By Kelechi Mgboji
Assistant Business Editor
As crude oil prices dived below $40 a barrel for the first time since the financial crisis of 2008, the federal government has been told to embark on radical economic revolution to shield the economy from grave impact of the oil slump.
Financial experts say that the country and its citizens being an oil dependent economy will suffer more devastating economic hardship unless every state of the federation is made to explore its comparative and competitive advantage to augment federal allocation.
In an exclusive interview with TheNiche, Obiorah Osokolo, a financial services expert from SIAO, a leading indigenous accounting and audit firm based in Lagos, said for the economy to boom states must explore available opportunities and do more than they are doing currently, and urged the government to swiftly revive the somber state of the economy.
Obiora said states were instrumental to speeding up the momentum of the economy, which he said is curtailed by the fact that funds to drive economic activities are not being pumped in.
“Opportunities are so many in the Nigerian economy for states to look at the way of solving problems for their people and creating the necessary avenues for increasing their internally generated revenue (IGR).
“Nigeria has found itself in a position where every state has to look at both comparative and competitive advantages and make the most out of these two situations.
“You cannot have well educated people and not deploy them to under-provided states.
“If you do a composite study and determine what the situation in Nigeria is and what relevant expertise is required by each state and what each state has, you could then find a way to create opportunities.”
He urged states to remove nepotism, tribalism, ethnicity, indigenisation, and religion from inter-state relationship.
“These things make for retardation. It is disservice to a state if it cannot take advantage of what it has and what others have because of regressive policies that curtail growth.”
Gbadebo Olatokunbo, the Chairman of NTA Association of Contributory Pensioners (NTA-ACPEN) and a founding father of Nigeria Shareholders Solidarity Association (NSSA), said the government and the leaders refuse to see the reality of the economic situation.
According to him, there will be less circulation of wealth due to new regime of economic policing, with only legitimate cash going into circulation.
He noted however, that economic rediscovery or revolution will impact positively on domestic economy, employment and social security, and therefore urged the leaders to embark on total radical economic revolution.
He added that government should rely less on economic data, forecast and analysis but more of self-assessment of development, insisting that the only opportunity for the nation’s economic managers is to “put our house in order and in so doing every other thing will fall in space.
“We need not bother about economic forecasts, foreign investments; but by the time we get things right, success has many relations.
“Asia tigers, South Africa (under Apartheid 1948-1990) did it before and India is doing so now; Nigeria could also do it,” Olatokunbo said.
