I think citizens must not assume that government or elected representatives, have all it requires without assistance, in finding solutions to the myriad of problems facing Africas most populous nation and one of its most potentially great countries. In view of this desire to suggest little snippets of information, I propose the following;
(1) The Federal Government should forget about raising salaries of its public service at this time. Such an action would further mitigate the capacity of the Nigerian currency to gain strength against the Dollar. What I would suggest are structural policies targeted in the short, medium and long term, towards strengthening the Naira.
We don't need more money given to the citizens to help them adjust to the current unsustainable value of the Naira, but what we need is a stronger local currency that is not exchanged at lore than N300 to the Dollar. Target exchange parity of $1 to N300 which will put minimum wage currently paid at about $1000/month. Reacting to our current realities by paying more money to citizens in form of palliatives and subsidies, will make nonsense of governments desire to rejig the economy.
(2) Ban the importation of motorcycles, tricycles, generators of power ratings less than 20KVA. Compel importers and manufacturers in China to build assembly plants in Nigeria. We can then look at taking gradual advantage of local production of some parts, which would then necessitate the need for local exploitation of mineral resources required for those parts.
(3) Ban importation of all vehicles with engine capacities above 2.0L. Put a road levy of not less than N50,000/annum on all vehicles with engines capacities above 3.0L (apart from those required for commercial transportation and by the essential services). This will drastically reduce the fuel wastage that has become our culture as citizens and also improve revenue generation for government.
(4) Reduce import duty payable on vehicles with engine capacities between 1.20L and 2.0L to the nearest minimum. This would be a sustainable and more acceptable palliative that also helps to meet the cultural needs to Nigerians to own their own means of transport.
(5) Restructure the Public Service. No nation survives or would tolerate the bulk of what constitutes Nigerias' governance system. Reduce the administrative strength of the Public Service (ie. the Civil Servants) while employing more officers into essential services that directly impacts the life of citizens like the medical corps, Police, Customs and others.
These are some of my own suggestions and I am hopeful we can all begin to suggest things to help make Nigeria work.
Zadok Akintoye
The WiD Institute
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