The pan-Yoruba socio-cultural organisation, Afenifere, has urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to pursue debt relief from Nigeria’s creditors and cut the cost of governance during his tenure.
It also urged the President to strengthen security and introduce policies that would create jobs for the unemployed.
Afenifere explained in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Jare Ajayi, that the suggestions would help the Tinubu administration to navigate the current economic hardship and put Nigeria on a better footing for development.
The organisation noted that the fact that Nigeria spends about 97 per cent of its revenue on debt servicing showed that the debt burden would continue to limit its progress.
The statement reads: “The current economic quagmire facing Nigeria needs far-reaching and deep-rooted steps for it to be ameliorated. One of such steps is to seek debt relief from our major creditors.
“Another is to drastically reduce the size of government at all levels, and the third is to block areas of leakages of public resources, especially finance.
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“The fourth is to embark on policies or programmes that are capable of engaging millions of unemployed people – old and young – in the country.
“The fifth step is to ensure that security and safety of lives and properties become a permanent feature in the Nigeria firmament.
“Nigeria is the fourth most indebted country in the world with a $13 billion debt burden as of June 30, 2022, according to the United Nations International Development Association (IDA).
“Similarly, the country ranked fifth globally among countries with the highest incidence of organised crimes, as revealed by a former Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai.
“To prevent attendant possible social chaos, President Tinubu needs to embark on diplomatic shuttles to get debt forgiveness from our creditors. Doing so would certainly be Herculean in view of a similar benefit we enjoyed under former President Olusegun Obasanjo, circa 2005, but which we later mismanaged.
“But given the potential of Nigeria and the possibility of President Tinubu to convince everyone that his own administration is going to be different, it is possible that the creditors may listen to the plea.”
“For such a plea to succeed, however, there is an urgent need to drastically cut down on the emolument of public officials, especially political office holders, block the holes through which public funds leak and wage a serious war against corrupt officers – presently in or out of office.
“It is only by doing these things that those we approach for debt forgiveness would listen to us.”