ABUJA – An Economist, Mr Okechukwu Unegbu, has advised President-elect Muhammadu Buhari to encourage Nigerian youths to venture into agriculture, to minimise further dependence on oil.
Unegbu gave the advice on Thursday in Abuja in an interview with the News agency of Nigeria (NAN).
“ The government should come up with some conscious policies to make sure that most of our young people get interested in agricultural practices.
“ The government should fashion out a course whereby we will get away from depending sorely on oil.
“ This country has so much in terms of solid minerals and agriculture but because oil was bringing in cheap money, we decided to close our eyes to those areas.’’
Unegbu noted that corruption was one of the major cause of most of the sufferings faced by Nigerians and should be the main focus of the new government.
On the issue of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s plan to prosecute anyone dealing in foreign currencies in the country, he said the decision was not good enough.
According to Unegbu, there are certain laws that cannot be easily implemented and the decision by the CBN is one of such laws.
He said that the only way such laws could be implemented was by guaranteeing that the economy operated in a corrupt-free manner.
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The economist further advised that the new administration should appoint leaders not just on political basis but on capabilities.
He said that political appointments were major causes of many problems in most government organisations in the country.
“ We can see some obvious changes already in the economy such as the rise in the stock market and the naira rising against the dollar.
“ These are short term gains which were brought as a result of the elections because the president elect has vowed to tackle corruption in the country.
“ So it is important to appoint efficient leaders that will take the country’s economy to the next level,’’ he said. (NAN)
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