Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has said that the Federal Government would soon commence work on the Lagos-Kano and Lagos-Calabar rail routes to boost economic activities in the country.
Osinbajo, in his keynote address at the “First National Forum on Economy” organised by Vintage Press Limited, publishers of The Nation Newspapers, on Thursday, also disclosed that the Federal Government would also begin work on 31 major road projects across the country to stimulate the nation’s economic revival.
The state of the nation’s economy had been of immense concern to every Nigerian, as economic activities had been at their lowest ebb following the downward trend in the global oil market prices and the fall in value of the Naira.
Also, the poor state of infrastructure, especially the epileptic power supply and fuel crisis, has also left Nigerians groaning and praying for President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration to come up with a Midas touch to turn things around.
Professor Osinbajo, who stressed the commitment of the Buhari administration to give a quantum leap to infrastructural development, however, commended the initiative of Lagos and Kebbi states in collaborating to ensure self-sufficiency in rice production in the country, saying such collaboration between states would engender economic growth.
Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, the Lagos State governor, in his address, said that for Nigeria’s economy to improve, its leaders must have the courage to take difficult and tough decisions.
Ambode who stressed that the nation’s economy had been at a critical threshold, said it would require the leaders to think outside the box and come up with creative innovations that would trigger economic growth nationwide.
He lamented that previous governments at the federal level failed to take advantage of the oil boom to grow other sectors of the economy, saying that the fall in price in the international oil market coupled with many years of corruption has made the economy vulnerable.
“It is very unfortunate that we wasted the golden opportunity to deploy the trillions of dollars earned from our oil exports to develop the critical sectors of the economy including power, agriculture, industries, solid minerals, transportation and infrastructure.
“No doubt, if we had done the right thing as some other oil producing countries did, keeping in mind that crude oil is a finite resource, we would not be experiencing the devastating effect of oil price crash on the scale we are experiencing it now.
“We are now being forced to do, with pains, what we should have done with ease years ago. The task of charting a new direction for the economy is not going to be a tea party. Various policy options must be identified and assessed on the basis of our current situation and needs,” he stated.
Ambode said that moving our economy forward requires thinking outside the box and doing things differently.
“We need creativity, innovation and the courage to take difficult and tough decisions. The leadership of the country at national and state levels must have the courage to take tough decisions and make sacrifices in the near term which will, in the long run, make our economy stronger and sustainable and, consequently result in prosperity across all regions of Nigeria,” he said.
To improve the economy, Ambode said the country must begin to explore and expand the opportunities that abound in inter-state relations and strengthen regional competitiveness by maximising economies of scale, regional optimisation of assets and endowments and mitigation of afflictions and natural disasters.
He listed other viable areas for inter-state collaboration to include transport infrastructure to facilitate market linkages, education, market development, human capacity building, security and intelligence sharing, saying that it was high time to move away from oil-driven economy.
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