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By Miftaudeen Raji

A presidential aspirant on the platform of All Progressives Congress, APC, Tien Jack-Rich, has given insight into how he plans to fix critical issues that Nigeria has been grappling with, especially hunger, if he is elected the president. 

He noted that he understands how it feels for a family and Nigerians to be hungry, saying, “I was born in the house of poverty.

“I lived in poverty and poverty fought my parents and took them away. Poverty tried to hit me really hard, but I was able to knock it off and get to where I am.”

Jack-Rich, who spoke, Tuesday, as a guest on Politics Today, Channels TV, stressed that he had gone through the crucibles of life, which has made him a problem solver, and that 2023 is so unique that Nigeria needs a problem solver.

Telling his story, he said: “I came from a less-privileged background. I’ve been travelling around my fatherland, doing what I know to do best, trying to help. I was a village kid fishing.

“I was fishing as a little boy at the age of eight, because my mother passed on when I was 10 years old and I was left in the village fishing, no father, no mother, no siblings.

“I was just fishing trying to help myself go through primary school. I was in primary 6 when I was 15.

“I am a problem solver. My special skill is in the area of dealing with core issues. I now operate in a strategic business that is sensitive to our national security, which is the mainstay of our economic resources.

“My industry accounts for 95 per cent of our foreign exchange earnings and influences our national budget by over 90 per cent, but it’s just less than 5 percent of our GDP.

“It’s a critical stimulator for any economic growth that will be based on strong industrial and technological advancement, so we need that as a low hanging fruit to activate all other industries like education, agriculture,” he said.

‘My first 100 days in office’

Noting that the challenges of 2023 will be unique, he said Nigeria is going to be witnessing a global economic shock wave occasioned by geopolitical uncertainties in the Eastern Europe, which would snowball into Western Europe and consequently trigger change in the supply chain.

He said his economic policies would deal with the core issues that are the main vibration of Nigeria’s economic wellness.

If elected president, Jack-Rich said, in the first 100 days in office, he would create 26,000 youth employment that would be augmented with employable skills that will drive technology-based jobs to drive economic growth. 

He argued that Nigeria needs a leadership that is strategic and visionary, that understands that the young population can be converted to the economic value chain to proffer lasting solutions to social issues. 

Noting that 2023 is going to be different because Nigeria is going to be dealing with a young population that is urgent, he said he will provide enormous economic bombardment to engage the teeming Nigerian youth.

Asked about his strategy towards taming insecurity, he said he would set up a traditional value ecosystem that is inclusive of traditional rulers, security agencies and the political leadership of local government that will ensure the wellness of local communities.

Vanguard News