 Let's quickly talk about the economy now. It concerns our dependency on oil. It's still the breakfast and plus TV Africa are going to be joined by an expert, Hussain Olarewaju. Hussain Olarewaju, he's a digital financial service expert right here in Lagos. But just before we're being joined by Hussain, the Nigerian export promotion believes that the nation's economy, talking about Nigeria, can thrive better without oil if the non-oil sector is prioritized. Well, Nigeria is blessed with abundant non-oil resources ranging from agriculture produced to mineral resources, the likes of Cocoa House, the Liberty Stadium, the Granite Pyramids and many other assets including free education in the western parts of the country in Nigeria were from the sweats of agriculture. Now, Nigeria's federal and state government remains heavily dependent on oil revenues, relying on it to deliver public goods and the use of oil dollars to serve as debt and glossary national currency. The pandemic that's the COVID heightened the potential loss to the Federation where the federal government's loss was recorded. More than 50% revenue was dependent on oil as the shutdown of global economic activities, the onslaught of pandemic and sharp decline in oil demand in 2020. Lefty government unable to meet its 2020 revenue projection. That's a lot. And it feels like every other time the international community sneezes, Nigeria quicks. The federal government had to slash the budget by more than a half or there were about just to meet realistic 20% reducing the benchmark price and production projection from $57 at a time per barrel to $30 per barrel and dissipating production volume from 2.2 million barrels per day to 1.7 million barrels per day consecutively to accommodate the new realities. You also want to talk about the thefts, the fact that we have not been able to leave up to OPEC, you know, quarter that's been allocated to exporting or oil exporting countries. Hussain, you are a digital financial service experts joined the conversation. Hussain, can you hear us please? Yes, I can hear you. Good morning. Good morning. So I'd like to share your thoughts. Do you think that we can actually thrive as an economy highly dependent on non-oil sector, especially with the structure of government that we practice where you have the center being very powerful and the units running to the center for allocation? Thank you. From my perspective, I believe Nigeria is having that capacity to diversify. He, the leaders, are so willing to do so. I'll give an example of a particular richest man in Africa, Dan Gote. Dan Gote do not have any involvement in oil. He practically do his business based on stones, natural resources. Cement have based on natural resources of stones in Nigeria and go to consumable sugars and water view. And he's still having his turnover money, more than those who specialize in oil. So that's a typical example to say, by the time we, the leaders are ready to first of all focus on the consumables, what to consume, begin to produce what we consume. So that should be lega backing probably from the legislators to concept from the executive. If there is a whole power, we can diversify from it because naturally what we, a lot of monies have been spent on considering the civil servant states, the less acquired, the latter of Nigeria and some other civil servant states, people actually spend some of their money on consumables. So if we begin to produce what we consume, it will definitely increase the value of Naira. It will also increase the revenue. And most importantly, data capturing that is ongoing. If we have the opportunity to capture all the data of the farmers, the individuals that are selling all these consumables, then government can have high revenue generated from tax and what have you. So it's doing for now and I can see that it's doing. Well, very fantastic perspective. But the question here remains whether or not we can be non oil dependents, we can thrive as an economy, not on the oil economy, but you know, on the non oil sector. So I'm asking, with the kind of structure that we practice where there's a lot of concentration of powers in the center, that's the federal government, it leaves the component units running to the center for allocation. Do you think that, you know, the non oil sector can thrive? Is that not a challenge? It's a challenge, right? But by the time you look critically down the stream, the so-called dependent on oil economy is profiting some silent set of people who have oil block and who wants, by all means, to ensure that Nigerian continue to depend on the oil produce because of the proceeds, the catch-outs. So what we're saying is for Nigerian to be dependent, to be independent of oil, we need to have a system of government with a way power one. We need to start saying each state to begin to generate revenue instead of expecting allocations from the federal government. Each state should begin to generate revenue by developing the resources in each state and remitting a certain percentage of the profit generated to the federal government. That is what we call, we look into as a decentralized government, where each state begins to cater for its own needs. So it is the willpower from the government to actually make this happen. So if we give the government from the parliament to the executive a ready, so it's a matter of readiness, we have what it takes. We have proteins, we have raw materials, iron ore, we have agri-produced from different perspectives. It's amazing to look into, to look into cocoa, for example. In the first half of this year, cocoa exportation has actually generated 114.1 billion naira to Nigeria economy. Imagine that cocoa is what you use for your end produce of the likes of teas and what have you that we, coffees and what have you that we take and we import them back in a refined manner at high cost. So what we're saying is by time we begin to produce a lot autonomy for state autonomy to be able to start producing, start generating the internal revenue and remitting to the federal government to reduce the independent of our locations, expectations from oil. But you say the government, when you say the government, which of the government are you referring to? We have three tiers of government, the federal government, the state and the local. So which of the government are we talking about now? It has to start from the top, from the federal down to the states. But you know, let's get back to it. So you say that the federal government, the conversation should start from the top. But here we have state government who understand that they have states. Recently, there's been a lot of complaint with the federal locations and the deductions because of the fact that there's a shortfall with earnings from oil and all of the tests is going on that has actually affected our production outputs and of course our earnings. And so should this conversation be left to the hands of the center, not the federal government, this federal government you talk about in each state, you have a representation where you have state house of assembly members, you have members representing different constituencies. So how come the state governors are not having this conversation about having resources controlled by themselves? How come they're not engaging? We know that the different forum and fora where they're meets the governor's forum. So should this conversation be about the center or it should be about the units? So I'll give an example, a typical example of legal states in the era of President Obama, where the state led by Chernobyl, he created more local governments, limit LCDA. Federal government went against it and federal government practically says it will stop your allocation. But the state survived. How? Because the state concentrated on utilizing the resources within the state and generate revenue through that resources. So I think with that, the state survived for months before they got their location in bulk in return. So what we are saying is if the government is at that with power, if the federal government says this is where we are going, this is the new dimension, this centralized government system, we will see it happen. It is there. It is just the willpower and you have to have something to push for it to happen. So it just don't happen by mere saying it has to be a push and it has to be a willpower. There has to be a willpower to get it done. I want us to be very, you know, real because there's always a tendency to push the blame on the federal government as it is. But you have the state government, I mean we are a federating unit with 36 states including the FCT. And so I know that you probably might be conversant with the fact that 44 bills have been put out within the period of, you know, constitutional review and we probably might be running out of time now. 25 states have refused to vote on constitutional amendment bill and they have actually stated the reason. And four bills that they have refused to give us into one of them is the issue of state policing or the state police, the issue of, you know, state judicial council among others. And we know that if, you know, this government or this state actually give a yes or not to this, it would also give an excuse for them to have or control their resources. Because if you control the state police or your judiciary, then there might be need for financing which gives room for, you know, controlling your resources. But they have refused. So what exactly are we really saying that, you know, the central government should be, it's the problem of the central government? So it starts to note that we are in position who don't know their owners or the opportunities that is present in front of them. And going back to history, I believe part of the reason why some of the government or state government are trying to reject it is because of their ability, they acquire over time from their past, from their possessors, you know, and they have to serve you some loans and whatever. So they want to continue depending on federal government to get things sorted out. However, if we look deeply in that there is a lack of communication and the understanding from even the legislative to the executive themselves. So we have to have people in government who have that will power because if there is no will power will continue to blame things. Right. So this issue of international revenue do not start from a state fund like Lagos stated on. I could call that during the military era of president head of state, that's Sunny Abacha, you know, there are some state like Niger states who do not have adequate allocations from the head of state, which is from the federal. But the generated revenue from tax, IGR and what are you and they are living fine before the current dispensation. So I believe there should be a will power and it is the will power that will actually let us drop the issue of blame truly and focus on what is needed to do. So what is lacking is basically will power will power from from the states from the state level. All right. But so moving forward, how do we, you know, then solve the problem? I probably might predict that you would say that the states actually need will power. But would there be any other options where we can compel or, you know, move forward and see beyond what, you know, those who are calling the shots are saying? Is there anything that could be done, you know, from the legislative arm of government really? Yes. So we have to have from the federal legislator, a system where these legislators vote, you know, to ensure they can pass their support from the local, where they represent their constituencies to ensure that the state, the state legislators also buy into their idea and vote for that. Then the executive would not have any other choice rather than to consent to what the legislators have, you know. So it is based on will power and everybody has to, beyond just sending you, communicate down to their constituency level to ensure this is achieved. Well, thank you so much, Osani or Larry Waju for being with us this morning and sharing your thoughts on the need for us, you know, to move ahead from an oil dependent economy toward the sectors. Thank you so much. Thank you. Well, that's the size of a conversation this morning on the breakfast. It's fine to follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and do subscribe to our YouTube channel where plus TV Africa and plus TV Africa lifestyle. We'll definitely return tomorrow with more interesting conversation. I am messy. We'll join the newsroom at nine o'clock for the news brief. Please stay with us.