Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai has set an agenda for the next president of Nigeria: he must tackle the challenges that fuel subsidy and foreign exchange have posed to the country and its economy.
El-Rufai stated this yesterday in Abuja during a panel discussion at the launch of the World Bank Nigeria Development Update and Country Economic Memorandum as reported by Leadership newspaper.
The governor asserted that the chances of the next president getting a second term would be very slim, if not non-existent, if he takes the necessary but tough decisions that would propel the nation from one with potential to a developed economy.
The Kaduna State governor, whilst answering questions on the removal of fuel subsidy, said, “The next president of Nigeria must be willing to do just one term if necessary but reverse this trend.”
Leadership Friday also reports that the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government had earlier planned to remove fuel subsidy this year but shifted the implementation to mid-2023 after he has left office. However, El-Rufai noted that the state governments and the private sector have agreed that hard decisions must be taken.
“I think that Nigeria’s next president must be willing to take very difficult, immediate, and urgent decisions that will make the country go through maybe three to five years of pain, and reverse this trajectory. I am proud to be a member of the Obasanjo administration during that decade of growth. We were in that government and we knew what we had to do.
“We know what President Obasanjo had to do. The next president of Nigeria must be willing to do just one term if necessary but reverse this trend. The consensus is there. If 95 per cent of jobs are from the private sector, 90 per cent of GDP is from the private sector.
“The private sector agrees that these things must be done. The state governments have agreed that these things must be done. The two big elephants are fuel subsidy and the exchange rate and those at the receiving end of this are the private sectors and the sub nationals.
“We have agreed. What we need is a president willing to expend political capital and take risks to reverse the trajectory of this country on a permanent basis even if it costs him the election because the results may not begin to show until after three to five years.”
The Kaduna State governor expressed concern even if the right policies are put in place tomorrow, it will take time to turn things around “but the country will remove the word potential from Nigeria’s vocabulary and will finally be the country we deserve to be.”
In her address, the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, who was represented by the director general, Budget Office of the Federation, Ben Akabueze, said Nigeria’s growth prospects had improved, but that pre-crisis challenges threaten post-crisis recovery, highlighting the need to depart from business-as-usual policies.
Fiscal pressures have mounted due to lower-than-expected revenues and the rising cost of subsidy on the premium motor spirit, she said.
Regarding the oil sector, she said, “Oil production is expected to increase to 1.6 million barrels per day by the first quarter of 2023 as efforts intensify to improve oil production infrastructure and reduce theft. We currently project an average crude oil production of about 1.9 million barrels condensate inclusive by 2024. We expect to complete the rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt refinery before the end of 2023. We have also signed the memorandum of understanding with Daewoo Operation for $1.5 billion for the rehabilitation of the Kaduna and Warri refineries.
She further said the importation of petroleum products would significantly decline in 2023 as the Dangote refinery is expected to begin operation in the first quarter of 2023.
According to the finance minister, the expected improvement in oil production numbers are also attributable to the increase in collaboration between the government, security agencies, private security outfits, host communities and deployment of technology to curb the menace of crude oil theft.
