Vice President Kashim Shettima, has stated that the bold reforms introduced by the President Bola Administration is currently fixing the nation’s structural weakness.
Senator Shettima stated this on Tuesday, during the opening session of the 66th Annual Conference of the Nigerian Economic Society (NES) in Abuja.
He noted that while Nigeria is not immune to the economic quagmire Africa had long been enmeshed in, the nation’s comforting prospect is that it currently has a President with a listening ear.
“Nigeria is, of course, not exempt from Africa’s economic tragedies. But our silver lining is the listening ear of His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Under his leadership, this administration has embarked on bold and inevitable reforms to address structural weaknesses that others before us only paid lip service to.
“These reforms testify to the power of political will in economic policy. Their painful but necessary consequences remind us that a malignant disease can only be cured by painful surgery. The wounds are temporary, but the recovery is permanent,” he stated.
The VP, according to a statement by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Communications, Office of the Vice President, Stanley Nkwocha, also underscored the need for African nations to get rid of the old-fashioned approach to their economy and embrace structural transformation if they must revive human capital challenges and reverse unemployment on the continent.
He said, “We live in a world where a random citizen in Daura can outsource his services to a corporation in Dallas without seeing the inside of a plane or leaving his bedroom. But to catch up with this changing world, Africa must embrace structural transformation that reinvents its human capital and reverses unemployment.
“Poverty must be confronted head-on for the promise of this continent to be realised in the lives of our people. There is no justification for the low per capita income that afflicts our nations amidst the resources at our disposal.”
Senator Shettima observed that though “geopolitical conflicts, trade protectionism, supply chain disruptions, the energy transition, and the disruptive rise of artificial intelligence” may all seem like a threat to the continent’s economy, they are opportunities in disguise.
“They all paint a gloomy outlook. But each threat is also an opportunity in disguise. This is why a society such as yours exists: to light the path of a continent even in the darkest night,” he explained, just as he pointed out it is the mandate that the Annual Conference of the Nigerian Economic Society has been given “to find new pathways to solutions,” while the nation awaits the recommendations.
The Vice President noted while the Tinubu administration did not claim the ongoing reforms would be easy, it has always acknowledged the inflationary impact of the reforms as well as the “spillovers from global crises into our economy,” which explains why President Tinubu “has remained committed to investment-friendly measures and social protection programmes to cushion the vulnerable.
“Policies in transportation, healthcare, and education have been deliberately targeted at reducing inequality because these are the sectors that affect the weakest among us,” he added.
The VP commended the President of the Nigerian Economic Society, Prof. Adeola Adenikinju and his team for challenging the nation “to reflect on what decades of policy failures and vulnerabilities to global risks have created for Africa.
“I urge all participants to take their role in this conference not as a scholarly exercise but as a continental and national assignment—one expected to salvage Africa’s economies from their fragile status,” he further stated.
Earlier, the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Abubakar Bagudu, applauded VP Shettima’s significant contributions in the realization of the economic reforms of administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Bagudu assured the NES that it will be fully integrated in all of the ministry’s programmes, especially the preparation and implementation of the development plan and the recently approved Renewed Hope Ward Development Programme.
Also, the Minister of Livestock Development, Alhaji Idi Mukhtar Maiha, presented potentials in Nigeria’s livestock sector, estimated at several billions of dollars, offering opportunities for economic diversification.
The Minister expressed readiness to partner with the NES to brainstorm on the “brilliant ideas” needed to implement President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda for the livestock sector, which he described as “the next crude oil.”
For his part, the President of the NES, Prof. Adeola Adenikinju reiterated the society’s commitment to collaborating with the Tinubu administration to actualise the goal of genuine economic transformation and national development.
He said the NES under his leadership has undertaken reforms aimed at repositioning the body to act as “a bridge between research and policy, a centre for mentoring the next generation of economists, and a trusted partner in Nigeria’s pursuit of sustainable development and Africa’s transformation.”
Other dignitaries who graced the event include the Special Adviser to the President on Economic Affairs, Tope Fasua; Chairman of the Ministry of the Board of Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MOFI), Dr Shamsudeen Usman, Nigeria’s first Professor of Capital Market Studies, Uche Uwaleke; representatives of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abass, and the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Yemi Cardoso.
