Conversations with the President-elect

The period preceding the presidential elections was greeted with intense and unrestrained emotions, outright bigotries, and zingers from political opponents and supporters alike so much that discussing issues that really matter was out of the table. Public pundits who tend to raise their voices or pen down their thoughts on the challenges ahead got their […]

The period preceding the presidential elections was greeted with intense and unrestrained emotions, outright bigotries, and zingers from political opponents and supporters alike so much that discussing issues that really matter was out of the table.

Public pundits who tend to raise their voices or pen down their thoughts on the challenges ahead got their ideas or pressing questions drowned amid fierce online arguments. Discussing the manifestoes of the parties of the major contenders took the back seat while bickering on variables like the contestants’ age, health, religion, region and ethnicity became the front burner across many platforms.

As the wave of electioneering is beginning to disappear and the elections have been won and lost, I think we can begin to ask the president-elect where to go from here. His job has been well cut out for him. And it is definitely not going to be an easy ride and we need to be realistic.

The election and its aftermath exposed the fragile unity between the regions and religions that made up Nigeria. The president-elect should as a matter of urgency hit the ground running by reaching out to aggrieved regions and their leaders through assuaging their real or imagined fears and grievances. The problems of the country are too enormous to be dragged back by agitations and the feelings of being left out. Therefore, an inclusive government and approach to governance has never been this necessary.

Security: Just when President Buhari was about to claim victory over Boko Haram and insecurity in the North East, an unprecedented spate of killings, kidnapping and banditry reared their ugly heads in the North West. A huge swathe of land became inaccessible, many major roads were deserted, farming nosedived, and a humanitarian crisis ensued. With these problems, many people found themselves in the yolk of poverty, others became homeless and fangs of hunger rendered many others dead.

The security structure is in dire need of an overhaul. Community policing, intelligence gathering, the use of non-kinetic approach and continued procuring of more weapons cannot be over emphasised. Men who are in the front line serving the country should also be motivated. A situation where underperforming service chiefs are rewarded with tenure extensions or a slap on the wrist should end.

Furthermore, I think the decentralisation of the Police Force is necessary to curb the spread of insecurity across the country. State police is an idea that could be floated and established while strong laws preventing sub-national governments from abusing it should accompany such establishment.

Successive governments have failed to face and address the epileptic power supply problem head long. Humongous amount of public funds have been infused in the power sector only to purchase more darkness for Nigerians. We had many intermittent national grid failures. Many Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) depend on power supply to fester as many others are yet to recover from the shocks and effect of COVID-19 pandemic and cashless policy.

The state of the economy is scary. Unemployment has increasingly become high; inflation rates is biting hard; economic growth is sluggish; there is an upsurge in the country’s debt burden; the gap between the poor and rich has widened; and the conservatism of the Central Bank was thrown to the dogs by Governor Emefiele, thereby making monetary and fiscal policies blurred.

The president-elect has a huge responsibility of closing the gap between the rich and poor through job creations, effective wealth distribution, social protection programmes with measured outcomes and strengthened fiscal policies.

Subsidy: Only a few among the unlettered in Nigeria don’t know this word. Even those who could not speak English have a name for it in their language. It is obviously no longer sustainable as we even borrow to fund it. However, oil is the most critical ‘social safety nets’ to the poor in Nigeria, a tweak in its price is greeted with snag, suspicion and impoverishment. The oil sector is marred with irregularities so much that we are not even certain of the amount of our domestic oil consumption.

Therefore, critical infrastructure is in dire need of the money channelled into subsidy so as to enhance economic diversification and gradual departure from over-reliance on oil. And a good way to allay the fears of the masses that the money derived from lack of subsidy might be squandered is through involving vital stakeholders like the trade unions, civil societies, sub-national governments, community leaders, and other relevant bodies. Comprehensive Key Performance Indicators or milestones should be developed and tracked by these stakeholders and a project implementation and result delivery unit on the side of the federal government.

Another problem the president-elect will carry forward from President Buhari and other presidents before him is the ASUU-FG debacle that has refused to succumb to any pragmatic solution. Fake promises and insincerity on the side of the federal government and dogmatic or unbending approach on the side of the Academic Staff Union of Universities have made it impossible for the two to reach a sincere, realistic and practicable solution.

Padding in the budget, red tapism in the civil service, inflation of contracts and other forms of abuse of public office for personal gain are still with us. Corruption has basically been the cancer eating up the already meagre and dwindling resources meant for economic growth, nation building and stability. Corruption will not disappear overnight but with the help of technology, building of strong institutions and strengthening existing ones like the judiciary will go a long way in minimising it.

The aforementioned issues and many more are parts of the conversations we should keep having with the president-elect. We should be less tendentious in doing so but we should never relent in holding our leaders — president, governors and other elected or appointed public officers — accountable. The era of lack of communication and the body language that being our president is like doing us a favour should end.

I wish the president-elect successful days in office. May Allah grant him firm political will and a competent team to drive good policies and push the country towards greatness! Let the conversations continue.

 

Suleiman resides in Kaduna and can be reached via [email protected]