The Director-General of the Voice of Nigeria (VON), Osita Okechukwu has expressed deep worry over the recent revelation by Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed that by the end of 2021 Nigeria’s debt overhang will hover around N40 trillion.
Okechukwu however said with massive mobilization, Buhari’s Agrarian Revolution (#BUGREV) will balance the country’s external trade deficit, assist in no small measure in offsetting its foreign loans, and enhance economic diplomacy.
The Chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) who gave this indication at an interactive session with journalists in Abuja on Monday, said #BUGREV which was launched on 17th November 2015 is a policy dear to Mr President’s heart.
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He said: “The truism is that in the five decades post-1970 Nigeria, almost two generations in sociological terms, no military Head of State or civilian President has deeply thought of pragmatically shifting our attention back to agriculture, mobilised men and material nor committed so much homogenous amount of money in the transformation and modernisation of agriculture in Nigeria than President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR.
“Hence the hashtag – #BUGREV (Buhari’s Agrarian Revolution), the untold story of bottom-top model of revival of agriculture, back to land, redistribution of income and construction of egalitarian society seamlessly. The agrarian revolution is, in other words, the solution and indeed panacea to palpable discontent, despair, gross unemployment and gross inequality in the country.
“We are among the top ten most populous countries of the world and we have the single honour of median age advantage of youths making over 60%. China, India and even USA do not have that median youth advantage, only Brazil and Indonesia approximate our ranking. However, this advantage also has disadvantages, this is what #BUGREV is set to correct”.
Okechukwu noted that without economic prosperity and “Risorgimento of the middle class; restructuring no matter how well designed will only reinforce the Emperorship of our Governors. Therefore, it will spice our shared intendment for devolution of powers. This is a task that we must all embark on”.
“The old axiom maintains that the happier and more prosperous the citizenry the less they succumb to the allure of stomach infrastructure and the more they enhance internal democracy. This is the bedrock of true democracy.
“As a Political Scientist, one has ruminated and resorted to deep introspection over our socio-economic paralysis; and heightened fundamental challenges from the day the World Poverty Clock declared us infamously as the World Poverty Capital, followed by Nigerian Bureau of Statistic’s (NBS) Report which listed Nigeria’s demographic population of under cum unemployment rate at 56%”, he noted.
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