With Ramadan due to end this weekend I would just love it if the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs and the Christian Association of Nigeria issued a joint economic communique for Bola Tinubu that reads like this 

Ayo Akinfe

[1] We have suspended the collection of tithes and zakat contributions from all our members until further notice. Given the hardships many of them are facing, it would be morally wrong to collect money from them now

[2] Every registered imam and pastor in Nigeria who is a member of our organisations will take a 50% pay cut for this months of April and May 2023 

[3] Our new president-elect faces the Herculean challenge of rebuilding Nigeria’s economy. To assist with this, every single one of our members commits to auctioning off their private jets and investing the proceeds in job creation and wealth generation

[4] We both undertake to assist the federal government with the distribution of basic food items. Given our presence in every one of Nigeria’s 774 local government areas, we pledge to take foodstuffs from local government headquarters and distribute them across the wards

[5] In each local government area, we shall have at least one soup kitchen where the hungry can go and feed. We pledge that the programmes will be jointly run by the local imams and pastors

[6] We shall float an industrial conglomerate called Man of God Nigeria Limited. Each of us shall invest $10m in the venture with a view to making or the bell weather of the Nigerian economy 

[7] We each commit to generate at least $20bn each in Christian and Islamic finance annually. Nigeria will desperately need private investment to get back on her feet and we promise to be at the vanguard of this effort

[8] We will both as corporate bodies seek to purchase and run sectors and parastatals of the economy that are currently comatose and in need of investors. Be it the Ajaokuta Steel Plant, the Iwopin Paper Mill, the Jebba Sugar Company, any of our electricity distribution companies or our refineries. We give a solemn pledge that we will raise the private sector capital required to get all these facilities running at full capacity

[9] We have suspended all pilgrimages to Israel and Saudi Arabia for the next five years. We shall use these funds to rebuild the Nigerian economy and banish poverty from our land

[10] We shall make available at least one hospital in each state run by our own doctors and nurses where patients can be treated free of charge for the foreseeable future