NBA-SBL Conference: We Are Not Sure If We Are A Capitalist Or Socialist Country — Prof. Kingsley Moghalu

* Says The Security Challenges In The Country Is Not A Security Problem But A Political One
* NNPC Needs To Be Restructured – NLNG Should Be Listed On The Nigerian Stock Exchange, Says Adrew Nevin
*Says We Are Not Sure Of Our Population
* We Must Have A Different Approach To Pricing — Fola Fagbule

Presidential Candidate of the Young People’s Party in the last General Elections, Prof. Kingsley Moghalu, has given two fundamental reasons why our economy has been held back. According to him, lack of knowledge from the leaders and the fact that we are not sure if we are a capitalist or socialist country, are some of the reasons our economy is backward.

Prof. Kingsley Moghalu said this while speaking as one of the panelists on the Topic, “TRIAGE- The Nigerian Economy”, on day two of the NBA Section on Business Law (NBS-SBL) conference currently ongoing.

Speaking on “the high unemployment rate, what is wrong with the various Social intervention programs and what else should be done”, Moghalu said that we are spending money in the wrong areas because even with the SIPs, unemployment is still on the rise. He thus gave some recommendations to address these issues. They are: there need to be emphasis on human capital development; investment to create opportunities for human capital development; investment in agricultural value chain; need to create a $1 trillion venture capital fund – $500 bill from the government, $500 bill from the private sector and the need to have the private sector run most of these investments.

Speaking on the over dependence on crude oil, Adrew Nevin recommended a restructuring of the NNPC and that NLNG should be listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange. He also added that more investment need to be pushed into the Real Estate sector as there are so much jobs in that value chain.

Another Panelist, Fola Fagbule also said the Nigerian economy is in crisis, and the government needs to accept this fact. According to him, there are many challenges we are dealing with, like infrastructural challenge, inflation challenge, cost of doing business challenge and many others. He noted that government alone cannot finance the infrastructural need of the country, stressing that, he wants the government to catalyze private investments in this area. He also added that there is a lack of trust between private and public sector in the last 4 years, this needs to change. Government also needs to do more in the areas of education, health and water to alleviate poverty. All these he said while speaking on “Reduction of Poverty Rate in Nigeria, Practical Steps”.

Speaking on “Tackling The Hurdles/Challenges in the Business Environment – Stimulating both the FDI and FBI”, Toyin Sanni agreed that the economy is really in crisis. He stressed that our FDI crashed from $7.3 bill to $1.3 bill in 2018. He further listed few things we can do to attract FDI and FBI. According to him, there is need to give our investors confidence – choice of cabinet matters too; what we say about our country is very important, we need to be positive; we need to Fix the obstacles In investments in the country; and a healthy & vibrant market is key to attracting FDIs.

On “Tax Revenues- Enabling Policies & Framework for a Transparent & Inclusive Tax System”, Cecilia Akintomide agreed that we absolutely need investment. “Other countries gave confidence to investors by providing tax incentives, amnesty to previous outstanding taxes, including halving their Company Income Tax. Some countries focused on conducting tax audit in a better way made some countries rank high in the Ease of Doing Business status,” she said.

She further stressed that there should be no surprise auditing as it is commonly done today. If we continue this way, we will be winning the fight but losing the war.

Speaking on “Dead Capital Problem Relating to Population Growth”, Andrew said that we are not even sure what our population is. He added that we need these figures to help us plan. “There are dead capitals so much in the market as assets are not being used, especially in the Real Estate Sector. We need to unlock these dead capitals and also reform the Land Use Act,” he said.

Fola Fagbule, also added that we must have a different approach to pricing: price of electricity, price of fuel, price of gas, price of exchange rate. They need to be strategically flexible. States need to be more transparent in governance, he emphasized. He also noted that at the federal level, they should cease from funding commercial infrastructure but rather leave it for the private sector to finance it. “When there is transparency in public procurement, it naturally attracts investment. We need to be more transparent in this area,” he said.

Speaking on “Increasing Insecurity Level – Dealing with it holistically”, Prof. Kingsley Moghalu again added his voice and said that the security challenges in the country is not a security problem but a political one; that there is great need for there to be a political will to secure the country as our leaders must put Nigeria first. “We need to professionalize the security leadership apparatus to appoint only those qualified instead people from the tribe or religion; we must control our borders to avoid foreigners from coming in,” he added.

According to him, it is reported that there are just 300,000 police officers in the country and put of this number, one third of them are guarding VIPs, one third are obviously ghost officers. So we need nothing less than 1.5 million officers to protect this country. He thus supports state policing but not with the current constitutional frame work.

On “The Role Lawyers Have To Pay In Increasing The Brand Value Of Nigeria”, Cecilia Akintomide submitted that not everything in Nigeria isn’t working. She said that we must identify those things that are working and speak more on them; that we need to be actively engaging the government with the NBA having a white paper in critical national issues.

During the question and answer time, Musbau from NBA Ibadan branch said that kidnappers are not foreigners but Nigerians. He spoke with facts as he was once a victim of kidnap and attributed the problem to unemployment. Also, the Almajiris in the northern part of Nigeria are potential kidnappers and criminals. It has to be addressed, he added.

One Lolade Osho asked Moghalu how he intends to break the ethic and tribal issues we have in Nigeria. In his reply, he said he has started a citizen’s movement called “To Build A Nation” at “www.tobuildanation.org”, “this will be an avenue to build trust and confidence amongst the people of Nigeria and also address the ethic and tribal issues also”, he stressed.

Mr. Abimbola Ogunbanjo, President of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, was the chairman of the panelist session while the panelists are: Andrew Nevin, Chief Economist at PWC; Cecilia Akintomide, Independent Director at FBN Holdings; Toyin Sanni, Group CEO, Emerging Africa Capital Group; Kingsley Moghalu, President, Institute for Governance & Economic Transformation and Fola Fagbule, Snr. Vice President & Head, Advisory Africa Finance Corporation.