Sekibo and other notable Nigerians like the
Presidential aspirant of Labour Party, Peter Obi, Pastor Ituah Ighodalo, Prof.
Oyelowo Oyewo, Dr. Victoria Ekhomu and Barrister
Sotonye Inyeinengi-Etomi, during the 2nd
Edition 2022 Forum, one-day International Colloquium organized by The Men’s
League of Christ Church Port Harcourt, tagged,
“What do Nigerians Want?”, extensively
brainstormed on the kind of leadership the country needs and how to rescue the
country from its current debacle.
Speaking on the topic, “The Economy Nigeria
Needs to Break Forth,” Sekibo stressed that of important to achieving the
transformation the country needs, there was urgent need to address insecurity,
which according to him, is the foundation of prosperity, as no nation can
achieve much where the is no peace.
Sekibo, represented by the Divisional Head,
Strategy & Business Solutions, Segun Akanji emphasized that for security
purposes, there must be an established functional and value adding identity
system in place.
“On a higher note, I think one of the
things that we need to achieve as a country is the issue of functional and
value adding identity management, which is still far away from us, although,
some people know that we have BVN, NIMC and a few other identity capture
systems but they have not been as functional and value adding, like the social
security number that most people in advanced economies carry,” he stated.
Sekibo further explained that to achieve a
prosperous economy, Nigeria needs to find ways and means by policies to build
dual circulation economy which thrives on three pillars.
According to him, we need to focus on
building dual circulation economy where we can expand domestic production and
demand by making sure that the masses are employed.
“We need to make our people are productive
and stop putting subsidy in unproductive zones. When you give subsidy to people
with inadequate or no income, they really cannot add value to the economy, and
money has a way of flowing away due to import of consumables from other
countries and because of this, a larger portion of every consumption or cash
given as subsidy gets out of the country,” said Sekibo.
The bank’s helmsman further explained that
to expand the domestic production, government must give the private sector
support to drive employment creation, technology, which is riding on innovation
and manufacturing must be in place and, the population which is an added
advantage must be well educated.
He highlighted the need to examine how the
country could add value to primary production for global export, emphasizing on
reduction of over dependence on foreign markets but rather increase local
production for export, whilst also increasing demand on local products.
Sekibo further affirmed that if states
could function as proper federating units and take the lead of the competitive
comparative advantages therein, wealth creation would be achieved that would
bring about the desired changes.
The former governor of Anambra state and
presidential aspirant, Peter Obi lamented the huge indebtedness of the country,
which he blamed on unproductivity due to the inimical situation of high
unemployment rate resulting to over 80million Nigerians being jobless.
He blamed the cumulative failure of
government over the years on insecurity, failure to migrate from sharing
formula to production formula and lack of will to transform the power sector
and the need to focus and support the micro, small and medium enterprises
(MSMEs).
In his paper titled, “The President Nigeria
Needs”, Pastor Ighodalo harped on the need for leadership change.
He argued that what the country needs now
are leaders who have vision and are ready to sacrifice for the common man,
stating, “things must be done differently”.
Ighodalo believed leadership remains the
bane of Nigeria’s transformation, stressing that once we get good leadership
other things will fall in place.
Prof. Oyewo while speaking on the topic
“Restructuring and True Federalism” was of the view that some responsibilities
need to be decentralized like the police, power provision and railway.
Once there is decentralization, he believes
that the state will have less dependence on the centre, “rebalancing of the
constitution in terms of power and security. So, there is reason for state
police.”
Oyewo maintained that regions are closer to
the people, thus it will boost security, the economy and sense of belonging by
the populace.
He also identified data and planning as key
factors in ensuring that programmes are tailored towards the people
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