Shuaib Salisu (Ogun Central) has attributed the country’s economic challenges to past governments’ failure to evolve life-saving policies.

Mr Salisu stated this at the 2024 National Annual Reunion of the Obafemi Awolowo University Muslim Graduates’ Association (UNIFEMGA), held on Saturday at Oduduwa Hall, OAU, Ile-Ife.

However, he expressed optimism that the nation would emerge stronger, saying that the country “is a work in progress.”

He spoke on ‘Changing Nigeria’s Consumption-based to a Service and Production-based Economy’.

The senator identified the under-utilisation of resources and structural bottlenecks as the bane of the nation’s economic challenges, with microeconomic instability and fiscal deficit as the consequences.

Mr Salisu, the chairman of the Senate Committee on ICT and Cyber Security, suggested that national values and ethos must be revisited to opt out of a consumption-based economy and be more focused on a production-based economy.

“New measures of performance, activation of dormant national assets which are lying fallow must be worked on like critical assets of governments, ease of doing business, infrastructural development must be put in place.

“Having a positive attitude, a plan where to be in years for personal development, and taking care of your health are paramount,” he said.

(NAN)