By Emma Ogbuehi
Foremost industrialist and Presidential aspirant, Mazi Sam Ohuabunwa has decried the dwindling fortunes of Nigeria’s economy, stressing that the foreign exchange value of the Naira against other currencies currently is a sign post of how far the country has fallen.
Ohuabunwa, former Chairman of Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) and Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) remarked that about 40 years ago “1million Naira was equal to $1.57million but that today 1million Naira equals to about $2000”
He urged Nigerians to resist poverty in a nation of plenty, by ensuring that they put the best in power come 2023, saying that the future generation of Nigerians will not forgive the country if it fails to do the needful in 2023.
The President, Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN) who was speaking to the media and others in Lagos, maintained that Nigeria is so much blessed that the citizens have no business living in the stagnant economy they are forced to live in, adding that the political game has passed the level when Nigerians are deceived by promises to tar roads and provide nonexistent power.
According to him only a complete make-over will save Nigeria, stressing that the on-going security challenges and socio-economic problems in the country are all indices of bad governance which can be transformed without much ado. He added that it was to salvage Nigeria from the manipulated debt over hang and politically engineered crisis that he has thrown his hat in the ring for 2023 presidency.
He therefore challenged Nigerians to try those from sections and classes that have not been tried with the leadership of the country over the last 50 years and see whether or not their situation will change for the better, maintaining that the country cannot keep doing the same things and expecting a different result.
He insisted that what he is promising the nation is a movement from the status of an underdeveloped nation to a nation that is counted among the developed economies of the World, stating that Nigeria should fast tract its development and change the game to be counted among the developed economies.
According to him such transformations he is putting on the table is not new, but has been executed in places like South east Asia, Spain, adding that Nigeria cannot be different if the various stakeholders join hands with determination and faith.