Follow Us on Google
By Omoniyi Salaudeen
The second tenure of President Muhammadu Buhari is steadily running out, as Nigerians are anxiously waiting for the swearing-in of the new President-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, on May 29. All things being equal, the scheduled handover ceremony will be the 7th civilian-to-civilian power transition since the beginning of the present democratic dispensation in 1999.
Though the two frontline opposition candidates in the February 25 Presidential and National Assembly elections have been making frantic efforts to challenge the declaration of Tinubu as the winner of the election, preparation for the smooth change of baton is well underway. Pre-emptive of any possible resistance from the aggrieved political actors, the military authorities, as well as the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba, on Monday, read the riot act to individuals and groups allegedly plotting to thwart the inauguration plan.
The Director of Defence Information, Brigadier General Tukur Gusau, warning dissident groups, vowed that any threat to the transition programme or democracy in the country would be crushed.
The IGP, while also addressing journalists at a press briefing at the Force Headquarters, Louis Edet House, Abuja, said that the police and other security agencies were ready to deal with aggrieved opposition and their supporters plotting to scuttle the swearing-in programme.
“The Nigeria Police hereby sternly warns all political actors with subversion agenda and their collaborators, particularly their foot soldiers, who they are exposing to political radicalization and extremism to, henceforth, jettison their ongoing premeditated attempts to create tension within the national,” he warned.
Ahead of the inauguration and the palpable euphoria of a new change of government, some concerned leaders of thought have called on the president-elect to hit the ground running immediately after his swearing-in and ensure that his electoral promises are delivered to the people in record time.
A member of the Northern Elders Forum (NEF), Tanko Yakassai, speaking with Sunday Sun about his expectation of the new government in a telephone conversation, advised Tinubu to set his priorities right and avoid the past mistake when the previous governments had to focus on too many agenda at the same time without much to show for it.
Instead, he advised the new incoming government to select a few critical aspects of development that could change the socio-economic fortune of the country within the four-year tenure of the administration. According to him, agriculture, power generation, irrigation, poverty, and youth employment are urgent issues that need to be addressed almost immediately.
His words: “What I expect the president-elect to do is to identify key areas like development of agriculture as the mainstay of the economy of the country, industrialization, employment of the unemployed, as well as other important issues that will change the situation for the better.
“The president-elect should avoid the mistake the previous governments made in going into office with a definite agenda. He must make sure he concentrates on a few agenda that he will be able to complete within the next four years. And it should be done in such a way that anybody coming after him will have no alternative, but to complete what he has started.
“Electricity generation should be the first key agenda of his first term in office. Generation of sufficient power and irrigation will be a key programme that will enable the new government to address poverty and unemployment problem within the first tenure of the administration. These two will definitely solve the problem of poverty and unemployment.”
A former deputy governor of Ogun State, Senator Gbenga Kaka, also speaking in the same vein, maintained that the development of the agricultural sector and electricity generation would be a milestone in solving the problems of poverty, youth restiveness, and general unemployment in the country.
“My expectation is not different from the expectations of the generality of Nigerians. We have seen what is happening right now. We have poverty in the land. Reduction in poverty level must be a key agenda of the new administration. Part of the instruments required for poverty reduction is productivity. In a situation where electricity remains a scarce commodity, there is hardly any way the country can progress in terms of productivity. They need to consider the multiplier effects of electricity generation. While the whole world is shifting to electric cars, we are yet to have stable electricity in our homes. If we can get the electricity right, it is going to be a milestone achievement.
“Under President Muhammadu Buhari, they are trying to remove the bottleneck by democratizing electricity generation and supply. “Immediately after the inauguration, the incoming administration must ensure that electricity generation and supply are removed entirely from the constitution so that states, private concerns, the Federal Government, and even if possible the local governments can generate small-scale electricity and then gradually move away from the national grid. “That will reduce the pressure from the national grid. And this, in effect, will enhance employment generation. It will also reduce the pressure on fuel consumption. Once this is done, other things will fall in line.
“Agriculture must also be given the right of place in our planning because a hungry person is an angry man. They need to calm down the restiveness of the youths in the country. We need to squarely face agriculture. It will create employment opportunities and also calm down youth restiveness.
“We must also give priority to qualitative and functional education,” he declared.
However, for Chief Chekwas Okorie, the most onerous task before the new incoming government is how to reunite the country that has already been divided along ethnic and religious fault lines. This, he said, must begin with a genuine healing process that could assuage the feeling of alienation by some sections of the country.
Moving forward, he suggested the convocation of a national conference as the right step toward achieving restructuring of the country.
He succinctly put his thoughts thus: “Let me just start by saying that I am one of those who promptly congratulated the President-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, for being declared the winner of the election. And I did that based on my conviction that the election was the most keenly contested election in recent times.
“I have also looked into the complaints of one or two persons and I convinced myself that they are not sufficient enough not to make the election not to stand. And I have not seen anything to make me change my mind about what happened.
“Having said all that, I want to tell the incoming president that he has the responsibility to heal the wounds that are festering in the country. He is inheriting a country that is deeply divided. Only human beings can make policies succeed. If steps are not taken to restore some sense of citizenship to a great number of Nigerians who feel alienated, no matter what the incoming president has as a magic wand, it will not go far enough.
“I am emphasising this because he has started very badly. The appointment of a 14-member transition committee that does not include any person from the Southeast is sending a very bad and unacceptable signal. Not just because I am an Igbo man, but because we are looking at one of the three major ethnic groups that constitute the tripod Nigeria is known to have stood on over the years. Whatever the rationale for the exclusion of that group cannot be justified. That has triggered off a very big suspicion. And it will not be in the interest of his new government to continue along those lines.
“To me, the election has been won and lost. At least, the Southeast has two APC governors, only close to the Southwest. He must bear in mind that the number of votes won by the two frontline opposition party – PDP and LP – far outweighs the number of votes that gave him the victory. So, it becomes easy to say that the majority of Nigerians who voted didn’t want him to become president. That makes his presidency sit on a dangling balance. He must, therefore, show that political sagacity his supporters have been boasting of to win the enormous opposition that is already out there to give him the cooperation that he needs to succeed.
“He must take immediate steps to restructure Nigeria. Using the National Assembly is not an answer. And he knows this because he is one of those people who have been championing agitation for true federalism in Nigeria. Within a short time of his ascendancy to power, a national conference must be convoked to review the structure of Nigeria to make it a better place for economic growth leveraging our diversity to build the country into a strong nation. I am not alone in this call. I have read Professor Wole Soyinka who has also sent a similar message to him through some publications. So, he must address that issue very quickly. These are major issues that will determine whether Nigeria will move forward as a nation or remain disparate sub-nationals.”
He, however, expressed confidence that the new administration would achieve economic progress, especially leveraging on Tinubu’s experience as a former governor of Lagos State.
“I have no doubt in my mind that he has brilliant ideas of how to generate revenue and block leakages in the same manner he did with revenue collection in Lagos State. I do believe the economy will experience some growth based on his experience as a good manager of men and resources,” Okorie posited.
