A professor in the Faculty of Management Sciences, University of Lagos (UNILAG), Olusoji George, has expressed optimism for a better Nigeria in the President Bola Tinubu-led administration.

He said even as the country had got it wrong before due to unstable policies and no long-term investments, but with measures being taken by the current administration, even though it was not yet there, Nigeria will rise again.

George said what the country was doing now was supposed to have been done 10 years ago, even as he stressed that “We are just seeing what is called the economy.”

The erudite scholar, who holds memberships and fellowships in several prestigious professional bodies, said this during a chat with some journalists, as he marks his 70th birthday anniversary today, intending to feed about 1,800 less-privileged people through a visit to old peoples’ home, orphanage, his mechanics and indigent people in UNILAG with food and other personal items.

Speaking on economic and other national issues, he said there was a need for rebasing of labour statistics and the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), “bearing in mind our peculiar situation. You cannot use the economic theory of Great Britain to calculate ours, no way, the rebasing is based on so many things. We have to use our local intelligence to solve our local problems.”

He faulted that those in the informal sector and out-of-school children were not captured and taken into consideration in the labour statistics ratio.

According to him, many of the people in the informal sector pay salaries even up to the minimum wage.

Noting that Nigerians are resilient people, due to his many years of stay abroad, he said if the citizens use the same energy in all they do, they will go places.

Using an analogy that “If you employ one person, you are giving five people food”, the management science expert mentioned how some industries and untapped areas in the country that have been neglected could create jobs and generate multiple sources of income for the citizens.

He said if all the industries take off, the nation would witness a positive multiplier effect.

Appreciating what God has done for him up to attaining age 70, he recalled how four of his circle of friends have gone beyond, due to brain tumors, leaving him as the only surviving one.

He said the move and the grace to be alive and witness his 70th birthday anniversary spurred him to take care of 1,800 less privileged, through visits to old people’s homes, orphanages, his mechanics, and indigent people in UNILAG with food and other personal items.

He also used his birthday to appreciate his daughters, Eniola Oyegunle and Wuraola George, for supporting his project, whom he apologised to for disappointing them during their growing days.

He also commended his friends and how prepared they were to support and celebrate him on his new age.