A lecturer with the De
partment of Agriculture, University of Abuja, Prof. Park Idisi, said Nigeria require stability in the oil sector to overcome current economic challenges.
Idisi said in an interview with journalists in Abuja that even though the drift in the nation’s economy did not start with the current administration, instability in the sector had driven the economy towards recession.
He therefore advised the Federal Government to commence peace talks with key stakeholders in the Niger Delta, including labour unions in the oil sector to reduce current instability in the industry.
On diversification of the nation’s economy away from oil, the lecturer said so far, there was very little on ground to drive the change required.
“Nothing is on ground to show that government is diversifying the economy from oil to agriculture and mining sectors.
“The diversification agenda needs to be pragmatic and realistic; we cannot point out what exactly is going on in the two sectors.”
He said government must  support indigenous production, improve power supply, and encourage the financial service sectors to make loans available for investors at low interest rate.
According to him, the measures would attract investors, promote local production and stimulate the economy to boom again.
“Interest rate is very high now and people cannot borrow to invest and this will make the recession to go deeper and deeper.
“But to encourage investors, interest rate must be a single digit interest rate, and development fund must be made available to SMEs.’’
Idisi advised the government to meet up its obligations to workers and guard against salary cuts.
“Government must make sure there is money in the economy, not sitting on money, the economy must boom again.’’
He urged top government officials to agree to sacrifice part of their salaries, to reduce the burden on the economy.
“If all of these are done within six months, the economy will come out of recession and the economy will pick up again’’, he said.