I hope the organisers of this planned nationwide protest have drawn up a list of demands that looks like this, calling on the government to introduce robust anti-inflationary measures to combat the cost of living crisis

Ayo Akinfe

[1] Basic economics teaches us that inflation is too much money chasing after too few goods. Nigeria is reeling from the effects of this reality at the moment, so the government has to commit itself to doubling the amount of essential household items available on the Nigerian market by the end of the year

[2] A new law must then be passed by the National Assembly compelling each of Nigeria’s 774 local government area to have at least one industrial estate within its domain. Essentially, every local government area has got to be compelled get involved in agro-processing in one way or the other

[3] Over the medium to long term, the government must introduce plans to dramatically increase agricultural output by improving rural roads, on-farm storage, refrigeration and silo construction

[4] President Tinubu must then commit to offering 20 year tax holidays and 99 year land leases to automobile manufacturers to come and open up plants in Nigeria that manufacture refrigerated trucks. If we could refrigerate our vegetables and fruits at source, it would drastically cut wastage, increase production and lower prices

[5] About a third of Nigeria’s farm produce goes to waste as a result of the state of our poor rural roads. Consequently, all state governments must be compelled by law to give priority to the fixing of rural roads. In the case of tomatoes for instance, maybe about half of Nigeria’s output gets squashed because of the potholes on the poor roads leading up to the farm

[6] Create a Presidential Anti-Inflationary Directorate (Paid) headed by a leading economist like Lamidi Sanusi, Arunma Oteh, Emmanuel Nnadozie, Obiageli Ezekwesili, etc. Then certain staples like gari, rice, pepper, tomatoes, onions, yam, cooking oil, cassava, etc. Put them on what should be termed the Exclusive Food List (EFL)

[7] Place the distribution of all items on the EFL under the control of Paid. Then give Paid the authority to set the prices of these staples and fix such prices where necessary

[8] Provide Paid with the authority to import any item on the EFL for which there is a domestic shortage. Then open up Paid warehouses across all 774 local government areas where farmers can sell food crops at subsidised prices to the government

[9] Offer interest-free loans to any farmer who can provide details of plans to increase his or her output by at least 10%

[10] Offer Paid-backed petrol vouchers to transporters supplying or delivering food items

Ayoakinfe@gmail.com