By this time next week, President Muhammadu Buhari would have been inaugurated for a second term of four years.
Analysts say that the opportunity of the second and last oath of office by the President should afford him and his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), a chance to remedy all that may have gone wrong in the last four years and rightly position Nigeria on the path to greatness.
Pundits, who spoke with BDSUNDAY, including Olisa Agbakoba, a senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN), listed as key expectations, security of lives and property, Constitutional re-engineering, reduction in lending rate, boost in the economy and job creation.
Other expectations are in the areas of renewed fight against corruption, improvement in agricultural production, education, infrastructure, roads, rail system and power.
Christian Okeke, a lecturer at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka, said: “My expectation is that he ends up bequeathing a strong, stable and prosperous country which he promised. I expect that he focuses on creation of value-added economy that is driven by real and sustainable jobs in manufacturing and agricultural sectors.
“It is sad that our country is currently beleaguered by all-time consuming incidences of hunger, poverty, unemployment, economic sabotage, kidnapping and other acts of vagabondage. Our global poverty ranking shows no sign of improvement even as millions still go to bed daily on empty stomach.”
“In fact, lack of jobs and other pecuniary incentives continue to supply oxygen that sustains multiform varieties of national catastrophes. While insecurity and under-development besetting the country show organic linkage with economic factors, conditions of human life in the country continue to grow worse.
“In order to make the desired impact in the next administration, therefore, President Buhari must have an immense focus on job creation across various initiatives. If our country is indeed to become economically sustainable, it clearly needs jobs. This will drive other development index and launch the country into becoming a strong economy,” Okeke further said.
Idayat Hassan, director, Centre for Democracy and Development, said: “The priority for the new administration is to focus on tackling insecurity, economy and corruption. In fact, nothing changed compared to 2015, instead, insecurity actually got more protracted.
“The President must urgently constitute his cabinet and ensure he puts round pegs in round holes. The administration must also ensure it prioritises policy coherence and consistency in this new term. Most of its failures in the last four years were as a result of one policy militating against the other”.
Stanley Kyegh, an Abuja-based legal practitioner said: “Every government comes with its peculiar challenges, prospects and all that. Issues of security were there before he came in and somehow those things were underground but now they have become monsters.
“So in his second term, he should focus more on security so that the country can come back to the peaceful country we knew before. Because the way things are going now, if he is not firm on the issue of security, the country will be polarised.
“His attention should be on social investment; bringing in programmes that will touch on people like the home grown feeding programme, anchor borrowers’ programme and N- power, etc.
“In the area of education, more is needed to be done. Putting jobs in the hands of people is good and pushing down to people in the rural areas to also feel the impact of government, particularly in our hospitals, in our schools and then roads. Now we have heard that some roads have been awarded like in my state in Benue and if he continues with this trajectory the country in the next tenure would feel his impact more than what we felt in the first tenure,” Kyegh said.
President Buhari himself has not left Nigerians in doubt as to what they should expect in his second term when he began his re-election campaign by launching the policy document “Next Level”.
The next level agenda prioritizes five key issues of jobs creation, infrastructure development, business/entrepreneurship, human capital enhancement and political inclusion with specific promise to create seven million jobs.
A columnist captured the expectation of Nigerians on a national daily in his article ‘Next Level’. According to the writer, “The people have seen how the President fared in his first term. His final four-year term is expected to be defining. Not many have good things to say about his first four-year term. To these people, the President did not meet Nigerians’ expectations. They wanted to see a President that would transform their lives in a twinkling of an eye. But that did not happen.”
The author further recalled that “The President and his party gave the citizenry the impression that things would change overnight upon their coming into office. They promised CHANGE; the people took them by their word, expecting instant change…What with the promise to ensure regular power supply within six months and statements such as ‘any government that cannot guarantee that should simply pack and go within a few months’! Those who talked like that now know better.”
A pundit, who spoke with BDSUNDY, expressed pessimism, saying: “I do not expect anything different from what I saw in the last four years. In fact, I am expecting the worst. You know why? The signs are all over the place that the President has not changed his mind set. He has wasted four whole years pointing fingers at past administrations. He wasted four years hunting down perceived opponents. He wasted four years dividing the country and instituting hatred across the country. No section of the country is together again. The other day, former President Olusegun Obasanjo talked about Northernisation and Fulanisation of the country, and the Presidency began to attack him, but that’s what we are seeing now. I will tell you for free that the country is in for a more terrible time; don’t let anybody deceive you.”
Part of the negative attitude that endangered the country in the last four years is government’s penchant not to accept criticism and to work on its weak points. The Buhari administration has always viewed people’s observation as an affront rather than act on the identified failures. Pundits say that the journey to the Next Level may not be well made if the President continues on that dangerous trajectory.
Agbakoba points areas of focus
Speaking exclusively to our reporter in Lagos, Olisa Agbakoba, a former president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), advised the President to urgently carry out constitutional re-engineering; reduce lending rate; put Nigeria and Nigerians first like President Donald Trump is doing in America, among other priority areas.
“I want him to dismantle the constitution; let him not call another constitutional conference, but let him just review the Obasanjo files, the Jonathan files. Let him just set up a seven-man committee that can feel the pulse of Nigerians and give them the constitution that would work for them. And I think this is not difficult. I was at the national conference in 2014, everybody agrees that this strong centre thing should give way for stronger participation at regional level and state level; that was the bone of contention.”
According to Agbakoba, “Some said the 36 states should form the federating units, others felt the six zones should form the federating units. But everybody body was clear that the central power with the Federal Government should dissolve either to the states or regions. So, if all that is done, I don’t see why it should take, if the President wants to put all his energy into this, three months, to resolve the constitutional crisis in Nigeria.”
Tasking the President on the economy, the former leader of Civil Society organisation said: “But pending that, the President would need to work on the economy. I think it is important that the President should try and initiate policies that would develop the Nigerian economy; because for now, Nigeria is a dumping ground. This is where I agreed with Donald Trump, even though he does it bombastically, in his policy of making America great again; he thinks about putting America first.
We have to put Nigeria first; we can’t have people coming here taking our businesses, they go away and leave us with nothing. That is why I was happy that the government finally cajoled MTN to list at the stock exchange so that the money is here.
Otherwise, MTN only have air; that is what they were selling; they don’t have building, or asset, and they can go on airplane and leave. They don’t have phones, just selling air. How can you have a company like MTN doing that? And then you look at the airline business, the same thing is happening; they made billions of profit last year, but nothing for Nigeria. Even British Airways does not have any office in Nigeria. Now, if you want to buy ticket, it is in India and then it goes on and on.”
“So, I would hope that President Buhari should review our trade policy. Our trade policy is too liberal; we need import substitution policy so that we can stop importing and grow our industry.
So, when we grow our industry, you are creating jobs; that is the magic President Trump has used in America, he has a strong economy, he has got the lowest unemployment rate among the black, white workers. If he goes to the election next year, it will be hard to defeat him. That is what the President Buhari should focus on; how can we put Nigerians first, so that all these small businesses can grow?
“On the issue of the Central Bank; there is no way the Nigerian economy can grow when interest rate is as high as 30 percent. The government and the Central Bank must sit down and agree that interest rate must be pushed down to single digit, which is the only way businesses can grow, if you take a loan you can pay it back. I refer this as quantitative easing; you have to ease Nigerians of the burden, give them some relief, and you can’t talk of increasing taxation at this time. That is quantitative easing; so that if you are a vulcanizer, you can have the money to do business and then infrastructure, and then manage borrowing and create a national guarantee agency.”
On the team the President should assemble as cabinet members, Agbakoba said: “The best possible crop of ministers, not from political leaning, should go in and manage the affairs of state. He needs highly competent ministers. A minister of finance that understands fiscal policy; he needs a minister of investment that understands how investment flows; a strong Attorney-General who fully understands the principle of law and order, and development.
“And then he needs to have strong security policy with strong men who are professionally qualified to run those offices. So, in other words, he needs to put the best guys so that we can see the change. It is doable. At that point, Nigerians would not care whether a President is appointed from the North; why they care now is because they are feeling the pain. And I think the Nigerian president can make Nigerians feel happy.”
