Kí ni ó dé tí àwọn ìlànà ìjọba kò fi ran àwọn aráàlú tálákà lọ́wọ́, àti kí ni ó dé tí àjọṣe fi ń pinnu iṣẹ́ dípò agbára ẹnìkan?

The planned exit of GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) from Nigeria after more than five decades of doing business in Nigeria underscores how horrific the environment has become for both local and foreign businesses. Sadly, many international firms have, in recent times, sold their assets and bid farewell to Nigeria after several years of operating in our country. These exits have led to further loss of jobs in an environment that is already bleeding jobs. We need to do a lot more not only to encourage investors to make Nigeria their preferred destination but also to encourage companies already operating in our land not to "japa." To this end, we must revamp our infrastructure, endeavour to enthrone a sustainable regime of energy security and retool our fiscal and monetary policy. -AA The planned exit of GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) from Nigeria after more than five decades of doing business in Nigeria underscores how horrific the environment has become for both local and foreign businesses. Sadly, many international firms have, in recent times, sold their assets and bid farewell to Nigeria after several years of operating in our country.

The economy's performance has, in recent weeks and months, been a subject of intense discourse among Nigerian citizens at home and abroad. Nigerians are gravely concerned, and rightly so, that Tinubu’s poor response to Nigeria’s economic challenges is setting the stage for a prolonged and deeper domestic economic crisis. His economic policies, drawn from a so-called renewed hope agenda, are ironically dashing hopes, creating pain and causing despair. The private sector is shrinking by the day as small businesses are emasculated and as Multi-National Companies, confused and weary of the economy, leave Nigeria in droves. The intense cost of living pressures has created more misery for the poor in towns and villages. There is HUNGER IN THE LAND as basic commodities, including BREAD, are becoming out of reach for average Nigerians. His 2024 budget is a business-as-usual exercise, bereft of concrete ideas and actions that would support Nigeria's journey toward economic transformation—consisting mainly of wasteful expenditures to cater to a bloated Federal Government. Budget 2024 will not facilitate growth and cannot empower our citizens to earn a living and live a decent life.

I have therefore not come here simply to speak about your frustrations. You know those frustrations better than I do because you live with them every day. I have come to offer you a partnership to change the conditions that created them and to ask you to become active participants in building the Nigeria you deserve. THE NIGERIA YOUR GENERATION KNOWS Let us speak plainly. The Nigeria many young people experience today is very different from the Nigeria they were promised. You were taught that if you worked hard, obtained an education, obeyed the law and applied yourselves diligently, opportunity would follow. Many of you did exactly that. You studied through strikes and blackouts, only to graduate into an economy where a university degree does not guarantee a job and where even those fortunate enough to find work increasingly struggle to afford food, transportation and rent. You have watched talented friends and classmates - doctors, engineers, accountants, software developers and other professionals - pack their bags for Canada, the United Kingdom, America and elsewhere in search of opportunities their own country should be capable of providing.

On the question of subsidy, my position has not changed and will not change: I will restore it! A nation as blessed as ours has no business abandoning its citizens to hardship. Nigeria is rich enough to look after her own. I believe the wealth of a nation is not measured by how much government collects, but by how much the money in the pockets of its people can buy. I want wages to have value again. I want farmers to move produce without transport swallowing their profits. I want families to fill their baskets without emptying their pockets. I want businesses to produce, employ and prosper. That is why I will restore targeted subsidy and put purchasing power back in the hands of Nigerians. When fuel rises, transport rises. When transport rises, food rises. When food rises, families suffer. I will break that wretched chain that has defined our national life in the nearly four years of Tinubu’s presidency.

I have the experience to lead this country, and that is what Nigeria needs now. I have done this work before. Nigerians elected me Vice President twice, in 1999 and 2003, and in government I led the reforms that returned loss-making government companies to private hands and opened our economy to private investment. I served Nigeria in the Customs Service from 1969 to 1986, and I have built businesses that today employ thousands of Nigerians, so I know how jobs are created. The two issues Nigerians care about most are restoring vitality to our economy and securing the country. My plan is clear: end insecurity, bring down the cost of living, create opportunities for every Nigerian, and uphold the rule of law. Nigeria has given me so many opportunities to be who I am today. If the presidents we have had offered better leadership, I would have retired my ambition. But I cannot, in good conscience, do that when I know I have better ideas to offer. The constitution allows a four-year term, and a second term is not an automatic entitlement. I am in this race to serve.

On jobs, skills and enterprise, I see millions of young Nigerians with ideas, energy and ambition, but too many cannot access the capital to turn those ideas into businesses. I am committed to expanding transparent access to finance for young entrepreneurs, artisans, farmers, technology founders and people in the creative economy, so that your surname, political connection or ability to find a godfather does not determine whether your idea gets a chance to succeed. This includes a major financing programme for start-ups and entrepreneurs. Our objective is to move young Nigerians from dependence to enterprise, from unemployment to productivity, and from palliatives to prosperity. On education, I want to change how we prepare young Nigerians for work. Our schools must place greater emphasis on science, technology, vocational education, agriculture, digital skills, critical thinking and entrepreneurship. No brilliant Nigerian child should be denied university, polytechnic or college education simply because his or her parents are poor. I see young Nigerians as the greatest national asset Nigeria has ever produced, innovators, farmers, engineers, doctors, teachers, entrepreneurs and artisans, and I believe no President can rebuild Nigeria without their active participation.