2023 Elections: Agenda campaigns must focus on
It is another campaign season; the atmosphere is charged, passions high and stakes peaked. Unfortunately, the political class chooses to flaunt primordial sentiments to score cheap political points than to focus on germane issues. This is dangerous to the corporate existence of the nation and poisonous to the survival of democracy. In the millennium when […]
It is another campaign season; the atmosphere is charged, passions high and stakes peaked. Unfortunately, the political class chooses to flaunt primordial sentiments to score cheap political points than to focus on germane issues. This is dangerous to the corporate existence of the nation and poisonous to the survival of democracy.
In the millennium when globalization and modernization hold sway, political campaigns are focused on salient issues of national significance. This is the period when Nigeria is confronted with a myriad of challenges; plethora of problems and multitude of issues threatening its survival as a nation. Politicians should be circumspect, sensible, reasonable and responsible to base their political discourses on issues that are critical to our existence, survival, development and the future. The evils of desertification, sea surge, soil erosion, incessant flooding, population explosion and crashing crude oil prices in the global market are staring us in the face, and are threatening to consume us if care is not taken.
Firstly, it is an unshakeable fact that land is one of the major factors of production. Its importance to human survival cannot be overemphasized. But the land in Nigeria today is fizzling out by desert encroachment, sea surge and soil erosion caused by climate change. A vast area of land in the Northern part of the country has been depleted by desertification. It is rendered uninhabitable, unproductive and uncultivatable, in spite of the fact that majority of people living in those areas are farmers and pastoralists.
Consequently, the inhabitants have lost their farmlands, grazing areas, shelter and are forced to migrate in search of greener posture.
However, in the Southern states, the land is being consumed by sea surge, in which the sea level is rising and engulfing an extensive swathe of land, especially in the coastal areas. In the central states, flooding is an annual recurrence, and is causing serious environmental degradation and soil erosion.
Secondly, there is a looming danger of population explosion in Nigeria. According to a report released on Monday 11th July 2022 by the population division of United Nations’ Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA), Nigeria’s population grew by 122 million people in 32 years, from 94 million in 1990 to 216 million people come November 2022. This moved it from 10th most populous nation in the world to 6th position.
It is projected that by 2050 (in 28 years to come), the population will increase by 159-184 million people, to become the 4th most populous country in the world with the population of 375-400 million people. These figures if carefully examined, and keenly observed, present a frightening reality that may escalate the misery index in the country. The population is growing far faster than the growth in Human Development Index (HDI) as well as Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This may lead to increase in the prevalence of poverty, hunger, insecurity, illiteracy, diseases and many other socio-economic problems.
Thirdly, Nigeria’s economy has remained a mono economy that depends solely on crude oil export. Apparently, the government has been preaching economic diversification in the last few years to reduce the over dependence on one product, but the economy is still at the mercy of the fluctuations in the global crude oil prices. Invariably, crude oil is losing its value gradually and steadily due to its association with the evil of global warming. The international community is striving to cut the ozone layer depleting gases’ emission, therefore resolved to stop the use of fossil fuel by 2050. Nations are now shifting and tilting towards cleaner, greener, safer and more environmentally friendly renewable energy sources.
These three basic and fundamental issues, despite their glaring and conspicuous effects, remained barely known, and totally absent in our political discourses. They should be at the front burner of policy making and national planning, as they are the major causal factors for all the calamities that are bedevilling the nation. They should elegantly and visibly feature in our national discussions and take centre stage in the political campaigns. These unmistakable realities are capable of determining and directing our future as a nation.
Usman Aliyu Elnafaty writes from Bauchi State