President of Unique Employment and Empowerment Initiative Foundation, Dr. Christopher Imumolen has advocated for the reintroduction of the middle class in the country if the leaders still dream of binging the country back to her once –upon- a -time greatness.

According to Imumolen, the total elimination of that all-important class from Nigerian polity either by act of omission or commission has caused the country decades of monumental backwardness and concentration.

This, he said, has sadly resulted in total loss of our once hard earned core values as a people. “This traced to the continued depreciating standard of living of the citizenry which presently shown that the current high class and lower class syndrome has brought more harm than good, with its attendant imbalance of high profile crimes and sundry in the society today,” he opined.

Imumolen made this call during an interactive session with media men on Saturday in Lagos.

He said that one of the people-oriented decisions the present APC-led federal government should take to redress that particular wrong of the past is to set machinery in emotion that would restore the middle class in the polity without further delay. He added that doing so would be one step forward to alleviate the current economic hardship among the citizenry.

Imumolen who spoke on the topic titled, “Tackling the Economic Downturn in Nigeria: The Role of Federal Government, and UNIC Foundation in Revival of the Economy” appealed to the ruling class to imbibe the culture of implementing programmes that would touch more on the lives of the people than continued impoverishment of the unsuspecting and largely ill-informed populace.

“Nigeria still has a great chance to return to her then fast fledging glory if the will is there to implement those values that have long been abandoned by the government. The present crooked system that have left Nigerians more like destitutes and refugees in the supposedly country of milk and honey. Sadly, the privileged few have been misappropriating these resources to the disadvantage of the larger Nigerians. As a way to assist the government in empowering the people, UNIC Foundation has been in the forefront in the past six or more years in the provision of employment and empowerment programmes to Nigerians. It is our core mandate and we would continue to ensure we sustain that,” he said.

The UNIC Foundation boss said he’s aware that certain laudable and positive initiatives by government are constantly being frustrated by some bad eggs within, and advised government to be more proactive, vigilant, responsive and above all, transparent in order to earn the will of the people.

“Let me restate that we at the UNIC Foundation have been doing more in the area of scholarships using the World Bank model to ensure transparency and spread. We provide that space of who the people turn to in times like these. UNIC Foundation also gives grants to business men, women and the youth to sustain their various businesses with workable mechanism to effectively monitor their steady progressive after intensive training,” he further stated.

The UNIC Foundation President said his outfit has been engrossed in this exercise for empowerment for past six years without regrets as the Foundation adopts close monitoring of the funds provided.

“Our partners and other donor countries have been quite encouraging. We have grown this NGO to at least 5,000 people attending our seminars. And we have assisted more than 500 people from March 2019 to date.” He disclosed.

On how to come out of the present downturn, he advised governments at all levels to encourage entrepreneurs and support them with generous tax incentives and enabling environment for businesses.

Imumolen said his organization will hold give educative, informative and refreshing modern business tips to entrepreneurs on May 21 at the Oriental Hotel, Lagos and will use the opportunity to further discuss the way forward for the Nigerian economy.

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