Former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and a member of the Presidet Muhammadu Buhari’s newly constituted Economic Advisory Council (EAC) Prof Chukwuma Soludo was one of the speakers at the 2019 edition of The Platform.
Other economic experts and analysts who spoke at the Covenant Christian Church-organised event were Bismark Rewane, Peter Obi and Anil Gupta.
The bi-annual event is in celebration of Nigeria’s 59th Independence anniversary.
The theme for the bi-annual event, which was held in commemoration of Nigeria’s 59th Independence Anniversary, is ‘Redesigning The Nigerian Economy With New Ideas.’
Here, we serve you some of the nuggets delivered by Soludo tagged as “Soludo Solutions”.
“Let Zamfara keep their gold and pay taxes to the government. Let Kaduna and Kogi keep their solid minerals. Most states have their own resources. Concentrating power in Abuja won’t help us develop our resources.”
“Abuja has sought to keep everybody in check, but has succeeded in holding everybody down.”
“If the problem is the word ‘restructuring’ let’s call it something else.”
“Institutions drive economic transformations. Sadly, our institutions are either obsolete or inappropriate. The current institutions need fundamental overhaul.”
“Nigeria needs to invest in the Judiciary. Our Judiciary should be part of our national brand. Let’s do what it takes to become a nation of laws. Can we at least target to have the best judiciary in Africa?”
“Abuja cannot pay its bills. We have to get to serious work. Abuja, as it is today, is choking.”
“Peasant agriculture has little future.”
“The future will be driven by people, our youths and technology. The next biggest earner for Nigeria will be its human capital. But we are not going to export illiterates.”
“The systems, the institutions that we have are for a bungalow. And the new economy that we want to build is a 100-storey building.”
“The world is not waiting for Nigeria. While electric cars are fast replacing petrol cars, many of our people are still building petrol stations.”
“We need a new national business model.”
“A wise man gets the umbrella ready before the rain starts.”
“If you want to change a persistent economic structure, change the underlying institution.”
“What is fundamentally wrong is we have implemented all kinds of plans, all designed to diversify the economy. But we are still tied to the life-support of the oil sector. Every govt. in Nigeria has implemented its own version.”
“Politics is too serious to be left to those who call themselves ‘politicians’. It is our collective destiny. Unfortunately our politics is broken.”
“Are we preparing enough to welcome the 400 million Nigerians in 20 years time or the 800 million Nigerians in 40 years time?”
“In my view, sooner or later, something will give. And a new kind of politics will emerge to secure the future. Beyond sloganeering we have serious work to do.”
“We have a national crisis of values dressed in hypocrisy.”
“Politics… is our collective destiny. If you don’t demand, organise, agitate and take interest in public affairs…and you don’t have to be in the ring to participate…then stop complaining.”
“At least we have seen the blueprint of the FG and that of the APC in Elrufai panel, where is the PDP’s blueprint.”
“When I was named as member of the Economic Advisory Council, a friend called me, spoke in Igbo “leave their job for them”, I asked why, he said “But there’s no money there now, just a Committee.. That is how we reason in Nigeria……”
