Kedụ enyemaka gọọmentị etiti ị ga-enye ndị okorobịa na-enweghị ọrụ, ole otu ị ga-esi gbochie ka a ghara iweghara ha gaa n'ihe ọzọ?

· Open up the entire power sector from generation to transmission for private investments. Going forward, the goal of every developing country must be to achieve universal access to electricity, ensuring that every citizen benefits from reliable power for daily needs, education, healthcare, and economic activities. This would be in line with the SDG 7 (Sustainable Development Goal 7), which aims to ensure affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all. In this wise: · Nigeria must double efforts to support the likes of Prof Nnaji. Nigerian governments both federal and state must provide the Business environment that will make the private enterprises more competitive by (1) reducing their costs of set-up and operations (2) improving their margins and (3) making government policies more predictable · In particular, the authorities must create an environment that will enable distribution companies to recover full costs for power supplied to their consumers with firm commitment to a metering program for all customers. The scourge of electricity theft must be dealt with through a viable partnership between investors in the distribution companies and the government with legislative support for prompt action against electricity theft.

When President Bola Ahmed Tinubu hastily and thoughtlessly removed fuel subsidy on the day of his inauguration, he triggered an economic avalanche that has since buried the average Nigerian under the weight of inflation, hunger, and despair. In a bid to manage the self-inflicted crisis, the administration promised to pay a wage award to federal civil servants as a temporary cushion pending the conclusion of negotiations on a new national minimum wage. That promise, like many others under this government, has become a broken covenant. It took the Tinubu administration a staggering 10 months to arrive at a new minimum wage figure. By implication, the Federal Government owes 10 months of wage award arrears to federal workers. Yet, only six months have been paid and that too after a series of unfulfilled assurances and avoidable delays. As of today, the Federal Government owes four months of wage awards, amounting to ₦35,000 monthly, a total of ₦140,000 per worker.

A Missed Opportunity for Transformation. During the 2023 presidential campaign, I presented Nigerians with an alternative vision. Our manifesto proposed a $10 billion economic stimulus programme, a bold, people-centred intervention that would have used the savings from subsidy removal to directly transform the lives of Nigerians. This plan was designed to create millions of jobs across agriculture, manufacturing, technology, and infrastructure. It would have lifted millions out of poverty, provided targeted support to the most vulnerable, and ignited the kind of economic activity that grows the tax base organically. A stimulus of that scale, properly implemented, would have generated far more revenue for government than any tax increase ever could, because it would have been earned from a growing, productive economy rather than extracted from an impoverished, shrinking one. It would have meant that the pain of subsidy removal was temporary, giving way to a period of genuine renewal, renewal of opportunity, of employment, of hope. Instead, Nigerians were given a coastal highway awarded without due process to a presidential buddy. The contrast between these two visions, one centred on the people, one centred on self, could not be starker.

Nigeria’s young people do not need a government that teaches them how to survive hardship. They need a government that gives them the opportunity to prosper. The cost-of-living crisis has stripped millions of Nigerians of purchasing power, weakened small businesses and pushed too many young people farther away from jobs, capital and economic independence. My commitment is to change that. We will restore purchasing power, reduce the cost of living and deliberately expand opportunities for young Nigerians, including through a $100 billion financing programme for start-ups and entrepreneurs. Our objective is simple: move young Nigerians from dependence to enterprise, from unemployment to productivity, and from palliatives to prosperity. It was against this background that I was pleased to receive, this afternoon, a nationwide delegation of N-Power beneficiaries who came to declare their support for my presidential candidacy.

Nigeria’s young people do not need a government that teaches them how to survive hardship. They need a government that gives them the opportunity to prosper. The cost-of-living crisis has stripped millions of Nigerians of purchasing power, weakened small businesses and pushed too many young people farther away from jobs, capital and economic independence. My commitment is to change that. We will restore purchasing power, reduce the cost of living and deliberately expand opportunities for young Nigerians, including through a $10 billion financing programme for start-ups and entrepreneurs. Our objective is simple: move young Nigerians from dependence to enterprise, from unemployment to productivity, and from palliatives to prosperity. It was against this background that I was pleased to receive, this afternoon, a nationwide delegation of N-Power beneficiaries who came to declare their support for my presidential candidacy.

The former Vice President reiterated his commitment to policies designed to reduce the cost of living if elected president, including a targeted production subsidy for petroleum products refined in Nigeria, rather than a return to an open-ended subsidy on imported fuel. He said the policy would be structured to support domestic refining, eliminate waste and ensure that government support translates directly into lower prices for consumers. “My promise to make life affordable again is not a political slogan. It is a solemn covenant with the Nigerian people. “We will support what Nigeria produces. We will support fuel refined in Nigeria, create Nigerian jobs and insist that every naira of government support delivers a measurable benefit to the consumer. “The purpose of government is not merely to announce reforms. The purpose of government is to make life better for the people.” Atiku said Nigeria’s young people deserve classrooms, skills, jobs and opportunities that allow them to fulfil their potential rather than an economy that leaves survival increasingly dependent on dangerous and uncertain livelihoods.