As President Bola Tinubu’s All Progressives Congress battles to make Nigeria attain economic prosperity, the country’s leadership needs sustained efforts to deliver on its lofty promises to the citizenry and pull the nation out of the woods.

Over the years, the number of Nigerians living below the poverty line has risen from 70 million in 2010 to an estimated 109 million in 2023, making the country rank 161 out of 193 countries on the Human Development Index (HDI) in 2022.

Despite the numerous development challenges bedevilling the country, Nigerian leaders have continued to give hope to the masses by assuring them of a better economic outcome, through the various economic reforms they have introduced. In fact, President Tinubu keeps promising Nigerians that the hope of rising to our economic potential in no distant time is still feasible.

Against that backdrop, the need to fast-track Nigeria’s economic development has become imperative given the nation’s development challenges, especially against the evident rising poverty, youth unemployment and insecurity in the land.

Since President Tinubu took over the reins of governance in May 2023, he has embarked on far-reaching and economic tightening reforms aimed at stabilizing the economy and putt of growth. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) harmonised the multiple official exchange rates, fostered a market-determined official rate, cleared the verified foreign exchange (FX) backlog, and tightened monetary policy. Due to this policy, the supply of foreign exchange has greatly improved, which is good for businesses, consumers, and economic growth. This has helped in bridging the gap between the official and parallel market exchange rates.

Another policy that needs time before people can reap its benefit is the removal of subsidy on petroleum or adjustment of fuel prices to begin to phase out the subsidy, which had cost the country over 8.6 trillion naira (US$22.2 billion) from 2019 to 2022 with proof that it did not benefit the poor but favoured smugglers. With Dangote Refinery coming on stream, it is expected that the suffering of the masses will soon be assuaged.

As nothing good comes easy, I encourage Nigerians to be patient with the government to enable them to midwife the economy to bear tangible fruits that will bring dividends of democracy to the people.. Implementing reforms often comes with a high cost, especially the short- to medium-term effect on citizens. So, let’s not lose hope as it can only get better.

For Nigeria to attain economic prosperity, President Tinubu needs the support of Nigerians, technical advisory and financing of World Bank and the international communities.

Nigeria’s economic potential is constrained by many structural issues, including inadequate infrastructure, tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade, obstacles to investment, lack of confidence in currency valuation, and limited foreign exchange capacity.

One of the biggest problems is the area of low rate industrialisation in the country. Most government organisations are moribund due to inadequate or improper management. The notion that government property is nobody’s property is a problem that the National Orientation Agency needs to address. The government has made efforts in the area of privatization to bring some of those companies back to life to no avail.

Another major issue that the current government needs to work on is the area of insecurity which has become an hydra-headed monster threatening the economic and peaceful co-existence of the nation. In fact, kidnapping has become the fastest growing criminal enterprise in the nation. President Tinubu as the President and Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces should as a matter of urgency bring this national embarrassment to an end. Insecurity has plunged the nation into hunger and abject poverty as farmers cannot go to their farms for fear of being kidnapped or killed. In some parts of the north, people pay to Boko Haram members for them to go to farm and also pay to harvest their crops. This has left the country at the mercy of those merchants of death. For the economy to be put on the path of growth, government needs to be decisive, giving our security agents the marching order to end the menace. Once our farmers return to their farm lands the prices of food items will reduce drastically.

The terrible state of our road is another menace that should be tackled headlong. Farmers and other citizens no longer have easy access to go about their businesses. Most of our roads are death traps and need urgent attention. The bad state of the roads leads to avoidable accidents, high cost of goods and also helps the kidnappers to do their evil business. Government should set up monitoring team to ensure companies awarded road contracts are mobilised to sites and do not engage in shady jobs.

Again, addressing youth unemployment is another key factor that will put the economy back on the path of prosperity. The rate of unemployment has risen to over 30 percent thereby giving room for our youths to engage in diverse vices for survival as an idle mind is the devil’s workshop.

This is the time for every citizen to initiate progressive ideas that will propel the nation to greater height, especially the youths of this nation with fresh ideas. This is the time that the youths have to think of what to do for the nation and for the government also to put more effort on how to raise the standard of the living of the people. Youths should be groomed to take over from the current crops of politicians in the area of developing economic blueprint that would move the nation forward.

The federal government should convene a stakeholders meeting with both the state governors and local government chairmen on how to improve the standard of living of the people, because charity they say begins at home. The local government chairmen and governors should create jobs for their people by reviving some of the moribund industries in their domain and making their people own such establishments through partnership.

If the APC-led government can work on those items listed above, Nigeria’s road to economic recovery will be nearer than you can imagine.

•Chime,is an APC youth leader in Delta State