Diversification from oil to agric, solution to Nigeria’s economic downturn – Adewusi

Worried about the current deplorable economic situation in Nigeria, particularly the shock arising from the dwindling price of oil in the global market, a former Commissioner for Finance, Economic Planning and Budget in Lagos State, Dr. Ismail Adebayo Adewusi, on Sunday said the main panacea was diversification of the economy from oil dependence to agriculture‎.
The Eruwa, Oyo State-born economic expert, lawyer ‎and governorship aspirant in the 2007 election in Oyo State, said this in an interview with journalists.
Adewusi said the mentality of exporting crude oil at the detriment of other economic ventures, which had reduced the nation to a monolithic economy, was debilitating and needed immediate arrest.
The politician, who felicitated with his former boss, Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu, on his 64th birthday and his immense contribution to the political development in the country, urged President Muhammadu Buhari to depart from the dependence policy of the past administrations in order to fix the wobbling economy once and for all.
His words: “The only way we can improve this economy is to quickly do what I call the diversification thing.
“Let us quickly address the issue of diversifying our economy away from where we are.
“We have consistently canvassed for a diversification of the economy away from oil because as long as this external shock from the global oil price continues, we will be having crisis managing our economy, especially in fulfilling government obligations.
“It is about time that we tackled this issue of diversification of the economy in a very serious manner.”
The immediate former chairman of Wemabod Estates Plc, a subsidiary of Odu’a Investment Company, also said: “Commodity prices are declining internationally and oil, being the driver of the revenue of the Nigerian government, has suffered very serious decline and this has affected the capacity of government to provide resources to turn the economy around.
“You would see that even in the 2016 budget, which is a budget of about N6 trillion, it has a deficit component of about N2 trillion, which is very substantial.
“But the main issue facing Nigeria today is the problem of over reliance on this mono- cultural, mono-product economy, which requires that we diversify to agriculture.
“Agriculture requires single digit financing.
“In terms of interest rates, agriculture with subsidy on inputs, fertilizers, seedlings will go a long way.
“Even financing in terms of real channeling of financing intervention funds in agriculture will boost production, while providing opportunities for our youths to start something, rather than looking for jobs that are not there.
“These are the things we need to immediately embark on.
“And the good thing about agriculture is that it does not take so long a time.
“If you plant maize today, in 90 days time, you begin to harvest.
“The rainy/planting season is here already, so we need to immediately drive this process.
“It is not about mouthing it.”