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Our expectations for 2022- Nigerians

2021 ended with memories some Nigerians wish to quickly forget- insecurity, economic hardship, rumours of disintegration, arrest and detention of separatists, among others dominated national headlines. As Nigerians begin another year, our correspondents sought their opinion on expectations for the year 2022. Excerpts:

AMAKA NWAGWU: 

I am hoping for a promising 2022, filled with better job opportunities and career progression.

On the part of the government, it is sad that a lot of young people are either unemployed or underemployed. That should not be the case in 2022. Those saddled with the responsibility of job creation should put on their thinking caps and create jobs for the teeming youths in Nigeria.

In 2022, government should make the environment conducive for small businesses to thrive. A lot of people who can’t get jobs in either public or private enterprises are self-employed. But the harsh environment is not favourable to their businesses. For instance, small businesses depend on power supply to survive, if the power isn’t there, there is no guarantee for the survival of such businesses under two years.

IFEANYI NNAJI: Security is a major issue for me. I want a Nigeria in 2022 that is secured. The government should put an end to banditry and insurgency.  I want to feel safe as a Nigerian. I want to travel by road without fear of being kidnapped or killed.

Secondly, my expectation for the year is for government to create jobs. A lot of young graduates on my street are jobless and no start-up funds to kick-off their businesses. I want to see a drastic change and turn around in this regard.

I want to start seeing a power sector that is optimally functional. There’s hardly any business in Nigeria that can survive without power. Many rely on their generating set to push their business forward and what does this do to goods and services, it would be pushed up to cover cost. Power should be improved upon, going forward.

CHIBUIKE OSUJI: My expectations for 2022 is that my targets for 2021 which I could not accomplish would be achieved before the end of the first quarter. I expect to achieve even more beautiful things like a better job, better business opportunities and have more resources so that I can support other less privileged persons around me.

For Nigeria, I expect that the Federal Government would pay more attention to high level of insecurity in the country and create jobs for our young people to reduce their level of hopelessness which makes them join bad gangs and take to drugs and criminality.

I also expect that with the commencement of the much talked about Dangote Refinery. The cost of importation of petroleum products would crash and fuel pump price would reduce and that government would complement that effort by ensuring that all our refineries are functioning in full capacity. We would no longer talk about expending so much in importation of petroleum products and channel those resources to other productive areas like establishing industries where our young people can work and be productive.

MODU INUWA: Well, I expect so much from government and the citizens. Of course, you know without citizens. government cannot function. The two are interacting with each other. One of them cannot exist without the other.

The government must renew its strength in policy making and implementation. What Nigerians witnessed since the inception of democracy in 1999, was lack of consistency in policy making and implementation. This has affected the administrative structures of government. There are so many decisions of government that are supposed to address certain challenges facing the country’s corporate existence.

For instance, the 2014 National Confab recommended restructuring Nigeria’s nation to effect certain changes in the Nigeria’s governance system. The current administration had said that they are not part of the 2014 confab, and do not believed anything therein. I think this is not good for heterogeneous nation like Nigeria.

The insecurity in the country today needs collective effort of all Nigerians, and there must be defined frame work to effect the needed policy that would have bring this to workable perspective.

SUWANTA JAMES: The new year is expected to birth a new system to effect a lot of things that will be beneficial to all Nigerians. For anybody to say that all is well in Nigeria, is an Irony. The plans by the government to increase the price of Petrol to N300 per litre in the first quarter of 2022 will further push in hardship to the masses.

Nigeria is a Mono-product economy, depending on only crude oil for national revenue. Once the price of PMS goes up, it will affect virtually everything in the country’s economy. Nigerians heaved a sigh of relief when the Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB, was passed into law. I expect that the loopholes in the petroleum industry had been addressed, but it is still lingering.

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