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Tunde Thomas
Zaccheaus Oluwadara, a cleric, has advised President Muhammadu Buhari to have an in-depth assessment of some of the programmes which his administration carried out in his first term to determine whether they were successful or not. He cited the N-Power programme, insisting that despite the millions spent by the Federal Government, the programme has not been successful.
What are the areas you will want President Muhammadu Buhari to give top priorities in his second term?
I believe that President Buhari has a genuine passion to serve this nation but unfortunately he has not been lucky to have good and patriotic aides that will help him realise his vision for Nigeria. Not only aides, but some state governors that were also elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) are not helping him to actualise his vision and plans for Nigeria.
I sincerely wish that President Buhari would assemble a team that will help achieve his goals and objectives. He should only appoint those that will add value to his administration and also ensure that appointments into key positions are strictly done based on merit, and not on political considerations. President Buhari should realise that it is his own name that posterity would record as having failed or succeeded at the end of his tenure. Nobody will mention the names of aides or cabinet members; it is the President’s name that will be mentioned either as a success or colossal failure.
What are the programmes and projects that you will want him to focus on that will add value to the lives of Nigerians?
He should first have an assessment of some of the programmes which his administration carried out during his first term to determine whether they were successful or not. I will like Federal government to review the N-Power because under this programme, some unemployed graduates are being given N30, 000 monthly stipends, but this money which runs into millions of naira is like a waste.
My private investigations and findings revealed that those graduates under the N-Power scheme are not doing anything but collecting free money every month. If this continues unchecked, it will ultimately create economic crisis for the government as it will lead to rise in inflation. The scheme should be reviewed. Instead of the graduates under the scheme to be given money without doing anything, the Federal Government should take them to the farm.
Now that government is reviving the agriculture sector, those graduates should be encouraged to take to farming while Federal Government will provide farming implements, seedlings and tools for them. Government should never make a mistake of giving capital to the graduates to go and start farming. That will be a wrong step as many of the graduates will end up spending the money or divert it to other things.
President Buhari should find ways to revive the manufacturing sector of the economy. Many industries that can generate employment are lying comatose — they should be revived. All those multi-national corporations like the Dunlop, Michelin that left Nigeria in the wake of economic meltdown should be encouraged to return. We should find ways to attract foreign investors to the country. Government should also encourage the growth of small scale enterprises by making loans available to them. They are also key players in the nation’s economy. But most importantly, President Buhari should find urgent solutions to the worsening security situation in the country. There is no way commerce can thrive in an environment that is not secure.
On the fight against corruption, how would you assess efforts being made by President Buhari to tackle the vice?
I will want the President to sustain the battle against corruption. Those confirmed to be involved in corruption after a thorough trial should be hanged or executed. It should be nothing but death for looters. I believe death sentence for corruption will help to restore sanity in the country. For those who may want to say that death sentence is too harsh for corruption, the alternative is to send looters to life imprisonment.
