Liborous Oshoma, Head Attorney at the Liborous Oshoma Chambers has called on business owners and Nigerians as a whole to make more demands on the government on its policies as they affect their daily lives and businesses.
He said this while speaking at the Nairametrics 2022 Economic Outlook, themed, “Your Money, The Economy and Government Policies,” held virtually on Saturday, January 29, 2021.
Mr Oshoma urged Nigerians and business owners to ensure active participation in the processes of government policy as it is not enough to only debate on social media.
What Mr Oshoma is saying
Mr Oshoma noted that the problem business owners and Nigerians are having is as a result of not demanding accountability from the government. He urged business owners to engage in stakeholder policies.
“Let me start from the fact that we under-demand from the government. There is always this tendency for us to look at ourselves individually. We are very resilient and because we under-demand, you find the structure of government determined by people who are in government and not the policies itself,” he said.
Oshoma however called for increased participation by Nigerians in the electoral process, urging that that is one of the ways they can elect in leaders that would make the right decisions and favourable policies.
He said, “Let us consistently increase our participation in demanding accountability from the government. As a businessman, you should understand that a government policy can totally collapse your business and as so, when the issue of VAT and tax laws come up, it is not enough for us to sit down and debate on social media.
“How much input do we as Nigerians have in these laws, how much input do business owners contribute to these debates? How do we ensure that we participate in debates during stakeholders meetings to make them impactful? Just the same way we hear debate on electoral reforms back and forth.”
Speaking on the powers of the PVC to change the decision-makers, he said “We need to demand more, we underrate PVC here. If your PVC is worthless nobody will buy it. But in a situation where a politician wants to buy your PVC, it means that it has some value and it is that PVC that enables you to make input into those decisions that will either lead to inflation rate (hike), or reduce inflation.”
