Ex-Lawmaker Tasks FG On Economy

The former Federal lawmaker that represented Ihiala Federal Constituency of Anambra State in the House of Representatives, Hon. Vitalis Okafor has called on President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration to go back to the drawing board to revive the nation’s ailing economy.
He said that vital steps and policies aimed at bringing the economy of Nigeria back to life must be sincerely pursued rather than embarking on blame-game.
Okafor who disclosed this in an interview with newsmen at the Port Harcourt International Airport, Omagwa on Thursday shortly before leaving for Abuja, noted that the nation’s economy was visibly going through stagnation.
According to him, every segment of the economy is going through one challenge or the other with high cost of goods and services, low productivity and scarcity of funds at the same time.
“We have never had it this way in this country both in terms of security, productivity and circulation of money. It looks like the country is going through suffocation in the last two years, and yet we have a government that is in control.
“My advice is that the present leaders and policy makers should go back to the drawing table, and sincerely strategise and implement policies that will bring back things to life in this country, instead of going on continuous blame game.
Okafor, a lawyer by profession, also urged state governors to always embark on projects that would have direct bearing on the citizens, rather than executing projects that are ill-conceived just for cheap political gains.
He said that if state government considered it a priority to always execute development projects that will boost employment and productivity directly or indirectly, such state’s economy will improve.
The former lawmaker, however, frowned at the system of wastage of resources, where state governors execute projects that do not have bearings on people’s lives, but just for political benefits.
On the South-East Development Commission bill, Okafor said that the delay in considering the bill might be, because the zone was not in the good list of the present regime unlike the one being pushed for the North-East.
He, therefore, called on the those representing the zone in the National Assembly to intensify lobbying on the bill, adding that the bill is important for the development of the South-East, just like other development commissions.

Corlins Walter