2023: Nigeria needs financial engineer like Tinubu to surmount economic challenges ―​​ Media director, APC, Oshodi

The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Council for Canada has urged Nigerians to brace up for positive economic revolution by voting for the APC presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as president in 2023.

The media director, APC, Presidential Council for Canada, Dr Abiola Oshodi, who stated this in a statement issued in Akure, Ondo State capital, on Tuesday, said Nigeria requires a great leader and a financial engineer like Tinubu to resolve the multifaceted economic challenges bedevilling its sustainable development and return Nigeria’s economy to the part of growth. 

Oshodi noted that the economy of the country needs an experienced and exceptional leader to repair the nation, saying that Tinubu as the Lagos State governor significantly increased the revenue of the state when he steered affairs of the state between 1999 and 2007, laying the foundation for its current financial stability. 

He explained that the country’s increasing debt profile occasioned by low collection of revenue was worrisome and must be tamed by the country’s next president, hence the need for the electorate to vote Tinubu.

“This is the same revenue problem that Senator Tinubu met in Lagos when he assumed office as the governor of the state, a challenge that he promptly dealt with and if elected and sworn in by May 29, 2023, he would also meet a revenue problem and he would be expected to deal with it,” he said.

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The APC chieftain noted that the government at various levels including President Muhammad Buhari had repeatedly pointed out the revenue challenges that the country was going through, adding that President Buhari himself during the presentation of the 2023 budget affirmed that Nigeria’s debt service to revenue ratio needed close attention.

According to Dr Oshodi, Nigeria’s total debt profile as at September 2022 was according to the Debt Management Office (DMO) N41.60 trillion  which the Director General of DMO, Mrs Patience Oniha   attributed to a shortfall in revenue. 

Oshodi said although the Minister of Finance, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, had clarified that Nigeria did not have a debt problem as it was yet to exceed its self-imposed ceiling debt of GDP to debt of 40 percent, she had repeatedly stressed that Nigeria had indeed a revenue problem.

The Media Director of APC Presidential Council, Canada, stated that Tinubu was outstanding among his co-contestants and said “of all the 18 illustrious Nigerians vying to be Nigeria’s next President, Tinubu stands out due to his experience and his impressive stewardship, successfully piloting the affairs of smallest but the most commercialized among Nigeria’s 36 states.

“When Senator Tinubu assumed office in 1999, the Lagos state Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) was said to be a paltry N600 million per annum.

“But today, because of the restructuring, innovativeness and the necessary policies and strategies that he took which the successive administrations, his mentees built on, the Lagos State annual  IGR is now N753 billion according to the latest figures by the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics( NBS),” he stated.

“Due to the structures laid in the eight years of Senator Tinubu, Lagos state has become among other qualities Nigeria’s financial hub hosting over 50 per cent of Nigeria’s financial institutions and  even with its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) accounting for 26.7 per cent  of Nigeria’s GDP and more than 50 of non-oil GDP.”

Oshodi however, expressed optimism that Tinubu will turn around the country if elected the president of the country, urging Nigerians to believe in his candidacy.