Mr. Elijah Sunday Ifot, a security expert is the managing director and chief executive officer, Elifot Sequip Limited. He speaks in this interview with Sunday Business on the need for government to secure the economic environment in order to achieve its Vision 20: 2020 target.

With the state of infrastructure and insecurity in the country, do you see government realising its Vision 20: 2020 target?

Mr. Elijah Sunday Ifot

To start with, Vision 20: 2020 is a form of perspective planning by the government for the country. This kind of economic planning is a good initiative because it helps the government to formulate polices aimed at growing the economy.

For instance, the blue print for the Vision 20:2020 that has already been launched would guide the government on the investment strategies in different regions across the country.

Also, the document would help government determine where to put public goods for adequate utilisation and sectors of the economy requiring urgent attention. The reality is that government needs to embark on massive infrastructure development to grow the economy.

Insecurity, especially the activities of Boko Haram, is portraying Nigeria as an insecure country for foreign direct investments. What would you advise the Federal Government to do to secure the economic environment?

The government should realise that no investor would like to put his money in an economy that is not secure for businesses to thrive and yield expected outputs.

At present, the activity of this group is bringing negative consequences on the nation’s economy in different ways. For instance, aside from investors being discouraged from coming into the country, there is also the tendency for those who have established businesses to divert them to neighbouring countries, where this is political stability.

This would not help our economy, especially at the time government is trying to tackle the problem of unemployment in the economy.

As a security expect, I would advise government to tackle the menace of Boko Haram with pragmatic approach. To start with, government should improve on his security measures by stepping up surveillance in every region across the country.

Security personnel in charged of various segments of the country should be adequately equipped to discharge their duty effectively.  Bombing and killing of innocent citizens by Boko Haram is really posing serious threat to the nation. Government should track down those behind the group and bring them to book.

If not checked immediately, it may escalate to the level it would consume the entire nation. Also, security agencies must be proactive in a bid to protect lives and properties in the country.

At the same time, everyone must be security conscious at all times and be ready to give useful information to appropriate security agencies in the country.

You were elected the new President of Akwa Ibom State Community (AKISCOM) in Lagos recently. What is your agenda for the group?

Community service is all about time management. The administration that just started would work to sustain and improve the standards achieved by the previous regime.

Our agenda is to work assiduously with the state government to empower our indigenes in different fields. For instance, we would want to introduce co-operative society as a way of improving the welfare of members.

As a community in Lagos representing our government at home, we must defend and protect the image of our government. We are also appealing to the state government to establish industries to create jobs for our indigenes in the state.