 We're glad to know you're still there and watching the Breakfast on Plus TV Africa. And time now for our first very hot topic. And to join me in discussing the pronouncement of the president that he has said. You join me to discuss this is Mr. Joe Femi Dagoon-Roo, founder, Lagos Forum. Good morning and welcome to the program, sir. What we're talking about is that the president, Tinobu, has set three years' timeline for economic revival and has also set 50 million jobs target. Let's get your comments on this. 50 million jobs and three years' timeline for economic revival. Let's hear your comments. Well, you see, the most interesting part of it is everything that the president has said sounds good, you know, and he's very ambitious with most of his money. And when you look at it back and forth, the things we have to see is how to run the economy without making a big, big copy of him, looking for where to go normally and putting ourselves in a mess. So if we can do that, like the minister said, that we're not going to continue to borrow money. If we don't borrow money regularly, and we're able to manage what we have, and increase on our foreign jobs, increase on most of this area, and close the new polls. Now, I tell you, they're fighting the old peace right now, all over the place. You know, it is something that is possible within the next three years. The figure of 50 million may just be an ambitious thing, like I said. How to achieve 50 million jobs is something that we have to, not be pessimistic, but then, especially optimistic about it. But it is not even the figure that matters. It means that the economy is moving in the right direction. Jobs are being generated. Those are the things, so gradually, even if you are able to achieve 10 million, even if you have to achieve 5 million, it doesn't really matter. But let this be a continuous flow. Let there be hope that they can get a job after school. Those are the things that the people want, and if the country is not borrowing before, and we are able to achieve, listen, we are not only making our produce production, so we cannot sell what we don't have. So if we are able to do that, and we are saying we are making our produce, we are improving our jobs, we are exporting jobs, we have a lot of things that are export to make money. So if that is Mr. President's idea, and his new plans are following that, then we are ready to move in the right direction. So there is nothing impossible if we are able to follow the right thing, and do it not just because it's an idea. The problem is not lack of ideas in this area. The problem is the education. Education and monitoring these whole process. And like you said, if the minister, even one of them doesn't perform well, he's ready to boot them out. Let this be an action. I believe these are good intentions. These are good ideas. He has a manifesto. He told us he wants to revive. He's a tsunami. And I think he knows what he's doing, because it's a lifelong ambition to be the president. So he is actually the man to do it, because that is his own way of looking at it. He has told him about the other presidents who are before him. So he knows, and he should know better. So if all his people are there to work with him, to succeed in this game, then this journey, because he's the driver, like you said, and they are conductive. If they are not going to misuse the opportunity, look at what we are looking at in the mineral sector. The mineral sector is the solid mineral. Look at what has been done to it. They have been classified. People are just killing this thing. And if you can portray those, we are going to be very rich in this country. We are going to make more money. There's no doubt about that. But let us cut off these selfish ideas. If the ministers would go out to really work the way they have promised to do this job, yes, it's possible. There's nothing else to put in this agenda in the manifesto. But then it depends on how transparent we are, how we fight this corruption that is endangering our lives. So these are the things we have to do. If we have to stop a lot of importation, look at the kind of tax and trucks we are bringing in. We have to curtail that. We have to begin to look at how to produce enough food for our country first of all. Look at the marine sector. If you are able to improve on that, I don't know how many fish controllers we have in Nigeria or how many investors are really putting their money into the fishing business. So these are the kind of things that we have to improve. If we are able to convince people, look at in those days you have the Ibu families. They have this fish controller. A lot of people are having controllers in Nigeria. But right now I don't know if we still have those people. So now we have to look at those areas where we are importing fish. And we have islands, we have poster, we have the sea, we have the lagoon, we have the lakes, we have everything that we can use to get what we have, what we need rather. Look at the sector and industry. We are still importing, even the Ankara. And then in those days we used to say in those days, we can revive this thing so that we will not put pressure on our foreign investors. And people can actually be happy. These are the areas whereby you will provide jobs opportunity for the people. So let us begin to look at it. That's what I'm saying is audacious. And it's important that we have to be audacious. It's important as well that these programs, these projects have to be monitored and it has to be transparent. So that whatever we are spending into this, then we have to tell ourselves that this is what and what we are getting. It is the joy of the citizens that we bring more into this. Because when the people are already engaged, there will be less criminal activities. Because what we delay, what we make the farmers not to go to farm, it is why should anybody go to farm until the whole day, only to plant and not be able to have it. Because we have, you know, these people who are headers or who are headmen or who are the people destroying the farm, they are human beings. And if they are Nigerians, if they are Africans, we can find a way to, you know, to disrupt that activity so that the farmers can go to farm and do their job. And if we have the fraud that we come and ravage the farm, let's begin to protect it right now. So these are things that are possible. They are not something that is not possible. So that is what I'm saying is audacious is something that can be achieved and it depends on the people. And if we are concerned with that, if we are serious like this, the president has said, we should be able to achieve this in three years. And, you know, the fact that he said three years, gives us a good insight of what he thinks. Because, you know, the fourth year will be a year for campaigning and for political, you know, move around. So within the next three years, and, you know, I keep saying 100 days is not enough, but we can study the structure of the government within 100 days. We can study the programs of the government within 100 days. But to say we want to analyze or to see what the government is doing, how it's going to perform yet. 100 days will not be enough. So we actually need the next three years or three years to see the effect. But people want to begin to see from now how this is going on, how it's going to affect them. And that is the major thing right now. They are seeing the toxicity. Gradually they are coping with it and the toxicity is being removed. But they are still looking at it. If the government says we have realized a certain amount of money in billions or trillions, and this is what we are spending the money on, then the people will be happy and they see the effect of that. And that is what is important. Transparency and the fight against corruption. Because the system that, you know, people are still going to be feeling that is the fear of the people. So if they can see the effect of these, then I think the joy of the people will contribute to the increase in our economic values as well. When you were talking, I know you have tried to explain a lot of these things, but when you were talking you said, whatever it is to achieve this, it will depend on the people. I'd like you to just re-emphasize for people's of emphasis. Explain to me what people you are talking about, that will depend on them for the government to succeed. Yes, it is you. The people are the people in government and the people that are in government. You know, if the government gives you a good real system and some popular people will go and call it to be real. So it takes the people, but then the price is the people in government to put things right and begin to educate the government that this is what we are doing and this is what you should do to contribute to the well-being of the society. And so it takes the two to tangle. The government might be doing a lot of good things and people will go there to destroy it overnight. So who do you blame? True. Okay, well, now, you have said a lot of things really, but there are three school of thoughts that three years. The first one is that is saying that three years is too long because Nigerians want to just begin to see the results that the president should have given us timelines. Like in the first six months, this is what I intend to do in one year, in two years and all that, just giving a blanket of three years is too long. Nigerians cannot wait three years to begin to see that the economy is turning around and they need to feed, they need to leave, they need to continue to enjoy themselves as citizens of Nigeria. The second school of thought is saying that three years is not long enough, so the president is just talking and they have written off all these things that he has said that he is going to turn around the economy that has been bastardized for so many years within three years without just giving a roadmap and all that. They have written it off. And the last people, the last school of thought is saying that he should have been specific. He should have said, okay, I will reform this and that, X, Y, Z. To reform the entire economy of Nigeria may be a cumbersome task that he might never be able to fulfill. So he should have been specific on places or things that he needs to do. Maybe the power sector, maybe agriculture, maybe one or two things and all that and be specific and drive that. And again, you're going to go there. What was that about for? But did you get my point? You want me to repeat? First school of thought. First school of thought. The third one that he should have been specific, you know, have specific goals, things that he needs to revamp because three years to revamp the entire economy might be a task that he might never be able to achieve. So he should have had specifics so that he can see them through. Maybe power, agriculture, security, a few of those things that are very, very pressing to Nigerians. But he's saying the entire economy that's the third school of thought. You see, in this kind of situation, I believe no one will want to have these tabs or timelines, like I said, because the economy is so bad that most economies are confused to even get an idea how to structure it. So now, like I said earlier, now the people, excuse me, they are grappling with the issue of stuff and gradually, they are coping with it gradually. So now, if the government begins to come out regularly, maybe monthly or quarterly, you know, to tell us that this month, this is what we have, and this is how we are spending it. Then they will continue to follow that trend. But he cannot project for instance that in the next month, this is what we are likely to have. Because in the first place, the prices may not be constant. So now, if we are talking about the economy that we're going to revamp the entire economic sphere, the ministers will be coming out to bring us a monthly business, depending on how they have planned their programs. And then that is why I'm saying people have to be carried along. The nationalities have to be carried along. It is no longer a time for propaganda. It is time now for reality. So and people are more conscious of that now. They want to hold their government responsible. So now, we should begin to see if what they are going to say, listen, we are not going to borrow. And he has to come and tell us, we are expecting these in the area of gas, in the area of solid mineral gas, in the area of the ones we have done. Refinery is working. They said it's going to work in December. So once this thing starts working in December, you know, I think this will be questions as well, to give this timeline. Because you know, people are conscious of it. If you say that, look at the last six months, this will work and it doesn't work, that's fine. Anything can happen. Then the government has to come to explain again. And the people will just trust. There is no trust at the moment. So building trust, you have to go and make compromises. That is why I said these 50 million, you know, to say we are going to have 50 million people happen. That is very, very difficult to say. Because we don't even know how these 50 million employment opportunities will be created. So we have to be cautious about trying to give time. But I know it's very good. I know it's very good. People will be holding responsibility by the next six months to see if it will happen. That is what I'm saying. Let's give them a chance. We have seen what has happened with the policies now. The government says this is the amount of money the state government can have. This will be free. This will be between single digits. So if the government say, look, I'm not going to check it. It is the government's prerogative that I'm not going to check it again because I have so much. But he has given that money. How it should be distributed. It is between the government and the local government's prerogative. So let's begin to see that we make mistakes. I've said it before somewhere. They might make mistakes. And they should make mistakes if it's possible. But we do have enough time to make previous mistakes that cannot be quickly corrected. You know, look at what we said it has only been given to everybody. That was something that we said, looking at it maybe it will happen. But quickly the corrective is that, no, this is not work. We are now in place. We have the ministers responsible for various ministries. The thing they might do is just the MDA. We have over 1000 MDAs. So let's bring down the number of the MDAs. And when we bring down the number of MDAs, we begin to scrutinize which one we work which one is not working. We still have a lot to do in that area of this bloated ministries and MDAs. Well, we thought that this administration would cut down on the ministries. Instead it grew more. But the final question here and we would like to have it very briefly is the eight-point agenda of the president. How you think this will help him in achieving what we are talking about. He said food security is there. Ending poverty, economic growth and job creation. Access to capital. Improving security. Improving playing field for everybody. Rule of law and fighting corruption. Nigerians are very interested in the last two. Rule of law and fighting corruption. So in totality how do you see this if you put them side by side with the promises. Do you think this is a thorough roadmap that can take us to where the president is projecting that in three years we will be? Fantastic idea with the roadmap. Fantastic idea with the eight-point agenda. But I can tell you we may not be able to achieve all the eight-point agenda into what we can say it is 100% 100% of this eight-point agenda. And the area of rule of law and fighting corruption. It is a tough one and Mr. Latif, I think he has a lot to do in that area. The minister of justice and attorney general. If he can bring all the reforms his promise that will be made and if we can see that there's no corruption and the judiciary is well thoroughly managed and the structures are put in place and to make it more independent I think that can be what we can take the ball rolling. In some of these areas we would just take the ball rolling and then we may not achieve 100%. That is my own opinion. In the area of corruption it is a global phenomenon and we can fight it as much as we can but then it is now for us to have a consistent policy that others will continue. Corruption is not only at the federal level it is at the state level and it's even in homes and in churches and mosques. So it is something that has to be taken beyond the federal level. We always look at the federal level. Yes, because a lot have been stolen out there. But then let us begin to see how the agencies will work. It is not a situation like in Kano where somebody an agency is persecuting investigating and another agency is investigating that agency. There's a lot of confusion. So we have to bring in some of these things. That's why I said that I think we have a lot of people and if these reforms are put in place I think we will set the ball rolling but we may not get to the goal. Okay. Well, Mr Fermi Dagon Rowe, we'd like to thank you for your thoughts this morning on the show. It's always a pleasure having you. Thank you so much for coming. I appreciate it. Have a great day. Okay, you too. That was Mr Joe Fermi Dagon Rowe the founder of Lagos Forum talking with us on what the president has promised 50 million jobs and also taking a reviving economy in three years. We'll take a short break. When we return we'll go to the next topic.