I’ll Ban Importation Of Rice, Tomato If Elected – Buhari vows

The presidential candidate of the All
Progressives Congress, Maj.-Gen.
Muhammad Buhari (retd), on Monday said if elected on February 14, he would ban the importation of basic items like rice and tomato in order to enhance local production of the products.

He also said his administration would focus on agriculture, mining,
infrastructure and job provision at the top of its economic agenda.
Buhari, who gave a summary of how
he intended to revive the economy in
a meeting with the Organised Private Sector in Lagos, said his government would place emphasis on three key issues of security, tackling corruption and reviving the ailing economy.

The meeting, which had all the key
members of the APC in attendance,
was hosted by the Lagos State
Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola.
“How can Nigeria be importing
virtually everything? How can we be
importing even tomatoes? If I am
elected, basic items like rice and
tomatoes, which we have the capacity to produce, will be banned from being imported,” Buhari said.
The APC presidential candidate said
his commitment to the Nigerian
people would be governed by the
highest consideration for how his
policies would create jobs.

He also said he would focus on the
provision of infrastructure such as
power and roads.

Buhari, who said he agreed with the
current administration on the
privatisation of the power utilities,
however, said there would be a need
to also privatise the transmission
segment.

According to him, the privatisation of
the power sector has yet to achieve the desired result because after the
handing over of the assets to private
investors, the hard work to connect the various parts of the power chain,
supply gas, install transformers and
complete substations has not been
done.

He added, “Our studies show that we will require no less than 200,000
trained personnel to support the
initiative to provide power and light
up Nigeria.

“Apart from the inherent direct
employment that this will give, the
reduction in the cost of production, the savings from self-generation by
Nigerians, who currently spend a lot
of their income on purchase of diesel and petrol to generate their own electricity, will reduce the burden on their disposable income.”

An existing plan to build a refinery in
Lagos will be supported by the Federal Government, according to Buhari.

Another area of infrastructure
investment that will receive attention, according to him, is road and highway construction from one end of the country to the other.

He said his administration would
concentrate on roads and highways
that linked the states, while state
governments would be expected to
connect their respective areas to the
highways.

Buhari said, “Road construction alone will unlock value chain of
opportunities for construction
companies, builders, engineers,
architects, quarry operators, cement
and iron rod producers and suppliers.

“The successful opening up of Nigeria by the construction of new roads and highways will revive road transport, truck manufacture, tyre manufacture as well as engine oil and brake pad production on one hand. It will also create a demand for job for mechanics, drivers and those engaged in transport support businesses.

“We expect a revival of all the interstate economies to thrive across Nigeria,
providing support to travellers by way
of canteens, restaurants, farm produce
etc.”
He, however, said because corruption
was affecting the performance of the
economy, he would tackle it headlong
if elected into office.
According to him, the alleged $20bn
missing crude oil proceeds, which was
estimated to be equal to about N4.2tn,
were nearly a year’s budget.
He said with N5m per vehicle, the
amount could provide 840,000 patrol
vehicles to help improve on the
security of towns and villages across the country.

The APC presidential candidate also
noted that the amount could provide
311,000 buses that could revolutionise the transport sector of the economy.

He said, “If the average cost of
generating one megawatt of power is about $1.5m (excluding gas and
distribution costs), $20bn would have brought us over 13,333MW of power.

Source:- Punch