An All Progressives’ Congress (APC) Chieftain in Oyo State, Alhaji Kehinde Olaosebikan, has described the recent border closure as a bold step by Muhammadu Buhari’s government to revive the nation’s economy.
The APC chieftain told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Lagos that the border closure would bring about “a real turn around for the nation’s economy, if the opportunity was well utilised”.
“For instance, it has shown that most of our neighbours are virtually living on us; they make huge money, earn humongous foreign exchange for their countries out of our large population and size.
“A situation where all manners of finished and unfinished products, farm produce are thoughtlessly brought into the country can only lead us to total ruination.
“Wisdom dictates that for the borders to be reopened, we need to come up with strong home-suited policies that would make us achieve more from our association with other countries in terms of revenue generation and employment for our people.
“What we require as a nation is to strive for self-sufficiency, and the first step toward that is the protection of local producers,” he said.
Olaosebikan, a former Chairman of Oluyole Local Government in Oyo State, urged Nigerians to give full support to President Muhammadu Buhari in the implementation of home-suited policies in his renewed bid to revamp the economy at this critical moment.
On local content development, the APC chieftain said that the National Assembly had a key role to play in enacting strong and workable laws needed for functionality and sustainability of local content development in the country.
“There should be a robust synergy with all the branches of government on this important goal of enhancing the Nigerian content in all aspects.
“Emphasis should be on concrete and accelerated development of local content in all spheres.
“Our economy would grow and the nation progress, if we have less to spend our foreign earnings on,” Olaosebikan said.
He urged the government to pursue only policies and programs patently capable of deepening the Nigeria content, local production and processing of farm produce.
“It is time to think Nigeria, eat Nigeria, drink Nigeria and act Nigeria in all circumstances.
“Time to individually and collectively support President Muhammadu Buhari on home-suited policies for our economy.
“Our ministers and governors should not wait for a presidential directive to patronize local industries such as INNOSOM, Dangote and others. They should make patronage of local industries, a necessity,” he said.
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