President-elect Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu said it has been his lifelong ambition to become the President of Nigeria. In Allah’s mercy he has achieved his lifetime ambition against all odds. However, the tasks ahead of him are daunting. He won the election at the critical stage where the outgoing administration will leave behind a ravaging insecurity, comatose economy, corruption, unemployment, rising inflation and a country divided along religious and ethnic lines.
The president-elect in his acceptance speech extended a hand of friendship to defeated presidential candidates by calling on his supporters and those of his opponents to unite towards his “renewed hope” vision for Nigeria. The president elect has shown that he can unite the country by calling on Atiku Abubakar, Rabiu Kwankwaso, Peter Obi and others to join him so that all can work together; it shows that he will be president for all.
Nigerians expect him to have a team of competent people and immediately roll out his economic blueprint, which should be in line with the national development plan and restore hope to Nigerians. Nigeria’s economy is in a shambles and needs emergency rescue. At the last check, N767 exchanged for a dollar, up from about N180 in 2015, when President Muhammadu Buhari came on board. There is a need for the incoming administration to put all necessary policies to bar federal and state governments from borrowing and in the case where the borrowing is necessary the said borrowing will be uses to fund projects that can generate revenue out of which the debt can be repaid.
The nation’s debt-service-to-revenue ratio is reported as 80.7%, according to the information contained in the 2023 budget by the Minister of Finance. Nigeria is neck-deep in debt hovering around N44.06 trillion in September 2022 and the debt stock could amount to about N77 trillion by June 2023. The report reveals a total debt service of N5. 2 trillion in the first 11 months of 2022 out of a total revenue of N6. 49 trillion. Nigeria may spend almost 100 percent of its revenue on debt servicing by 2026. The trend remains disproportionate, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said. All the indices have been blinking red and worrisome for a long time. Things became worse under Buhari’s watch. Naira lost value almost daily.
Corruption remains a major challenge in Nigeria, compounding to the country’s socio-economic woes thus eroding public trust in government. The new president must be committed to fighting corruption at all levels of government, without favour or discrimination. He must strengthen institutions such as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and ensuring that they have the resources and independence they need to do their jobs effectively. He must also demonstrate total commitment without selectivism and nepotism in fighting the problems. This will translate to a dedicated fight against all acts of corruption.
To address the fight since corruption is fighting back, Tinubu must demonstrate a strong commitment to transparency and accountability in running the affairs of the government. This will surely move the nation forwaed and restore its dignity, the new government must not treat corruption with kid’s gloves. Corruption must be fought from all fronts. There should be severe punishment for culprits. To effectively wage war against corruption, it is expected that the new government sets up special courts on this.
insecurity, the president-elect highlighted the need to address Nigeria’s security challenges. He would create anti-terrorist battalions with special forces whose objective shall be to tackle terrorists, kidnappers, and bandits. Tinubu is inheriting a fractured country of despaired citizens. The biggest problem in the most populous African country is insecurity. The Centre for Democracy and Development, in a report, says no less than some 30,000 strong gunmen split into 80 groups are operating as bandits, dispensing fear, tears and death to an already traumatised population. Each passing day gunmen regularly kill, maim and abduct people on the highways and sometimes from their houses or offices. The new government will need to introduce out of the box measures to defeat insecurity and restore the dignity of man. Aside the regular decimation of lives by criminal groups, the union is threatened by secessionist agitations in the south. The Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, and other incendiary groups have been making life miserable for the common man in the South-east.
Poverty in Nigeria as of the last year In its review of Nigeria’s poverty map, the National Bureau of Statistics pegged 62.9 percent of Nigerians — nearly 133 million people — as multidimensionally poor. The figure represents a significant jump from the World Bank’s projection earlier this year, which placed 95m Nigerians under the poverty line. For one to understand the poverty level in the country, one can listen to people’s conversations.
Growing inflation; cost of living, Nigerians are languishing in extreme hardship; daily survival has become an uphill challenge and what people are going through now in the country is reaching the highest apogee since the late 80s. Nigerians are battling for daily survival has become an uphill challenge due to the unprecedented skyrocketing prices of essential commodities and all these have happened under Baba Buhari’s corrective administration.
In a report by Global Hunger Index jointly published by the German-based Welthungerhilfe and Dublin-based Concern Worldwide. Nigeria ranked 103 out of 121 countries in the 2022 Global Hunger Index, a position that signifies the nation “has a level of hunger-stricken country which is serious. inflation reached unprecedented heights; workers” purchasing power declined precipitously.
For the incoming administration to reduce the level of poverty in the country, the federal government should focus on three policy priorities which include: “Reduce Inflation by Implementing Policies That Support Macroeconomic Stability, Inclusive Growth, And Job Creation; Protect poor households from the impacts of inflation; Facilitate access to financing for small and medium enterprises in key sectors to mitigate the effects of inflation and accelerate the recovery. – World Bank advice
The president-elect need needs to tackle issues surrounding the fiscal and monetary policies to quickly arrest the dwindling economy of the country. Nigerians expect the new president-elect to have a team of competent economist and other professional that will came up his economic blueprint, which should be in line with his National Development Plan.
The incoming government should give accelerated attention to halt the economic decline and hardship on the nation. This economic situation, in itself, requires not just tinkering but massive reengineering. There are four major refineries in the country, all of which have not been working for ages. Experts believe that this may be the chief reason prices of petroleum products are skyrocketing and products remain scarce.
The president-elect must do all that it may take to fix the refineries, eliminate a dubious subsidy regime on petroleum products and guarantee regular supply of products, pay attention gas and solid minerals. Our country is blessed with vast mineral deposits. We have more than 32 of them, which are either not being explored at all, or under-developed. The same goes for gas. We have more gas than oil. Why can’t we convert these to wealth? The iron and steal industry deserves special mention. The moribund steel complexes in Aladja, Delta state and Ajaokuta, Kogi state need to be brought back to life as a matter of urgency. Nigeria, through the bitumen resources of Agbabu, Ilubirin, and Ode-Irele in Ondo State has the second largest deposit of bitumen in the world- second only to Venezuela. But like the prodigal son, we have neglected bitumen as a commodity that cannot just earn foreign exchange for the whole country, but provide massive employment for the locals and transform the lives of the whole community. This will partly create thousands of jobs and take idle hands away from the streets.
The incoming administration should critically review agricultural policies because the current policy has not achieved much success that can boost the economy and reduce poverty in the land. Groundnuts, the United States, Nigeria, Argentina and Indonesia are the largest producers annually producing between 2 to 3 million tonnes per year. Quite expectedly China has jumped into the business along with Brazil, Thailand, Vietnam, Mexico, South Africa and Myanmar. Everybody knows about the peanut and peanut butter business in the United State, whereas Kano State alone, let alone the whole country could dominate the world’s trade in peanuts and peanut butter.
What Nigerians want most are the competence and capacity of leaders to take decisions and be assertive in ensuring that those decisions are actually implemented. Just like a weak leader can wreck an institution, a strong leader, who has just that power and courage, but lacks the capacity, ability and competence to lead, can also wreck strong institutions. Competence of leadership is a very important variable in bringing about the stable political transition, good governance and deepening of democracy.
Let you and your team remain focused on the objective of birthing the Nigeria of our dreams. Nigerians pray that Almighty God will help you to fulfill the progressive mandate given to you by Nigerians, as well as you and your vice president-elect’s plans to improve our challenges as a people and nation. May Allah guide the incoming administrator to do what is good for the country. Formulate policies that will safeguard our country and bring ease to Nigerians from difficulties the citizens are going through.
Dukawa, a public affairs commentator, writes from Kano.
