The return of President Muhammadu Buhari to Nigeria after 103 days of medical vacation in London presents an opportunity for a new beginning in his Presidency. The long period of his being away from official duties should have provided him an opportunity for deep reflection and strategising on better ways to achieve results in the task of national development.
Five key issues the President should focus on and take seriously as he resumes work…
The second issue is that the ailment that took the President away to London for this long stretch of time shows the very poor state of our medical facilities and how government has treated the right to health of Nigerians. Health is underfunded with no clear cut actionable policies to turn around the sector. A sector filled with all manner of clichés and slogans which no one including the leaders believes in provides no succour for anyone. If the health institutions have been working, President Buhari would not have voted with his feet to London.
The third is that the Academic Staff Union of Universities is on strike and other unions in the tertiary education sector have joined them. So, the issue is that the higher education challenge may need to be resolved wholistically. The President needs a team that will not just think out of the box but get education out of the box totally. The idea of sitting inside a box and trying to think out of it is flawed. What are you doing inside the box in the first place? Simply get out of the box; that is what needs to be done in the education sector. Various reports of needs assessment and visitation teams are available and should be implemented. The challenges are very well known and solutions have been tabulated so many times for the sector.
The fourth is that the political environment has come under heavy strains and a clear headed reform is imperative. The mindset of indivisibility and indissolubility of the Nigerian nation is no longer holding sway going by the extreme positions and repositioning taken by different religious, ethnic and interest groups. The Nigerian of today wants a new political, federating and governance structure that releases his energy to excel, a race to the heights rather than the current competition and race to the bottom. The youths want a system that releases their positive disruptive energy, to innovate and create new things in the new age of information and the internet of things. Continuing with business as usual is no longer an option especially when the tie between governance structures, processes and the economy is unraveled. Thus, change has to become concretised to make impact in people’s lives.
Reducing the tension in the land means the President has to go to work to address the fault lines of ethnic and religious divides which has been further widened by economic challenges. The President needs to address the quit notice given to people of Igbo extraction by Arewa Youths. He needs to address the revolving issue of the agitation for Biafra, the renewed boko haram insurgency and other similar challenges. With the exception of the book haram insurgency, virtually all the challenges need a lot of dialogue and reassurances involving all sides to the disputes whilst the law enforcement angle is invoked where recalcitrance and failure to see reason holds sway.
The fifth issue is the economy which has depreciated over the years. It is understood that getting the economy back of track is not going to happen overnight. But we need to begin to see the preliminary footsteps which show that we are thinking beyond oil rents and its depreciating value.The President may consider rejigging his economic team to bring in more professionals and tested hands.
In the war against corruption, start thinking of institution building and less of the media rhetoric. Let action speak louder than words through high level convictions and trials. Strengthen the office of Auditor General in its mandate whilst granting the office financial autonomy and sufficient elbow room to do its work. This will help the office to provide empirical evidence to support judicial prosecutions and proactive work to nip public service corruption in the bud.
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