An eminent Imo State, born economist, Prof Innocent Eleazu, guest speaker at the revival/award dinner party of the Association of Economists held at the Concorde Hotel, Owerri Febuary 9,2022 proffered solution to the myriad of economic problems that the country is presently facing.
In the statement issued on the state of the Nigerian economy, Prof Eleazu observed that, “the Nigeria Association of Economists currently led by him has said that for the 2023 presidential election, the association will endorse a candidate who will sign a contract with the people to resuscitate the nation’s dwindling economy and ensure that the people live above poverty line,create wealth, cut the galloping inflation rate and employ the over 13.9 million jobless Nigerian youths.
The association in a program tagged,”on the state of the Nigeria Economy” observed that currently there is cost of living crisis in Nigeria and that there will be famine in Nigeria by 2025 or sooner if the federal government does not budget substantial amount of its revenue to agriculture and pursue technology based agriculture- a situation created by Covid 19 worldwide food shortage .
The association in her six points statement averred that the Nigeria poverty rate has rocketed to critical point that in 2026 the overwhelming majority of Nigerian will live in extreme poverty and the wealth gap in Nigeria has created the political constitution for terrorism to flourish and anti-corruption goals unachievable. They also observed that the Nigeria National debt highest it has ever been, – caused the country to lose credibility in the financial market of the world with its attendant consequences.
In his key note address on high profit discussion on Nigeria Economy, the National President, Professor Eleazu after welcoming participates to the evening occasion went down memory lane to discuss how inflation of 19.2% between 1979-2018 has sky rocketed to 82 % today under 40 years and how the rate of unemployment of Nigerian youths of about 13.9 million population has grown from 17.1% to 33 percent today creating an alarming rate of poverty in Nigeria.
He cited what Seattle Washington said about Nigeria poverty which was described as the poverty capital of the world, “Nigeria is a
third world country in Africa, is known as the poverty capital of the world.
“The
Nation just exceeded India with the largest rate of people living in extreme
poverty.”
In Nigeria, about 86.9 million people live in severe poverty which is about 50% of the entire population. The Nigeria poverty rate for 2018 was 92.00% a 0.9 decline from 2009, imagine what Nigeria unemployment rate is today 2022. The wealth gap has created the political conditions for terrorism to flourish in Nigeria. The Nigeria Price Index (CPI) was last updated January 2022. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) in Nigeria is expected to be 409.75 points by the end of the quarter according to Trading Economic Globe Macnomodels.
“Nigeria’s income from oil export: Crude oil dominates Nigeria export sector. In the last quarter of 2019, the value of total exports stood at 84.8 trillion.
“The $103 per barrel cannot be celebrated because of Nigeria inability to meet assigned quota. The Nigeria National rising public debt continues to be a cause for concern in Nigeria. According to the Debt Management Office (DMO) the total external debt stands at 827.16 trillion while domestic debt skyrockets to 856.7 billion. Nigeria’s debt profile reaches 883.88 billion in 2019 – imagine what it is in 2022. Based on these indicators, Nigeria
He noted that in Nigeria about 56.9 million people live in severe poverty which is about 50 percent of the entire population he observed Nigeria poverty rate for 2018 was 9200% and asked the audience to imagine the rate of unemployment today.
He observed that national income of Nigeria is crude oil based and on the economic status of the country based on oil production and utilization of the economic produced and debt profile Nigeria economy cannot be celebrated.
