(1) Less then a week to polling day and alas, we have not had the two major presidential candidates debate any issues of significance. Neither Atiku or Buhari have touched on our number one problem - The limited size of the Nigerian economy

(2) Let me just put everything into context for you. Nigeria has an annual budget just shy of $30bn compared with South Africa’s $103bn, Colombia’s $95bn, Thailand’s $90bn, Iraq’s $76bn, Algeria’s $70bn and Malaysia’s $60bn. None of these countries has anything near our population. For 180m people, you need an annual budget of about $300bn

(3) This basically means that to live at ease with itself, Nigeria needs to multiply her budget 10-fold. To do this, you need what will be tagged the Nigerian Economic Miracle. To the naysayers, prophets of doom and doubting Thomases, I say this is very doable and we will do it in our lifetime

(4) After World War Two, we had the German Economic Miracle, which saw the country go from ruins to the third largest economy in the world within 10 years

(5) We have also had the Cuban, Japanese , Vietnamese and now Chinese economic miracles that have been based on annual double digit growth over say 10 to 15 year periods. As I always say, very little happens in life without precedence

(6) If I were to run for Nigeria’s president in 2023, my campaign slogan would be simple - Let’s Perform The Nigerian Economic Miracle. - This would basically entail getting 20% GDP growth annually over a 20 year period, so that by 2045, we are among the top 10 economies in the world

(7) At the moment, all I hear is talk about corruption but what no one is telling you is that corruption is essentially desperate people cutting corners as they scramble for scarce wealth. Boost our economy and the crazy rat race for public money will end. If there were schools, nobody would need to steal for school fees and if there were trains nobody would need to steal to buy five jeeps. Likewise, if we had public healthcare, nobody would need to have a dollar health account like Dame Jonathan

(8) According to the African Development Bank, Nigeria has an annual infrastructural deficit of $100bn. How on earth do you sort this out when your annual budget is a pitiable $28.8bn? Basically, in lay man’s language, we need to spend about $100bn a year on infrastructure, rail, roads, housing, hospitals, schools, etc. To do that, Nigeria needs an annual budget of about $300bn and this means bringing our GDP up to the size of Mexico’s which stands at about $2trn

(9) Were I a presidential candidate, I would promise everyone that come January 1 2045, the president of Nigeria will present a budget of $300bn before the National Assembly for approval. Our education budget alone will me more than the pathetic $28.8bn total budget President Buhari presented before the National Assembly for 2019

(10) No matter how you cut it, we simply need mass diversification of our economy. Our biggest problem as a country is that we are simply not productive enough. Poor productivity is 10 times a bigger cancer than corruption. Futuristic Nigeria is not just a pipe dream, it is a must. Our choice is simple, the Nigerian economic miracle or we perish!