Peter Obi has urged the Nigeria government to focus on fighting the war on insecurity and economy, rather than engaging in external conflicts. He said that Nigeria could reduce its budget deficit and stabilize its currency by plugging the revenue leakages from oil theft, illegal mining and other sources.
Obi, who spoke on Arise TV on Monday, said that Nigeria’s budget deficit of 53.5% was a result of poor management of its resources. He cited the revelation by the National Security Advisor that Nigeria was losing 400,000 barrels of crude oil every day, which amounted to about 11 billion dollars annually. He said that this amount alone could cover the deficit of 11.5 trillion naira in the budget.
He said: “That’s what you are lacking. That is all. Rufai, I read from the President’s National Security Advisor that we are losing 400,000 barrels of crude oil every day. If that is true, Rufai, if you multiply by our benchmark, which is below the present today, that’s about 30 million dollars a day. If you put 30 million dollars in one year, it will be about 10.9 or 11 trillion billion dollars.”
Obi also stressed the need to secure the country and stabilize the currency, in order to boost its exports, increase its reserves and attract more investors. He pointed out that it was futile to seek foreign investors in an insecure and war-torn environment.
He said: “You cannot go to war externally when you have war at home. If you today secure Nigeria, deal with issue of all revenue leakages, brought a bit of stability in it, I can tell you, you’ll stabilize your currency.”
In outlining his economic plan, Peter Obi mentioned his intentions to move Nigeria from consumption to production, by allocating up to 60% of the annual budget to productive sectors. He proposed to invest 1 trillion naira in 1,000 companies and 1 million naira in 4 million SMEs, to create jobs and wealth for Nigerians.
He explained how he could generate the funds for his plan by managing the leakages within the system. He claimed that if his plan was implemented for three years, Nigeria would see a remarkable improvement in its economy.
He said: “People will say to me, you said you were going to put 1 trillion to 1,000 companies, 1 million to 4 million SMEs, it will be 4 trillion, how are you going to do it? I’ve just shown you that if you’re able to manage the leakages within your own system, you’ll be able to generate more income.”
Obi suggested that Nigeria’s annual budget should be at least 50 trillion naira, which was about 15 billion dollars, considering the size of the country. He expressed confidence that if Nigeria gets it right, it was not as difficult as people thought.
He said: “The budgeting today both for federal and state of Nigeria should be a combined budgeting of not less than 50 trillion naira annually which is just about $15 billion annually if we compare with size of country and if we get it right I can tell you it is not as difficult as people think.”