The Director General of the Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau( NSIB), Engineer Akin Olateru, has harped on the need for a comprehensive reforms in the country’s socio-economic sectors with a view to enhancing the wellbeing of the citizenry and overall growth and development of Nigeria.
To this end, he called on every Nigerian to key into the President Bola Tinubu’s socio-economic reforms programme to reposition the country for growth and development.
Olateru made the call in a key note address titled: “Breaking Barriers to National Development,” at the Nigerian Service Award organised by COA Media in Abuja on Thursday.
He noted that engaging in agribusiness, job creations, strengthening public services, implementing fiscal and monetary measures aimed at stimulating the economy and achieving quick recovery, improved working conditions for civil servants in both private and public sectors for optimal performance, among others, are required to adequately address the economic and social barriers that have hindered the national development .
The NSIB boss lamented that Nigeria has the largest economy and population in Africa for rapid human and infrastructural development, but 63 years after its independence the nation still faces multiple socio-economic barriers.
These barriers according to him fully manifest in the low and fragile economic growth, poor infrastructure, poor electricity/energy supply, primary product dependency, foreign currency gap, capital flight, human capital inadequacies, poverty, corruption, insecurity, illiteracy, and unemployment, among others.
Explaining further, Olateru said the socio-economic barrier challenge has also caused many Nigerians to continue to leave the country in droves in search of greener pastures in other countries of the world.
This, he said, has resulted in massive emigration of the country’s greatest minds in search of more favourable living conditions and greener pastures across the world.
“Inadequate infrastructure such as, good road network, lack of stable power supply that hinder economic activities in the areas of local manufacturing and production of the domestic products that have grossly affected the volume of the country’s export has made a lot of Nigerians rely heavily on imported products,” he said.
The Director General who was honoured as the ‘Most Outstanding Public Servant’ at the event, for his transformative efforts at NSIB, further pointed out that an estimated of 3.5 million Nigerians join the labour market yearly with their prospect of being gainfully employed but at the end of the day are very weakened due to lack of job creations and unavailability of entrepreneurial skills.
He said the poverty rate in Nigeria according to the world bank is expected to reach 37 per cent in 2023, with an estimated 84 million Nigerians living below the poverty line.
“This would make Nigeria the world’s second largest poor population after India,” Olateru pointed out.
He informed the audience that the world bank however, predicted that Nigerian economy is to grow at an average of 3.4 per cent between 2023 to 2025, as a result of the reforms the government has embarked upon.
He therefore called on all Nigerians to key into, and support the current government of President Bola Tinibu’s Socio-economic Reform programmes aimed at repositioning the country for the benefit of all.