Former Cross River State Governor, Donald Duke, has urged the administration of President Bola Tinubu to revisit and reconsider some of his economic policies.
Duke noted that whatever policy the government is implementing should be about the people first.
Speaking as a guest on Inside Sources with Laolu Akande, which was aired on Channels Television on Friday, the former Governor said President Tinubu made the “fundamental error” of removing subsidies on petrol and electricity at almost the same period.
He stressed the need for the government to make the economy work for the people.
“What we are doing to our people is just not sustainable. We’ve got to revisit all those policies and put our people first. And this is not (about) subsidy, this is about enhancing the productivity of our people.
“If you reduce energy prices and people become more productive, the economy will grow even further,” he said.
Duke identified the factors driving inflation in Nigeria to include high energy costs, over-inflated contracts, ill-distribution of wealth and high interest rates.
According to him, most Nigerians care about their daily bread and butter more than the act of governance, so it is the responsibility of those in power to ensure that the citizens are okay.
“We need to get the economy working for the people. That’s the bottom line. At the end of the day, people don’t care about how they are governed as much as they care about bread and butter.
“The function of a government is to ensure the productivity of its citizens within an orderly environment. If you look at the unemployment ratio of our country, we are largely unproductive; the dependency ratio is high,” Duke submitted.
The former Governor also decried the over-dependence of Nigeria’s economy on imports, saying the leaders need to take advantage of the large population to ensure a productive economy.
“Over 60% of the pressure on our foreign exchange earnings is oil import, if you can domesticate that, the exchange rate will dramatically drop.
“Even beyond that, we need to question the things we import. We are running an import-dependent economy which is wrong. With 230 million people growing every year, we need to run a productive, manufacturing, agrarian economy. We are not doing that. We, literally import everything at the expense of our people,” he said.
