Earlier in the year I prepared a letter to President Muhammadu Buhari. I sent it through Gov Nasir Ahmed El-Rufai’s personal email, I got no acknowledgement. I sent through Ex-Gov Babatunde Fashola, no acknowledgement. I then sent it by courier to The President through the office of the Secretary to The President. To date, I got no response.
I guess you have to be a Dele Momodu or an OBJ for your letter to count.
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I am putting the letter in the open today in the hope that those who agree with my opinion will continue to share it till it reaches Mr. President. Take a seat and enjoy my letter to my President.
Your Excellency,
IN OUR INTEREST
I will be very brief because I am aware of the pressure of your various engagements and competing priorities.
The thrust of my message is that there are limitations to the current strategy being pursued by the government to address our urgent economic situation, but there are some other very practical alternatives.
Kindly spare the time to go through my submission.
OBJECTIVE OF THIS LETTER
To share my ideas on how to quickly make the difference in governance. A sort of short cut.
THE CHALLENGES
The uncertain state of our national currency, its weakening in the global market and the resulting impact on our overall economy.
THE STRATEGY CURRENTLY BEING PURSUED BY THE GOVERNMENT
• To raise funds from taxes and duties.
• To control demand on forex thereby conserving the reserves.
• To reduce appetite for goods manufactured abroad.
• To stimulate growth in Industrialisation and Agriculture.
• To recover stolen funds and re-invest in the economy.
THE LIMITATIONS
• Taxes & Duties will only raise Naira not Dollars.
• Control of forex supply is putting pressure on the exchange rate leading to a crash in the value of the Naira.
• Reduction of appetite for goods manufacture abroad is good but can only be achieved if we are able to create local alternatives quickly. Otherwise smuggling will thrive.
• Stimulation of growth in industrialisation is of course the best but we need forex to buy machineries and pay expatriates as the case may be.
THUS WE ARE IN A VICIOUS CYCLE. The cost of finance & power and the laborious process of accessing finance remains a drawback to attempts to quickly create alternatives to imported goods.
MY PROPOSAL
We can only break this cycle by generating forex quickly and through a short cut as soon as possible. This is the core of my proposal.
PREMISES
A. NEED TO DECLARE A STATE OF EMERGENCY IN OUR ECONOMY WITH AUTHORITY FOR MR. PRESIDENT TO DO THE NEEDFUL.
B. AGRICULTURE IS THE FASTEST AND CHEAPEST ROUTE TO EARNING FOREIGN EXCHANGE.
C. THERE ARE A LOT OF COMPANIES OPERATING AT LESS THAN FULL CAPACITY OR NOT OPERATING AT ALL.
D. GAS IS THE NEW OIL AND REMAINS IN DEMAND, WE HAVE TOO MUCH AND IT CAN BE SELF-FINANCING.
E. MOST OF THE DEMAND FOR FOREX IS FOR ITEMS THAT ARE NOT CRITICAL.
F. THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH GOVERNMENT INVESTING IN BUSINESS IN EMERGENCIES SUCH AS THIS EVEN THOUGH IT MAY BE ON A SHORT-TERM BASIS.
MY PROPOSAL
1. Enumerate all farms with capacity for export, identify their financial needs and seek to invest state funds in them as equity with a view to improving existing capacity and generate forex. The target is to meet local needs and export.
2. Enumerate existing industries and invest funds in them with a view to helping them to produce to full capacity and augment local production and export.
3. Identify major forex-gulping sections and invest directly in their production in partnership with core investors.
4. Identify a list of industries that can also add value to Agric yields and other major raw materials that are available locally and lead in investment in them.
5. All such investments as listed above should be put up for sale after 3 years with the original owners given the option of first refusal in case of partnership with existing ventures and farms.
6. In case of green ventures, such disinvestment should take place on the floor of the stock exchange.
GAS
Gas is the new oil.
An intensely brilliant and honest (As far as I know) classmate of mine, Dr. David Ige was leading the gas revolution. He has done so much there and he should be brought back after a thorough review of his capacity and extent of work done so far. He is honest and very knowledgeable on gas. I ADVISE YOU TO ALLOW HIM TO COMPLETE HIS WORKS ON GAS. He is not aware of this letter.
I believe that the very expensive GAS gathering projects should be funded through advance sales at no financial interest to the stakeholsers.
In other words, we should seek to sell gas well in advance of production and the revenue so generated should be partly used to build the gas gathering plants and partly used to fund major infrastructures such as Rails, Roads, waterways, Dams and Expansion of Power Transmission Network. Ditto recommended Funds, Tolls and Tariff should be introduced on all government roads so that funds invested in roads and other critical infrastructure can be recycled.
Your Excellency I really hope you were able to read through my proposal and you can use it as you deem fit.
Best wishes.
Engr. Dideolu Falobi, FNSE, MIoD
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