and increase in export crops by 30%. His Excellency, it is important we start food production now, and in one year, we will not be in this situation of food scarcity. This project will create over 10,000 jobs, reduce criminal activities, and stimulate industrialization.
One of the challenges we faced during our research was how to deal with open grazing. Nigeria is not in the list of largest producers of meat neither are we in the top 10 largest producers of milk. None of the countries in the list do open grazing. Open grazing has to be stopped due to the high insecurity in the nation. Some evil perpetrators are hiding under the disguise of herdsmen. We have designed a workshop on milking and storing, grass production and hay harvest. The workshop will train herdsmen how to operate close grazing. This project will help the government increase revenue, open secured highways, and economic boost. This plan is available for free.
CENSUS
Nigeria is speculated to have over 200,000,000 population. However, there is no credible data of individuals. It’s difficult to get a student loan, to track persons, identify a suspect etc. This is because we don’t have a system that keeps and synchronizes data of the citizens.Immigration/Emmigration affects population growth. We need to strengthen our border patrols so that we can account for the number of people entering and going out of the country. When we have a data oriented society, access to the people and vice versa will be easy, and no hiding place for evil perpetrators.
Our Idea
We are currently designing an app called ‘NIGID.’ We are simply combining Census and biometrics. Functions of the app include Digital Identity card.
Digital National Identity Cards can be carried around on your phone. ID’s are necessary to know who, what and where of an individual. The digital ID can be scanned using NFC function or bar code. Another advantage is that it can be a means of identification at the point of entry to other countries. It cannot be duplicated. During the registration, fingerprints and facial capturing will be done. Hospitals, schools, houses, offices, factories etc will be registered.
This will give a detailed account of both legal and illegal businesses. We will know the number of dependent, working class and old people within the country. For the backend, we can easily search people using their NIN, Fingerprints and Facial recognition. Bank accounts will be linked to individuals making it easy to get loans, mortgages, houses and also help the government to know the number of tax evasion, identify fraudulent transactions among others. It will be easy to track the financial earnings of individuals, including politicians. In the plan, we made use of the available resources and workforce to achieve this goal at little or no additional expenses.The plan is available for free.
CASH TRANSACTION
Civil servants and public servants are the major players in the case of bribery and embezzlement of public funds. Gone are supposed to be the days of cash payment at government offices.If you find yourself in the ministry wanting to get a document, filing for an approval, a contract etc. this is when you’ll see the true meaning of bribery. Paying fines, dues and charges should be made easy. The world is going digital, cash payment creates an avenue for embezzlement. The system makes it difficult for the payers too.
Our Idea
We have designed a PAYMENT KIOSK that can be placed at any office space. It’s a self service machine that take cash and also card payment. The payment goes straight into the government account and receipt of payment is issued by the machine. This will eliminate cash transaction. The software is a easy design that can be operate easily. Details of this project is available for free.
TRANSPORTATION
Adequate transportation system makes it easy to move both goods and services. His Excellency, poor transportation system is contributing to the hike in price of goods and transport fares. Your administration needs to repair and construct new roads and railway lines. Water transportation is also a means the government needs to look at. Goods can be transported on water within the country.
On the issue of transportation, we can only urge Your Excellency to take the issue of transportation seriously. This calls for urgent intervention. The repair of old railways is necessary at this time and the use of advanced trains is equally important. This will create over 5000 jobs. If well branded, the country will attract a lot of investors. In developed countries, trains are a major transportation system for both goods and humans. A functioning and secured Train service will reduce dependency on road transportation. However, the importance of good roads in decongesting urban areas and building rural ones cannot be overemphasized.
Easy, cheap and available means of transportation is paramount to nation building. Our transportation system needs proper branding for it to be taxable and safe to use. We are not to entrust our transportation legacy into the hands of some group of illiterate and violent people abusing the serenity of our environment . Let us take responsibility Sir. Lagos State needs a reform in its transportation system and taxation as the largest black city in the world. We need to make it secure and attractive to tourists from every part of the world. However, we have a 3 year plan to reduce traffic in Lagos by 90%. We are open to sharing our ideas to the right entity.
ENTREPRENEUR
The more the citizens can create wealth, the faster the economic growth. Unfortunately, many of our industries are not producing enough jobs for the population that we have. For many people, entrepreneurship is arguably the only way to create wealth. One of the ways to reduce inflation is to invest in local businesses/entrepreneurship programs. Nigerians are the smartest people in the world. We have the ability to bring something out of nothing. There have been different entrepreneurship programs organized by different administrations. Each administration came up with different figures they spent annually and we cannot but ask who are the beneficiaries and in which economy did they invest such funds? It was obvious that the process was fraudulent from the start. Accountability cannot be achieved when there is no transparency. We developed StartupNOW, a business plan based on transparency accountability.
StartupNOW is an entrepreneurship project designed to build small scale and start-up –
businesses in Nigeria. With a total investment volume of 30B Naira, we projected to establish 20,000 businesses and over 1M employees in 10 years. Every business will be registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission, Taxable and insured. For the lawyers that are unemployed and have resulted into skit making and what have you; the likes of Timi Agbaje, Esheza, Layi and co. This is an opportunity to practice, get paid while you help in building domestic products
.
INDUSTRIALIZATION
We are not an industrialized nation because our leaders chose not to industrialize. Over the years, the focus of the government has always been crude oil because of the inadmissible fraud in the process. Over the years, we could not as a nation build a refinery, repair the old ones, and manage the marketing structure of the said crude oil. It is unimaginable to think we have crude oil and yet Dangote Refinery announced it will import crude oil from the United States. I can’t help but to doubt if the same crude oil we have in Nigeria is the same as the crude oil Dubai has.
Federal government announced the partial payment of the Nation’s gas debt. This is complicated for me to comprehend. If our focus, CRUDE OIL, cannot be properly processed, explored and maximized, then, we need to refocus. His Excellency, we have abundance of natural resources in Nigeria from oil to solid minerals, agriculture to tourism. Let us explore them and industrialize. Proper platform and prior preparation prevent poor performance. The platform for industrialization includes:
POWER
Stable electricity is possible in Nigeria. One of my favorite quotes of Nelson Mandela says “It’s always impossible until it’s done.” Abia state just launched their power project plant generating 188 MW of electricity for $800M and took 20yrs of construction. This is progress for Abia state. However, we need other states to emulate the act and not the financial implication, if you know what I mean.
Our Idea
In making the decision of what power production plant to build, we need to consider the cost, environmental impact, performance and reliability. After so much consideration and looking at the state of the economy, we believe that a NATURAL GAS POWER PLANT is the solution to our epileptic power supply. There are three different types of technology that are utilized in these processes. These are; Combined Cycle, Combustion Turbine, and Internal Combustion Engines. Each different technology has a substantial impact on the total construction cost but the most effective is Combined Cycle.
COMBINED CYCLE POWER PLANT
This is when the plant has at least one combustion turbine and one steam turbine. We have reviewed the cost of construction and time frame to build 200 MW. Average state in Nigeria needs 200 MW of electricity for homes, offices, shops and street lights. Cost of construction is between $700-900 per KW. Total Cost of Construction is between $140M-180M.
Operation and Maintenance cost is between $25-32 per KW. Another interesting thing is that, It costs more to construct a lower generation plant. Therefore, the bigger the plant, the lower the construction cost. Construction time frame is between 12-18 months.
The above analysis will guarantee stable electricity in each State in Nigeria if they implement it. The Federal Government can divert the power being distributed by PHCN to industries and factories, and other Countries that need it, and probably help the states in case of emergency power plant collapse.
HOUSING
Different governments with different housing schemes and none have reduced the number of homeless people, nor had it helped average civil servants in retrospect. Selling a government house for 8-10 million Naira isn’t for civil and public servants. In a country where the minimum wage is 30,000 naira, and over 33% unemployment rate. How do we solve the housing problem among the poor? Our research shows that there are 5 categories of people that need housing intervention more. They are
All the categories mentioned above are citizens of our beloved country and constitute the largest population in need of subsidized housing. We get them a roof over their head while we help them get/create a job to empower them financially. We have a business plan for a housing scheme to meet the housing needs of a common man not leaving aside the high income earners. The project is called FROM SHELTER TO A HOME.
FROM SHELTER TO A HOME is a housing scheme that focuses on every category of Nigerians in need of shelter. It is a business strategy that focuses not just on purchase but rents, mortgage and outright purchase. His Excellency, the plan is free in case you would like to evaluate it.
SECURITY
Insecurity and insurgency is one big challenge we are facing as a country. We failed to combat it as a nation when the menace started. We all know it has political backings that is why the government has failed to conquer them. However, in your quest to build Nigeria, terrorism should not be downplayed as its effect is ruining not just the economy but also the reputation of the country. Past government negotiated with terrorists and the amnesty program was done. What changed?
Death toll rises everyday: both civilians and soldiers are dying. Kidnapping and killings and ransoms yet no one is saying anything and no action to combat and bring the culprits to book. Only in Nigeria that killers are celebrated and funded in the name of amnesty.
His Excellency, we need security architecture. You need to;
TAX HUNTING
One of the ways to reduce inflation is to reduce expenditure and increase income. In our current situation, to have leaders that could not compromise their bonuses rather padding the budget to earn more at the expense of the broken economy. It was insensible that the presidency would be thinking of a presidential yacht and salary increment for the president at a time like this. Nonetheless, we think the leadership needs to set the pace for followers to emulate. Tax hunting is necessary but it has to start with the members of the parliament.
We need to cut down on our unnecessary spending. We cannot borrow to sponsor politicians’ lifestyle and for political consumption. We have people working online, social media influencers, and some small businesses that are not registered but are all making money tax free. They can easily be tracked and some will pay willingly if only the government will be accountable for their actions and check corruption and embezzlement of public funds..
GROSS DOMESTIC INCOME
To be able to increase our domestic revenue, we need to reinvent some dead government parastatals.
In conclusion, the Policy of “Sell to Nigerians in Nigeria” should be revisited. Nigeria is a large market for a lot of international corporations. It is high time we made them establish their production factory in Nigeria should they intend to continue to sell to us. However, we need to provide a platform that will make things easy for them. Nation building cannot be done by the federal government alone. We need the support of the state governments too. We personally believe that our proposed idea will help the government fix the economic crisis and increase the standard of living of its citizens. The change we need begins with us. It takes a bad boy to become a bad father and a bad leader. As citizens, we need to sensitize each other. If each one could teach one, no one will be left untaught.
Yours faithfully
Biola Chris
Representative of The Concerned Youth.
