Presidential candidate of the African Action Congress, AAC, Omoyele Sowore, has urged the Federal Government to stop relying on rising revenue and other macroeconomic figures to justify its economic reforms. He recently had his say during an interview on Arise Television, and Nigerians have been reacting.
Arguing that the real test of the administration’s economic policies should be their impact on the standard of living, Sowore said that Nigerians should not be told that the economy is improving simply because government revenue, tax collection or the tax-to-GDP ratio has increased.
Omoyele added that such statistics have yet to translate into improved living conditions for Nigerians.
His words, “They are bringing out numbers as if we are foolish people. They want to do a mental adjustment on the psyche of the people. They say you are feeling better because our GDP-to-tax ratio is higher.
We are talking about GDP to tax, but what about GDP to standard of living? Nobody is talking about that. That’s why I said it is a repetition of the same old explanation of their economic failures.
What we are asking them to produce are the wealthier people in society, the schools that have been built, the roads that you have constructed after you remove subsidy, and how your people are faring, how your businesses are faring.
Businesses are pretty much gone. You have closed down industries. Your people are poor. We are not just talking about poor people. We are talking about people who are multidimensionally poor.
There is no country in the world that doesn’t subsidise their poor. In fact, the people that get the most subsidy in Nigeria are not the poor. It’s the rich.
All the people who bring in foreign goods and services, go and look at their waivers, their customs. You know who is getting a real subsidy compared to the people who are getting from each gallon of petrol that was taken away from them.
The moment you remove the subsidy, look at where your economy tanked. Your naira also went down the toilet.
Optics don’t feed people. Propaganda can’t feed people. People are dying in this country of hunger and starvation. People can’t afford to live.
We must stop deceiving ourselves. We need fresh ideas and fresh people who can make this country work.”
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