A development and economic expert, Dr. Chiwuike Uba, has urged federal and state governments to decisively tackle insecurity and oil theft in the country.

Uba, who is the Board Chairman of Amaka Chiwuike-Uba Foundation (ACUF), said in a statement, yesterday, that the two major challenges made a mess of 2022 financial earnings.

He noted that the problems devastated both macro- and micro-levels of the economy, inflicting financial pain on governments, corporate entities and individuals.

Uba, who is the Lead Researcher of Afri-Heritage, an economic-political research and analytical institute, said: “For the most part, Nigeria’s economy did not do well in 2022. It is, therefore, urgent to put in place an intervention to reverse the economic collapse and avoid continuation of the ugly past in 2023.

“In particular, between Q1 of 2022 and Q3 of 2022, agricultural and services growth rates declined by 58 per cent and six per cent, respectively. Overall, the non-oil growth rate decreased by 30 per cent and the oil growth rate by 13 per cent.

“The real GDP growth rate, at basic prices, decreased by 28 per cent, from 3.11 per cent in Q1 to 2.25 per cent in Q3. In the same vein, real GDP growth at market prices fell by 34 per cent, from 3.60 per cent in Q1 to 2.28 per cent in Q3.

“Export declined by 16.4 per cent from N7.1 trillion in Q1 to N5.9 trillion in Q3, non-oil export declined by 38.8 per cent from N715 billion in Q1 to N437 billion in Q3 and crude oil export by 17.1 per cent, compared to 13.8 per cent decline in non-crude oil export during the year.

“How can the economy be okay with over 133 million Nigerians into multidimensional poverty, which is nothing but abject poverty and a misery index of 62.79 points in July 2022?

“Insecurity and oil theft have to be dealt with without further delay, if Nigeria’s economy in 2023 will fare better.”