Dr Samuel Achie is the National Coordinator, Conference of Autochthonous Ethnic Nationalities Community Development Association (CONAECDA). He speaks with ISAAC SHOBAYO on the expectations of Nigerians in 2025 in light of the hardship in the country.
What is your assessment of the economic situation in the country, especially in the out-gone year 2024?
The year 2025 was a little turbulent. At the beginning of the year, people had high expectations from the government, basically in respect of their mantra of service to the people. But towards the end of the year, there were some positive signs based on some of the government economic policies, like the taxation and efforts to ensure that the refineries are back on stream and the reduction of insecurity, especially in the northern part of the country. We should be sincere with ourselves: the government has been able to tame the insecurity to some extent.
But based on the present security situation in northern Nigeria, the bandits have taken over many agrarian communities, while farmers are languishing in IDP camps. Don’t you think this still remains a challenge to the government?
Prior to now, these elements often had a field day, but this is no longer the situation. As the National President of the Atayap community, one of the communities ravaged by banditry, I think we are having a sigh of relief; I think there is remarkable a improvement in terms of security, but much still needs to be done.
But up till now farmers cannot access their farms…
(Cuts in) Can you compare the present situation with 2023? Based on my findings, there were bumper harvests in southern Kaduna and other parts of the country this year.
Considering the hardship in the country coupled with the statement by the president that there is no going back on some of his policies, is there any ray of hope for the country’s economy?
If the government sustains its policies, a country that did not focus on taxation hardly gets its policies right, but Nigeria’s situation is different. Many Nigerians find it difficult to pay taxes, probably because they don’t see what the money is being used for. This government had doled out allocations more than those before it. But with the arrangements on the ground for now, if followed meticulously, we might get out of the woods very soon. The local government autonomy is another area that the government deserves kudos; it is a laudable arrangement that will definitely bring sanity.
The tax reform bills have been generating uproar, precisely in the North. What is your view on this?
People must pay tax. When tax is appropriated and used judiciously, the better for every Nigerian. The northern governors are used to running to the centre every month to collect their allocations. Every state should go and think it out. For example, the northern part of the country is blessed with arable land where farming can be practised at its fullest, creating jobs for the youths and providing sufficient food for the region and other parts of the country. Most of these governors hardly allocate anything reasonable to agriculture. So if you don’t promote agriculture, what else are you going to do to generate revenue? We must have this at the back of our mind: we need to contribute to the centre. The North must contribute. The northerners should understand that the days of just sitting down and going to Abuja to collect allocations and pay salaries are over. People must invest what they are given and contribute to the centre.
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