Former governors who served from 1999 to 2007 have urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to prioritise the creation of cottage industries across all local government areas instead of relying on the distribution of N5,000 palliatives, which they say do little to address the country’s economic challenges.
The ex-governors, who make up the Class of ’99 and include President Tinubu as a former colleague, made the appeal on Friday during a closed-door meeting with the President at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
Speaking on behalf of the group, former Edo State Governor Lucky Igbinedion said rural communities are bearing the brunt of the harsh economic realities and need real, lasting solutions.
While evaluating President Tinubu’s efforts and outlining their key expectations, Igbinedion emphasised that security must come first, noting that without it, there can be no real development or stability.
“And secondly, the economy, of course, needs to be stabilised by ensuring the foreign exchange remains stable and people can afford it. But what is most important is: let’s create industries, especially cottage industries, that can employ people, rather than just giving out palliatives.”
“We implored him to try as much as possible to create cottage industries in all the local governments of the federation where people can be employed, because if you give palliative to somebody today, what happens tomorrow? If he has N5,000 in the morning, how about lunchtime or dinner time? What is he going to do?
“N5,000 cannot buy much. So I thought these were part of the really heart-to-heart discussions we had with the President, and he agreed with us to say, yes, he’s going to look into it, and we appreciated it,” he added.
Explaining the purpose of their visit to Abuja, Igbinedion said,” We came to see one of our own, Class of ’99, and to bring about topics about the state of the nation. We are glad that Mr President received us warmly, and we spoke basically about the security situation of the nation, the economy, and, of course, agriculture. The President expressed his concern about these various issues that we came to discuss with him.”
“And we also proffered our solutions about how he can go about bringing about succour to the people. The people, especially in the rural areas, are feeling the impact of the harsh economy, and he assured us that he is looking into it.
“We also spoke about the stability of the naira, which he also addressed appropriately. So it has been a very fruitful deliberation with Mr. President. And of course, he assured us that whatever suggestions or way forward that we might have, his doors are always open for such conversation.”
