The intellectual, organisational and administrative incapacities of past leaderships in Nigeria led to the development and implementation of unresponsive economic policies for Nigeria. This led to unprecedented hardship to the people of Nigeria.
I am therefore committed to an economic recovery which will benefit every Nigerian. We will fight to ensure resources are adequately allocated nationwide; to ensure rural development, job training, and critical infrastructural investments throughout Nigeria.
My government will work to improve our roads, railways, airports and the use of the internet in community development. We will advance Nigeria’s infrastructure so as to attract businesses and thereby create good jobs across the entire country. Under my leadership, Nigerians will enjoy a much easier life, with more and better roads, train networks, reliable and safe air transportation, universal broadband and better mobile phone connections, so as to ensure everyone is part of the global digital economy.
My government will actively work towards achieving a self-reliant economy for the nation. An economy that will depend on the vast resources available to our country; including her people. We will strive for a policy of privatisation for sectors of the economy where government control is only a deterrent to development.
I aim to diversify the economy, reduce reliance on crude oil, reduce the gap between the rich and the poor, and with that expand the middle class which will strengthen our economy.
Create Meaningful Well Paid Jobs
The goal is get our people good paying jobs in both the public and private sectors. To create good-paying jobs which can support a middle-class life for working class Nigerians and small business owners; I am committed to doing everything possible to build a full-employment economy, where every Nigerian has a job which pays enough to raise a family and live in dignity with a sense of purpose.
My government will build a strong, sustained economy for Nigeria; an economy where we all come together to work as one united team regardless of our differences. Together, we can electrify the entire country, build, update and expand our federal, state, and rural roads and bridges, improve our airports, our passenger and freight rail lines. We can build reliable energy and water systems, modernise our schools, improve and expand our mobile and broadband networks. We can build shipping, auto and aviation industries to be envied world over, support research and development in medicine, communications, science and technology. We can also manage and maintain all the infrastructure we build, our investments in us and in our future generations. There is so much high value work that we can all do and get good pay for doing them. What are we waiting for? What is stopping us from achieving these?
When we take the bull by the horn, so much will be achieved for all of us.
Cut Out Wasteful Spending
My government will have zero tolerance for wasteful spending. We will therefore tackle waste, fraud, and abuse of office to make sure our national wealth is spent wisely and efficiently.
This means that multiple private jets for political office holders, frivolous sums allocated to the office of first ladies, multiple homes and guest houses for political office holders, staff whose only purpose for being called staff in government houses is to get paid undeserved salaries, trips with a battalion of people who are not needed for the success of the journey will be history.
In a country that has the highest number of extremely poor people in the world, why should we assign multiple extraordinarily expensive vehicles which are of no use and end up as garage decorations to political office holders or their family? This is highly unacceptable! It is so unfair that political office holders live a ridiculously lavish and wasteful lifestyle funded by taxpayers, our national resources and at the expense of the average Nigerian.
Make Banks Work for Nigerians
My government will strive to fund lending schemes which will ensure banks in Nigeria help secure our recovery, back our youth in their pursuit of good education and back our businesses to create jobs and ensure growth in our economy.
We will strive to create an independent, national infrastructure bank that will support critical infrastructure development in Nigeria. This bank will provide low interest long term loans and other financial assistance for investments in energy, water, information technology especially broadband, local manufacturing, housing, transportation, and other infrastructure development projects.
We will encourage lending to support investment in start-ups and innovative schemes, thus help firms which are looking to expand, invest and take on new employees.
Effective System of Taxation
The tax collection system in Nigeria is a sham. Therefore, tackling tax evasion, tax avoidance, and tax planning will be important in our economic plan. We will build capacity in global automatic tax information exchange systems, and significantly improve the Federal and States Inland Revenue’s capacity as Nigeria’s tax authority. Employed individuals, small businesses and companies which earn taxable income each year will be made to understand they risk significant legal penalties for failure to pay tax as at when due. We will educate the people about the importance of tax collection and ensure that the tax collected from people are not squandered by tax collectors but return to our national coffers and be well utilized to further develop us as a Nation.
Higher Tax Rates for High Income Earners
I believe that the wealthiest Nigerians and the largest corporations in Nigeria must pay their fair share of taxes. I believe that by making those at the top end of the earning quota, and the largest corporations pay their fair share of tax, we can pay for the ambitious progressive infrastructural investments we are proposing. These projects will in turn create good-paying jobs for our people without adding to our debt.
We will claw back unnecessary tax breaks for big telecommunications companies, big oil and gas companies, and such other companies as our current legislations allow free funds through bogus tax breaks.
I will however support and spearhead the creation of policies which ensure that our tax code rewards businesses that make investments and provide good-paying jobs in Nigeria
Zero Tax for Minimum Wage Earners and Petty Traders
I believe that Nigerians who earn the minimum wage, and those who use petty trades to pay their daily living should be exempt from paying taxes.
Tax rates will therefore be set for different earning class, so that the amount of tax each individual pays is in a direct correlation to the amount of taxable income earned.
Uniform Tax Rate for Corporations
Corporations must pay taxes at the same rate irrespective of size and location. The deciding factor is the amount of profit made by such organisations.