Guaranteeing job creation, promoting economic growth, ensuring food security, eradicating extreme poverty, facilitating access to capital, preserving the rule of law, waging an anti-graft war and driving inclusive development are the eight top focus areas of the Bola Tinubu administration’s economic and social program, Vice President Kashim Shettima said in Abuja on Wednesday.
He spoke at the Second Chronicle Roundtable organized by the 21st Century Chronicle at Ladi Kwali Hall, Abuja Continental Hotel, Abuja. In his speech titled Because These Shortcuts Are Not The Right Ways, the Vice President said the administration’s target is to exceed the projected growth rate of 3.38% by multilateral agencies and even the 3.8% in the Federal Government’s 2024 budget. It will then begin to pursue the near-double-digit vision of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Shettima said.
The Vice President said, “This may seem like the most difficult time to occupy a position of leadership in our country, given the choices before us. Whether in adjusting to the transgenerational troubles with our economy or the geopolitical events exerting pressure on their outcomes, there’s no easy way to say that the medicine would be bitter. However, because we have refused to settle for a placebo because we know the danger of leaving a life-threatening disease untreated for too long, we are confident that the health of this nation is in good hands.”
He described leadership in a time of crisis as “akin to standing at the helm of a ship going through a storm, where the weight of every life on board rests upon your shoulders, and the course you chart will shape the destiny of all who follow.” He said in such moments, true leadership demands not only courage but also the wisdom to sail on or abandon a ship. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu chose the option that would save the life of the nation, instead of one that would merely prolong its imminent and predicted economic death, Shettima also said.
He said before the administration took charge, the biggest elephant in the room was the question of fuel subsidy removal. He said in 2022-23, Nigeria’s debt service-to-revenue ratio had grown to 111.8%. It was an economic death sentence for the country, he said. Describing government as a continuum, he said whoever succeeded the previous government would have either chosen to steer the ship through the storm as President Tinubu is doing or jumped ship and let the country implode. “Fortunately, there is a good reason some of our brothers and sisters who ran for this office were unable to question our methods. This was because, whether in handling the subsidy matter or the forex crisis, they had also promised the solutions we had adopted. Those who attempted to eat their words were instantly proven wrong by data, history, and their antecedents—those emotionless reality checkers.”
