Speech Delivered by Dr. Abiola Oshodi on January 27th 2023 at Niagara, Canada.
PROTOCOLS
INTRODUCTION
Let me start by saying that I am representing our PCC (Presidential campaign council) Director of Diaspora Directorate, Prince Ade Omole who strongly desired to attend this event as our keynote speaker, but he had earlier accepted an invitation to the USA, Atlanta specifically which also holds today. Thus his unavoidable absence. And please accept his sincere apologies. He’s with us in the spirit and he might also be able to join us virtually.
This august gathering of the best of Nigeria and Canada is here because of the love for our beautiful country. Nigeria, which is situated in enviable tropical weather – l am sure you are currently missing it until summer – the great country Nigeria gave you and particularly me the nationality, social kindred, and sound foundational education that has enabled us to stand shoulder to shoulder with the North Americans, the Chinese, all the European ethnicities and professionals from the best schools around the world. I am sure you are aware of the statistical data that others envy us for: 37% of Nigerians in the US have at least a Bachelor’s degree, 17% possess a Master’s degree and 4% have a PhD. These and the growing army of millions of tuition-free educated youths in our schools are the twinkle-twinkle little stars that Nigeria, a developing country with almost 24 years of uninterrupted democracy is gifting the world. Believe it! We are the hope of Africa, and in us lies the renewed hope of the world!
l appreciate my Irish-Canadian ties, yet my beginning from the ancient Owo city in southwest Nigeria where l started my nursery and primary school education, then attended my secondary school education in a bigger city, Ibadan specifically in Oyo state and then my sojourn at the medical school of the University of Benin were just a few of the enviable opportunities generously given to you and I and others and even till date without any suffocating student loans to pay back. Therefore, my story and of course yours too do not support the negative narrative being told by the revisionists that our country is an evil forest or a valley of despair.
Nigeria is indeed a land of hope. My medical profession with specialist training in psychiatry and having practised in this profession in the western world for over twenty years and counting is one of the many examples that Nigeria is indeed a country that breeds unusual champions and that we remain the shining lights of Africa. And your degrees acquired, businesses built, persons employed, remittances sent home, are emblems of her staring hope. I believe in her greater hope. A rekindled hope. And a renewed hope that would through the leadership and presidency of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu – Shettima be achieved when we advertise, campaign and vote for the ticket as the next president and vice president respectively on February 25th, 2023.
Why do we follow BAT? Or if l should personalize it. Why would I take a leave from family and my medical practice in Canada, and invest time, energy and funds into the 2023 ABAT project? For typical pecuniary political gains? Far from it! Some of us chose to follow Asiwaju Tinubu because we believe he is the man with the map and GPRS for a greater Nigeria. He has walked the paths of success in politics, and had performed excellently as governor in Lagos. If he did it for a city-state of 20m inhabitants and made it a model for others to follow, then the burning torch of Renewed Hope for Nigeria can be lit up, through and with Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.
Politics is a platform for platitudes and promises. And 2023 has unveiled many presidential candidates with bogus claims, highfalutin promises and phoney statistics to deceive a demography that cannot differentiate between election period propaganda and capacity to deliver good governance. Therefore, the job of educating the voting public on the need to make the right choice of candidates lies with us. And this event presents an opportunity to do it one more time. Therefore, l shall pick out, and speak on the foci of what the Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu -Shettima leadership would beam the light on when he is voted to power on February 25th 2023 and sworn in on May 29th 2023 as president and commander in chief of Federal Republic of Nigeria and vice president respectively, God willing.
THE RENEWED HOPE AGENDA
FOOD SECURITY:
The elite may measure economic growth and indices in interest rates, stock market performance and property and real estate growth. But the man on the street wants above all things affordable food and derivative products for himself and his family. Nigerians on minimum wage currently spend about 80% of their income on food. Food inflation is an index that affects persons in all economic brackets. The APC administration under Buhari since 2015 has invested billions of Naira in building local food capacity to meet self-sufficiency: In rice, grains, vegetables and poultry products. Unfortunately, these efforts haven’t yielded desired results because of the unfortunate security situation in our farming belts. But the Renewed Hope agenda plans to tame the virus of insecurity and thereby increase the percentage of cultivated land from 35% to 65% within the next 4 years.
The Farm Nigeria project of ABAT would see millions of hectares of land cleared up across the 36 states and the FCT not just to support subsistence farming but to achieve a new paradigm shift in agribusiness. The West African market is already opened up through the African continental free trade agreement (AfCTA). Nigerian trailers and lorry loads of rice, beans, yams and vegetables would traverse the sub-region and make millionaires out of our people. This is no phantom dream or claim. In Kebbi, Niger, Kaduna and Kastina, Ebonyi State, rice paddy production has created local millionaires out of formerly subsistence or smallholder farmers. And in Oyo, Osun, Ogun, Kwara axis, poultry farmers now supply chicken products to eateries, shops and malls. Asiwaju Tinubu would sustain and improve this tempo through the Anchor Borrowers Initiative by making more finance easily and readily directly available to farmers. We are now eating made in Nigeria rice, rather than strengthening the hands of farmers in Thailand and India by unrestricted importation of rice. We have the lands, hands and agricultural inputs and governmental support to feed ourselves. And that shall be sustained and improved upon as of May 29, 2023.
ECONOMY:
l would not offend the intellect of this distinguished meeting by regurgitating time-worn clichés, unworkable and cloudy economic plans flown in kites by other presidential candidates about the Nigerian economy. But the clarity and the rigorous intellectual content of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu’s blueprint for quick economic recovery is what made yours truly throw the hat into the ring to join the Tinubu campaign train. The document includes:
i) The National Infrastructure Campaign: The deficit of capital and social infrastructure in our nation would be cured by massive investment in the completion and expansion of ongoing train and railways projects; a truly cross-country superhighways; and a rework of legislation that would permit states to rebuild and maintain denominated federal roads within state domains. We therefore would build more lengthy bridges. We would approve and construct more airports. We would dredge rivers and dry paths across rivers for water transportation.
l can hear you asking how would these massive investments in infrastructure be funded. The FG has proposed that the ₦7 trillion allocated to subsidy would be stopped. That position agrees with the vision of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu on fiscal policy reforms. He has boldly maintained that we cannot continue to carry the subsidy cross. Thus, expected savings from the subsidy, widened tax net, and participation of Public Private Partnerships from willing local and international investors have assured ponds from which funds would be fished. The man who promised all of this has a history. He built the template that increased Lagos State’s monthly revenue from ₦600m to ₦51b and has enabled the funding of the metro line, 4th Mainland bridge, Eko Atlantic City, Lagos Deep Port, Lagos Island airport, and the tolled Highways in the Lekki/Ajah axis. These are testimonials of what improved revenue and public-private equity participation can achieve. This is one area amongst others that we can leverage and extend hands of invitation to our Canadian friends and investors present at this conference to prepare to partner with us in Nigeria, once our principal successfully wins the forthcoming presidential election by His grace.
ii) Import Substitution: This involves redirecting the industrial policy to focus on local production of those products that deplete our foreign exchange reserve. By 2024, Nigeria would stop the total importation of petroleum products after the completion of the Dangote Refinery – a synergy between the Federal Government and Aliko Dangote. Also, to curb our reliance on foreign goods, importation of non-essential products will be discouraged by Asiwaju Tinubu through policy measures including luxury taxes, higher tariffs, and higher processing port fees. At the same time, international brands and indigenous manufacturers will be incentivised with tax credits, rebates and other fiscal incentives to establish manufacturing plants in Nigeria both for export and to meet the needs of the large population of consumers in Nigeria and the wider ECOWAS region. We shall also enact new policies to exploit the framework provided by the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCTA) to further boost domestic manufacturing and production.
iii) Consumer Credit System: Asiwaju has consistently stated how he would stimulate effective demand for goods, property and housing through coordinated consumer credit. This would improve trade, make housing affordable and fight corruption. He insists that no one needs to steal or save millions before he can purchase a car or a flat. Credit bureaus and banks would be encouraged to give out long-tenured loans and credit facilities to the employed and business persons to make acquisitions of household items easier.
JOB CREATION: At his 2022 colloquium, Asiwaju Tinubu gave a hint of how his presidency would tackle youth unemployment. He proposed that government would directly recruit into the security agencies millions of our young people. As usual, naysayers went to town with a hybridized version of what he didn’t say. That however is not the issue. Although there is an Orosanye Report that government should be streamlined, yet, only 1.2m out of 220m Nigerians are currently in the employment by the federal government, and a paltry 8.6% of the total population in Nigeria is employed by all the tiers of government. Compared to 5.8m (22.5%) employed in the public service of the UK, and in Egypt 21.2%, and in South Africa 17.4%. Our dirty cities, unregulated traffic situation, and ineffective policing are consequences of lower staffing in public service. Therefore, the Asiwaju model is the first leg in solving unemployment. As governor of Lagos State, between (1999 -2007), he employed thousands in LASTMA, Transportation, Education, KAI and other agencies while other states couldn’t and even wouldn’t. If corruption is tackled and leakages in public finance are sealed, public sector employment in Nigeria can be doubled to 17%. This would lead to more teachers, engineers, nurses, accountants, ICT personnel, security and armed forces personnel, and ultimately a boost on the private sector businesses where more employment opportunities would by default be created.
SECURITY:
Asiwaju Tinubu as commander-in-chief would mobilize the totality of our national security, military and law enforcement assets to protect all Nigerians from danger and the fear of danger. His program of action includes the following:
i) Expansion and improvement on the use of technology; enhance recruitment of more security personnel and building a more robust, re-energized armed forces; Recruit, and train a better equipped additional military, police, paramilitary and intelligence personnel.
ii)Redefine Military Doctrine and Practice by creating Anti-Terrorist Battalions; Upgrade tactical communications and transportation; Upgrade weapons systems; Exploit aerial and technological superiority; Improve salaries and welfare; Win hearts and minds using targeted economic assistance programs and work in close collaboration with State Governments.
iii) Secure Critical National Infrastructure by implementing the Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) Plan; Integral to this effort shall be the deployment of modern technologies, tools and equipment to end crude oil theft, prevent vandalisation of national assets; Reduce to the barest minimum, environmental pollution of the Niger Delta; Increased aerial surveillance over land and sea with other cutting edge technology that will provide instant notification of intrusions or disruptions of oil pipelines, monitor power stations, transmission and distribution networks, sea and airports, rail transportation, telecommunications and other vital infrastructure.
iv) Peaceful Communities, Secure Borders, and Safe Forests; Establishment or enhancement of civilian neighbourhood watch groups & establishment of more formal locally-based law enforcement institutions; Customs and Immigration Service’s ability to patrol and monitor our borders using aerial and ground-based technology mechanisms; Revitalize Ranger or Forest Guard Force.
v) Other measures include Integrated Identity Databases, International Collaboration; Strengthening the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Police Affairs, and other regulatory and supervisory agencies to provide robust and regulatory oversight and enhance coordination and performance of statutory mandates of the security services.
POWER:
Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s presidency would build on the Presidential Power Initiative (Nigeria-Siemens partnership) of the Buhari administration which signals that more investments will go into the transmission aspect of power thereby electrifying the remaining 40% of Nigeria to a reasonable level which is quite realistic. A boost on the generation of our present 12,000KW to an additional 15,000KW through investment in gas and hydro-driven turbines. Asiwaju plans to support local manufacturing of electricity meters and mitigate the criminality associated with estimated billings. Also, a holistic review and improvement of the power policies to profit both the producers and consumers of electricity in Nigeria; Practical and realistic plans would be made to look into other means of power generation (nuclear, renewable, wind, and solar amongst other sources of power generation.
Is the energy sector a strange tuff to the former governor of Lagos State? The answer is no. Asiwaju Tinubu once facilitated the power generation and purchase agreement between Enron USA and Federal Government in 2007 in a deal that would have taken commercial and industrial Lagos off the national grid. But a jealous PDP under Chief Olusegun Obasanjo threw away a handsome baby with bad water.
CONCLUSION:
Ladies and gentlemen, l have with carefulness chosen and picked a few of the many areas of our national life extensively dealt with under the Renewed Hope agenda. This meeting would extend for more hours if we were to analyze all that Asiwaju plans and proposes to do. I am confident in his leadership. I am assured of his capacity. Within the political space, Bola Tinubu is a man who is known to keep his word and promises. Therefore, his action plan, his ideas, and his vision would be turned into projects performed and missions accomplished. He has a mandate from our party, APC to represent it on February 25, 2023, as a presidential candidate. I believe that millions of Nigerians of all groups, tribes and races would troop out on D-day to give their mandate to Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and elect him president of this great nation. So that Nigeria’s hope may be renewed.
Thank you all and God bless Nigeria.
[3:23 AM, 1/28/2023] Dr. Abiola Oshodi: 👆👆👆speech delivered earlier today by yours truly Dr Abiola Oshodi at an APC canada chapter organized event to promote the ABAT-Shettima ticket in the forthcoming presidential election
