By Folorunso Alagbede, Abuja
Presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, in the 2023 general election, Prince Adewole Adebayo, has said that economic crimes must be punishable to achieve reform for Ease of Doing Business, EoDB in the country.
He reasoned that economic crimes do not allow businesses to reach their full potential.
Adebayo said this while speaking as a keynote speaker at the J9C 13th anniversary lecture themed: “Business and Policy Strategy: Examining the Role of Reforms in Enhancing the EoDB in Nigeria”.
He explained that the ease of doing business is government and policymakers’ attempt to make businesses succeed.
To make businesses succeed, he said civil servants should never be in business or have interest in business. Importantly, Adebayo said the first reform to do for EoDB is that the rule must not be set by the players.
The presidential flag bearer of the SDP maintained that a reform must be a fundamental change in the way any activity or program or policy or anything is being done.
He said: “When we are talking of economic reform, what we were having as a consensus is that, it must affect the policies that affect the economic growth of a country.
“It must bring efficiencies, and it must lead to stability. And when you do all of that, you will know when something is just a government program, because many programs have been passed off as reforms.
“When the government comes to power, whether you voted for them or not, they are saying we are taking these measures on your behalf.
“Therefore, whether you authorize them to do it or not, you are entitled to comment on it, to review it, and to suggest better ways to get it done, or whether it should be done at all.
“The first thing a government needs to do is called “Fiscal Reform,” because a government that cannot pay its way is not a government.
“And to do fiscal reform, you must be able to handle the revenue that the government is collecting. And anyone who has listened to government since Balewa up to now, will tell you that no government has been able to say that we are able to collect an account for the revenue of this country.
“When I was running for presidency, my first speech centered around the question of whether we’re collecting our oil revenue.
“Because I can make some speeches, I said that showed that at a time, 80% of the of the crude oil revenue was being stolen. The only answer I got from the government, especially through the Navy, was that I was exaggerating the number, that it wasn’t up to 80% But we all agreed that substantial revenue was being stolen.
“And why it is important was that there was a time when Shehu Shagari, under Yakubu Gowon government, was Minister of Finance, and he had visited the oil wells and oil fields, and he saw fuel stations where they were loading ships.
“And he asked them casually that how will you know if what we are loading is what they paid for and they said we use the weight of the ship and the level of the ballast to measure.
“So, he came back and wrote a report and noted that his Predecessor, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, had mandated that all the filling stations should be metered.
“And Shagari insisted that, with immediate effect, all the flow stations must be metered, but Shagari died. I spent some time with him before he died in Sokoto, but he died, and many of the oils wells have not been metered.
‘So that shows to you that there was a fundamental need for reform in the way we even measure, whether we collect our revenue or not from crude oil is not being done.
“And I don’t think, despite many of the reforms being discussed about that, that has been done at all.
“The implication of that is that if you cannot account for the revenue which you are collecting, then where do you start to build government?”
Earlier in his opening address, Chairman of Coleman Wires and Cables, Dr. Solomon Onafowkan, said the theme was a testament to creating value-addition to professionalism, excellence in entrepreneurship which are the virtues expected from various callings in promoting rapid economic development in Nigeria.
He said investment is not sentimental as first primary consideration for investment decision globally, is to go to where return is guaranteed but not taken for granted.
