•Nigeria must defend ideals of modernity, civilisation, says Olawepo-Hashim
Emmanuel Addeh and Alex Enumah in Abuja
The Chairman of Fidelity Bank Plc, Mr. Mustafa Chike-Obi has proposed the temporary suspension of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme so as to make funds available for the prosecution of the war against terror and other security challenges in the country.
Chike-Obi’s proposition during an interview on Arise News yesterday, was in response to a questions on what political parties and presidential candidates could do to turn around the dwindling economy of the nation.
While he identified security as one of the low-hanging fruits that could quickly turn around the economy of Nigeria, he noted that the huge amounts of naira spent yearly on the NYSC scheme, if diverted, could provide enough funds for the government, without necessarily harming anyone.
He noted that this move was more appropriate at this particular time since the majority of the students have been home for nearly five months because of the university lecturers’ strike.
“There are some low-hanging fruits and I give you an example, insecurity. I think that security has become the primary problem for Nigeria today, it is the biggest issue, so look at the NYSC, which costs Nigeria a hundred million a year, let us suspend the youth service for a couple of years and direct those funds towards creating an elite terrorist fighting force in Nigeria that can be targeted towards that.
“That is what we can do easily, it is low-hanging fruit, it doesn’t take much to do that, in fact, the university students are on strike, so this is a good time to say we will suspend the expenditure on that and focus on security,” he said.
Besides the suspension of the NYSC scheme, Chike-Obi also suggested the licencing of arms for private security guards to free thousands of policemen attached to VIPs and other public institutions.
“I want to hear people say let us license private security firms to carry firearms and provide protective services to our VIPs, that will free up a hundred policemen to go into the law enforcement duty that they are supposed to do.
“There are things that can be done, and policies that can be done, we want to hear as Nigerians how we address those critical problems today we don’t have to wait till May 29, next year, there are simple things we can do that show leadership, so I want the candidates or the current leadership to talk about these things, address these, the country is a continuum, we don’t have to give it up because of elections in February next year.”
Furthermore, he advised Nigerians to take time to listen to each of the presidential candidates when the campaigns commence in September, adding that Nigerians were looking for a good leader and would surely get the right leadership come 2023.
“All Nigerians should wait till September 28 and see what the presidential candidates and their partners have to offer Nigeria.
“All this distraction, the talk about age and others is nice to talk about in the interim but we must all have an open mind listen to the candidates what they are telling us they are going to do and we can guess or judge how well they are going to do it and we will see who is going to be the next leader,” he added.
While he identified the private sector as the engine of economic growth, he urged the government to endeavor to make things easy for them and encouraged them rather than starving them with too much taxation and regulations.
“Every penny a company makes the government gets about 20 per cent of it in tax, the government is the number one shareholder in every business in Nigeria, so it is in the government’s interest to grow business and not to stifle them,” he explained.
