Combating poverty is crucial to realizing the aspirations outlined in Chapter II of the Constitution, according to Faloye

Afenifere National Publicity Secretary, Prince Justice Faloye, has emphasized that Nigeria's economic struggles stem from the country's democratic leadership ignoring Chapter Two of the Constitution since 1999, which holds the key to economic prosperity.

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Faloye, also the President of ASHE Foundation, a think tank group, noted that instead of implementing the fundamental policies outlined in Chapter Two, politicians have created policies that have not benefited the average Nigerian, and that the current structure of economic reforms needs to be changed to have a meaningful impact on society.

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Faloye highlighted that Chapter Two of the Constitution provides a comprehensive framework for Nigeria's development, covering economics, politics, sociocultural, education, health, and foreign policy, among others, but has been neglected by all parties since 1999, until the SDP made it a focus of their 2027 manifesto.

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He stressed that Section 16 of Chapter Two is particularly crucial, as it outlines the economic objectives necessary for the country's development, including maximum welfare, happiness, and a planned economy, and that this section is essential for inspiring the political, social, and educational objectives outlined in other sections.

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Faloye pointed out that politicians have breached the objectives of Section 14, which declares security and welfare as the primary purpose of government, and that this has led to a failure in achieving the stipulated goals, raising questions about whether the greatest fault of politicians is corruption or ignorance due to coloniality of knowledge and power sources.

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In an article written in November 2022, Faloye criticized the manifestoes of the three leading presidential candidates, Bola Tinubu, Abubakar Atiku, and Peter Obi, for advocating fuel subsidy removals and devaluation, which he argued would harm the productive economy.

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Faloye noted that the removal of fuel subsidies has crashed the productive economy, as two-thirds of vehicles are commercial, and 90% of production is based on fossil fuels, and that the idea that agriculture and agro-allied industries will lead to industrial revolution and economic prosperity is a misconception.

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He argued that Nigeria's elite are ideologically stuck in the slave plantation economic exploitation and colonial economic system, and that the country has remained a poor neocolonial economy with over 90% of its labor in the informal sector, made up of agriculture, retail, and transport workers on low, unliveable wages.

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Faloye stated that the manufacturing sector contributes less than 10% of the national production, and that only 3 subsectors, food and beverage, cement, and textile, with low wages, account for 77% of manufacturing output, and that the political class advocates for more labor in agriculture, which will further depress already low agriculture wages.

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In contrast, developed nations like the USA and China have drawn labor out of the agricultural sector and into the industrial sector, with higher wages, leading to wage rises in agriculture and stimulating the move from peasant to mechanized agriculture.

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Faloye noted that Nigeria's agriculture contributes 26% to GDP, which is too high, and that countries like China have reduced their agricultural contribution to GDP from 27% to 7.9%, and that Nigeria needs to reduce its agricultural contribution to GDP and increase its industrial sector.

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He argued that instead of economic reforms that tighten the economic noose on the poor through devaluation, subsidy removal, and taxation, the structure of the economy must be changed, and that SDP Presidential candidate, Prince Adewole Adebayo, has proposed an economic war, known as the Big Push economic development theory, to uproot poverty.

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Adebayo's approach involves tackling the two pillars of the economic system, the consumer and producer markets, by addressing the root of the consumer market, which is housing, and the industrial launchpad, which is railways, both of which are underdeveloped in Nigeria.

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Faloye emphasized that houses are the ultimate good and store of wealth that stimulate consumer demand, and that railways have the highest income and employment multiplier effects across the economy, and that what is required is a Big Push like the 1933 New Deal by US President FD Roosevelt and China's Chairman Mao's massive public works.

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He noted that countries like China and India have achieved economic growth by building 15,000 houses and 15 kilometers of railway every day, and that Nigeria needs to build at least 2,500 housing units daily to prevent homelessness from worsening, and that the private sector currently builds less than 400,000 units yearly.

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Faloye proposed that the government should aim to build at least 7,000 homes daily to achieve its promise of a roof over every head, and that there should be a railway station in every local government, with a structured approach that entails 10 kilometers of railway daily across the nation.

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He suggested that the railway boom will stimulate at least 50 years of prosperity, and that instead of relying on foreign loans, the SDP intends to use tools of Modern Monetary Theory for deficit budgeting, and that this huge outlay is expected to cause inflation, but that the tradeoff between inflation and massive development can be addressed by ensuring that the rate of inflation is less than the rate of value added.

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Faloye noted that the Nigerian Defence Industries Corporation will remove the cost of contractors and wastage to produce at half the price, which could be recouped in the markets, with the government taking the business incubator role, and that the scale of the massive public works must be enormous and strategic, mobilizing the whole nation into productive action.

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The building of the economy from the roots of the consumer and producer markets, with the provision of citizens with the ultimate good of housing, and railway industrial launchpad, will defend human dignity, vibrant foreign policy, and all other objectives of Chapter Two, according to Faloye.