Fifteen months into his second tenure in office, President Muhammadu Buhari has unveiled what could be termed his exit plan or agenda. Even with about two years and nine months left in his tenure, it is heart-warming that the President is looking at the terminal point, knowing that the constitution prescribed two-terms of eight maximum years for any elected President of Nigeria. When he hands over in 2023, he will join Chief Olusegun Obasanjo as the second elected President who completed his constitutionally required tenure of office and relinquished power.
While receiving letters of credence from high commissioners and ambassadors of eight countries on Tuesday, President Buhari said his remaining years in office would be devoted to growing the economy, improving access to quality education, fighting poverty, improving healthcare delivery, enhancing productivity, fighting corruption, improving security and governance as well as ensuring social cohesion.
He said: “In our effort to achieve a realistic domestic and foreign policy, as well as national development, we have identified the following nine priority areas to guide our policy direction over the next few years.” No doubt, these nine areas President Buhari outlined are critical to the development of Nigeria. If sincere and conscientious efforts are made towards them, things would turn around and the country would certainly be on the path to recovery and greater development. To achieve this, government must be focused and determined, with the people doing their bit, for the attainment of the desired goal.
The economy is the fulcrum of development in any country. When the economy is good, the people will be better for it. When, on the other hand, the economy is bad, depression and retardation usually set in. Therefore, efforts should be made to do those things that would boost the economy, like taking action on ease of doing business, flexibility as well as streamlining of taxation and others. With the devastation caused the business sector by the COVID-19 pandemic, greater work is needed for the growth of the economy.
Towards this end, the organised private sector (OPS) cannot be ignored. The economy would hardly make progress without a vibrant private sector. Such actions as industrialisation and boosting small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) are important in this regard. Government should, therefore, evolve a progressive policy for SMEs, as this would change Nigeria’s profile from a country of employment seekers to one that would have many individuals working for themselves and creating employment. There should be a scheme, by government, to arouse activity and energy in the SMEs sub-sector, which would, by extension, bolster industrialisation and lay the foundation for Nigeria becoming a producing nation, instead of a consuming one. Urgent and decisive action is needed in the power sector.
With a vibrant economy, the foundation for the eradication or reduction of poverty would have been laid. It is really a shame that a country that was rated as a potential great economy at the time of independence crashed to become the poverty capital of the world. This ignoble toga would be discarded when the SMEs are made to work and vocational skill acquisition is made a priority.
No country will make progress without making provision for the education of its teeming youths. It is good that President Buhari is not only emphasising education, but also qualitative education. Action in this regard should be taken holistically, with the overhaul of infrastructure and curriculum. Our schools lack infrastructure. Where infrastructure exists, it is mostly decayed. We have schools without libraries and functional/equipped laboratories. In such settings, our education is primarily theory-based, producing half-baked students not grounded in the practical aspects of their profession. As a way out, in addition to providing requisite infrastructure needed to groom students, the curriculum should be tinkered with to make it more vocation and skill acquisition-based. Graduates who, in the course of their education, acquire skills would not be looking for jobs but would create wealth themselves.
I would rather the government takes measures to reduce or stop corruption than exerting energy in fighting those who may have committed the act. As evil communication corrupts good manners, there are things in place that enhance corruption. For example, the way unspent funds for any particular year at the ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) are handled breeds corruption. Mechanisms must be put in place to return such unspent funds to the treasury, instead of leaving loopholes for some unscrupulous officials to dispense with them. The government should address contract splitting also. At the executive level, there should be a ceiling for security votes, with budgetary provision.
Serious and decisive war should be waged against insecurity. The economy cannot blossom in insecurity. Peace cannot exist in insecurity. Therefore, President Buhari should do more in the effort to secure Nigerians and the country’s territory. There are cases of banditry, insurgency, kidnapping and armed robbery across the country. Much has been heard about government’s plan towards ensuring security. We have heard about plans to overhaul the security architecture. However, some people have demanded the appointment of a new set of Service Chiefs. Whatever the government wants, it should do it for Nigerians to be safe and feel safe. The fight against insecurity should not just be mouthed. It must be decisive.
Apart from what President Buhari has listed, there are two important things he must tackle also in the remaining part of his tenure. These are electoral reforms and the issue of power shift. For one, to have any credible election in the country, where the votes of the people determine the outcome of the election, there is need for reforms in the electoral system. The last Electoral Amendment Bill, which President Buhari could not sign into law, okayed electronic transmission of results, addressed the death of a candidate in an election before results are announced, pegged the money political parties should charge aspirants as nomination fees, gave card reader legal backing and discarded use of incidence forms. These are things that must be visited and taken care of, to make our elections more credible. This is a duty President Buhari owes Nigerians, to complement ex-President Goodluck Jonathan’s electoral perestroika and glasnost.
With the controversy already raging as to which zone of the country would produce the next President, President Buhari should endeavour to sort this out in his All Progressives Congress (APC). Power rotation between the North and South evolved since 1999 in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). This should be sustained in the APC. When Buhari completes eight years in office in 2023, the onus is on him to get the APC to give its presidential ticket to the South. Justice, equity and fairness demand that, in letting power shift to the South, the South East geopolitical zone should be given due consideration, having not produced the President since the return of democracy in 1991. The North has produced the late President Umaru Yar’Adua and President Buhari. The South West produced Chief Obasanjo. The South South produced Dr. Jonathan. In the tripod, the South East has not produced the President.
President Buhari should, therefore, persuade his political party to do the needful by ensuring that power rotates to the South East in 2023. This would help in assuaging the feelings of the South East in the country.