Cosmas Maduka, the founder of Coscharis Group, has stated that Peter Obi would not have adopted policies different from those of the current administration had he won the presidential election.
Speaking on Mic On Podcast with Okinbaloye via YouTube on Saturday, February 22, in a discussion monitored by FIRSTNEWS on Sunday, Maduka argued that Nigeria is on the right path despite economic struggles.
He maintained that key policies, such as fuel subsidy removal, were inevitable for any government in power.
“People have asked me, will Peter Obi have done anything different if he won the election? I said no. He would have removed subsidy from day one also,” he said.
Regarding concerns about the weakening naira and worsening economic conditions, Maduka acknowledged that his perspective might not resonate with many due to his privileged status.
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However, he insisted that the government must ensure that savings from subsidy removal are invested in infrastructure.
“The government should be more disciplined to use the money they have removed in the subsidy to put it in infrastructure so that people that you have taken from, those who have been flying private jets from subsidy money, their businesses fall.
“But if you collect that money from them and put it in ventures that favour the general public, then there is progress,” he explained.
He cautioned that if the funds were not channelled into productive projects, the country would remain in a cycle of stagnation.
“If you move from one tomb to another, you are still in the same graveyard. You haven’t gone anywhere,” he said.
On Nigeria’s rising debt, Maduka pointed out that borrowing itself was not necessarily bad, but the purpose for which the money was used mattered.
“The borrowing of a country is not a problem. What is the problem; Are you borrowing for capital development? Are you borrowing for infrastructural development? Because it will pay back itself.
“But if you are borrowing to take a second wife, if you are borrowing to share money for poverty alleviation, you are deepening the hole that, after we get inside, nobody can bring us out,” he stated.
He called for greater financial discipline in governance, urging leaders to eliminate unnecessary expenditures and focus on initiatives that would genuinely benefit Nigerians.
“There is some level of discipline that is required to curtail excesses from the government. Are we in the right direction? Yes,”he concluded.