AREWA HOUSE LECTURE: Tinubu Bares His Mind On State Of The Nation

Tinubu has opened up on the various challenges bedeviling Nigeria.

Former Lagos State Governor and leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has said that the current security challenges bedeviling Nigeria cannot be addressed with the use of force alone, but with an economic solution.

Tinubu who stated this in Kaduna on Saturday while chairing the 11th Annual Arewa House Lecture in Honour of the Premier of Northern Nigeria, Sir Ahmadu Bello, said problems that are essential of an economic origin must also have an economic solution.

He argued that enhanced security may be the necessary first step, but it cannot be the only step, adding that, Nigeria cannot resolve the problem by holding on to one-dimensional answers.

According to him, “Urban populations are growing but urban jobs are not. Here, the government must implement a national industrial policy to encourage key industries that begin to employ this growing urban workforce.

“Like I said in my recent statement on the pressing issue of the herder and farmer dispute, we must appreciate that martial security measures alone will not suffice. Problems that are essential of an economic origin must also have an economic solution. Enhanced security may be the necessary first step, but it cannot be the only step.

“We cannot resolve this problem by holding on to one-dimensional answers. We must all be dispassionate in our search for solutions. These challenges are multi-faceted and so shall the solutions must be.

“The issue of insecurity, poverty, unemployment and extremism have many things to do with governance, over time. At the bottom, we must tackle our deep and widespread poverty. If we limit the government’s role under the erroneous assumption that government spending is intrinsically unproductive then we tether ourselves to failure.

“We would do well to more critically study how other populous nations such as the UK, US, Germany, and China charted their course during their formative years. You will see that they did not adhere to a small government or the purportedly free market. The government engaged in massive spending on infrastructure and education while also engaging in policies that protected industrial development and key aspects of the agricultural sector. Only when they matured and held advantages over other nations, did the UK and US begin to champion free markets and small government. We would do well to understand this history and learn what it means for our own pursuit of development,” he said.