TO EAGLE SQUARE! (3)

The Chinese, not ones to ‘carry last’, have acted really fast on the suggestion. Last week, many of us may have seen the picture of a Chinese official showing President-Elect Muhammadu Buhari a model modern train. And the General seems to like it; he is pictured smiling so broadly. Yes, go for it General! Let […]

The Chinese, not ones to ‘carry last’, have acted really fast on the suggestion. Last week, many of us may have seen the picture of a Chinese official showing President-Elect Muhammadu Buhari a model modern train. And the General seems to like it; he is pictured smiling so broadly. Yes, go for it General! Let the Chinese develop our infrastructure!
And then, the other day, ten areas were identified as the major challenges of the in-coming administration: general insecurity and insurgency ‘that has caused extreme human hardship and destruction of lives and livelihoods’ in the North East and North West; environmental degradation in the Niger Delta; decline in revenues due to fall in oil prices; endemic corruption ‘which has crippled human and infrastructural development for decades’; poor provision of power supply ‘which has had a crippling effect on development of small businesses’; de-industrialization for the past three decades leading to closure of many industries and migration of many to other African countries; high levels of unemployment and especially youth unemployment which may be up to 40%; high cost of governance ‘that has been crowding out capital and human development’; erosion of public social services such as infrastructure, health and education; and lack of development in the agricultural and solid mineral sectors.
Therefore, in the spirit of this yet-unofficial “Ten-Point-Agenda”, contributors will do well to address how these challenges can be tackled. For example, more voices should be added to the call on the Buhari Administration to, as it adapts Chinese infrastructure, adopt China’s panacea to corruption – “One Looter One Bullet” (and the executed corrupt official’s estate pays for the bullet, after all stolen wealth forfeited to government). And it should start with those who ‘chopped’ Nigerian workers’ salaries for April 2015. Indeed today, according to many workers, is actually “April 32nd, not May 2nd”. And yesterday was not the usual Happy May Day Workers’ Day; it was an unhappy Workers’ Dry Day.
Meanwhile, here we go with this week’s offerings:
AMIR ABDULAZEEZ ([email protected]): The All Progressives Congress (APC) must lead by example. As the new ruling party with enormous influence and goodwill across the country, it should not be preoccupied with governing Nigeria only; it should also concentrate on reforming our political system. If APC wants to make history, this is the best opportunity. From 1999 to date, the PDP had introduced many things into our political system, most of which did more harm than good. The APC must immediately make a self-assessment and make necessary amendments; let this victory not get into its head. APC must champion the cause of ideology in Nigerian political party system, internal democracy, building strong parties, party supremacy, accountability and good governance, etc. If the ruling party behaves properly, all other parties trying to unseat it in 2019 will be left with no option than to follow suit.
MOHAMMED BINGEL GARBA ([email protected]): All private schools offering basic education (primary/junior secondary) should be done away with and ALL children should attend public schools in their domain nearest to them. All materials such as books and writing materials needed to deliver effective teaching and learning should be the same from Sokoto to Calabar, from Lagos to Maiduguri, and must be provided by Government. To get the trained and effective teachers for this ambitious programme, all Colleges of Education are henceforth to be turned into Universities of Education. Admission into these institutions should meet the requirements of admission into Universities, as opposed to the present situation where students who fail to get the requirements for University admission are advised to go and “manage NCE” at COEs. There shouldn’t be any ‘managing’ with teaching our young ones; only the best should be deployed to teach.
ALHASSAN M. SHAGARI ([email protected]): BUHARI has a lot to do. He is going to take over a really battered nation. And for him to retain the trust people repose in him he needs people of proven track record by his side working for him. We the followers also need attitudinal change towards making him succeed.
HAMISU MUHAMMAD ([email protected]): (To John Jakpa, an earlier contributor from last week). Hi John, I read your advice with respect to power generation using power barges in the short term. That is great. However, you quoted the capacity of the barges in the range of 3,000MW. Actually there are no barges of that capacity. The highest capacity power barge is the one now being used in Pakistan with a capacity of 220MW. It takes about 3 months to construct. I am not sure if it can be scaled up to the range you are talking about, which will cost more and also take more time to fabricate.
IBRAHIM YUSUFU ([email protected]): For the President to effectively fight corruption, he should abolish “Self-Accounting” in all Ministries and Departments. I was a supporter of Self-Accounting, but no more. Self-Accounting presumes that the people at the top (Ministers, Permanent Secretaries etc.) are incorruptible and therefore the people below them should follow the line. Unfortunately what we have seen in Nigeria that corruption at most times starts from the top. Self-Accounting should therefore be abolished and in its place “Partial Self-Accounting” introduced. By this, the Treasury should make all payments and the Ministries/Departments should produce their Ministerial/Departmental Accounts (from the records of their payments) for incorporation to produce the whole Government Accounts.
ALIYU BALA ALIYU ([email protected]): I feel Lagos Governor Raji Fashola fits into five portfolios perfectly well with the last on my list my preferred option and for which I am in no doubt, as millions of Nigerians, that he will deliver. They are: Secretary to the Government of the Federation, (SGF); Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation (AGF); Minister of Works, Minister of Power, and lastly Minister of FCT. The suggestion about making him Chief of Staff to Buhari as is being spoken of in hushed tones would be to cage all that action and put the show-man behind the curtains. Nigeria needs him out in the open where, with his sleeves all rolled up, he can inspire, lead, and help transform FCT and contribute his bit at the centre this time around in making Nigeria great again.
And now a call to Buhari’s Transition Committee, headed by a very good friend of this Column, Elder Statesman Alhaji Ahmed Joda, and ‘Secretaried’ by senior colleague and Friday Columnist on this newspaper, Brother Adamu Adamu for them to preamble their work with this saying of Allah’s Messenger, Muhammad (upon whom be peace): “You must be truthful, for truthfulness leads to righteousness and righteousness leads to Paradise. A man will keep speaking the truth and striving to speak the truth until he will be recorded with Allah as a siddeeq (speaker of the truth). Beware of telling lies, for lying leads to immorality and immorality leads to Hellfire. A man will keep telling lies and striving to tell lies until he is recorded with Allah as a liar.” (Hadith 4721 in Muslim Collection narrated by Abdullah ibn Mas’ood (may Allah be pleased with both).
May Allah make our leaders to be honest with us, and may Allah help the Committee to help Buhari in his choices.
Alhamdu lilLah (Thanks be to God) and HasbunalLahu wa ni’imal Wakeel! (God is Sufficient for us and He is the Best Disposer of affairs).