Omoyele Sowore, a presidential aspirant and publisher of Sahara Reporters, says the depleting economy of Nigeria would be restored when he becomes the President in 2019.
Sowore, who spoke on Sunday at a town hall meeting in Abeokuta, the capital of Ogun State, observed that the economy of the country is presently in coma and needs a “restore factory settings”.
He explained that the reformation of the economy would help provide jobs for the unemployed youth and build infrastructure that would advance more growth and development.
The presidential hopeful noted that the economic growth of any nation should largely depend on its human capacity in investing and tapping from its natural resources.
According to him, Nigerian leaders have deepened the economy of the country into a big mess in the name of foreign reserves.
Sowore, who is the convener of the #TakeItBackMovement, declared that the Nigerian economy would be driven by technology when he is voted to power by 2019.
He identified the lack of workable ideas and policy somersault as some of the problems further depleting the country’s economy.
“Nigeria needs an operating system of SOS, because the present operating system of Nigeria now is like Nokia 3310 but we would restore it to factory settings by year 2019,” he said.
“By then our infrastructural system would be driven by technology and anti-corruption system can also be driven by technology.
“Our economy would be knowledge-based economy because the world is moving away from the Internet; it is picking up to robot.”
He said one of his plans is to boost the country’s economy in order to provide more opportunities for the people who have the dream of establishing themselves.
He reiterated that his goal is to create a viable economy that will provide at least five million jobs in the first three years of coming into office.
“Our agenda is very straightforward; we are going to do it through the security we talk about because we need to hire fresh policemen.
“First day of office, we would be hiring about 80,000 of them, and like the ghost workers they just detect in the force, we would purge them out and put in real people.
“Our policemen are going to leave the job of carrying hand bags for the girlfriends of political office holders forever and forever. We are going to provide at least 1.5 million jobs through infrastructural development because we are going to be building roads, transmission and power lines and build schools.”
He further said investing in the country’s economy could help provide at least two million jobs in the renewable energy sector.
The presidential aspirant added that the country’s energy sector can be boosted with 4,500MW of electricity through solar power that is driven by technology.
On restructuring, he said his government would decentralize power when voted in by 2019.
He noted that the youth should be given the responsibility to discuss how best to restructure the country, not the old ones who have tasted power without making positive change.
“We want to restructure Nigeria by decentralizing power but we want it to be done by us (youth). We are the ones whose future is at stake,” he said.
“We don’t want old people to restructure Nigeria for us, so if you are not in position of power and authority when they are doing restructuring they would lock the gate against you.
“The last time they had a meeting to discuss our future, we (youth) were not there; they only appointed few people from midst and put there.
“If they want to speak, the elders would shut them down because the elders are the ones sitting in front, and half of the elders before they even start the meeting have fallen asleep and small of them even died.”
