As we get ready for 2019 election campaigns due to officially start from 18th Nov 2018, it is important that we remind the presidential candidates especially President Muhammad Buhari and Atiku Abubakar that the focus of the campaigns and elections should be Nigeria and not their personal issues. The latter unfortunately has been the case since the emergence of Atiku on 7th October as the PDP presidential candidate. Given their unwillingness to retire from active politics possibly due to their undying love for Nigeria, I am not sure there is any Nigerian of voting age that might not have significantly heard of the two top candidates for at least 10 years. Nigerians are tired of hearing that Atiku has been accused of corruption or that PMB’s cows are permanently about 150 every year! While such unhelpful trivialities are clear to many Nigerians, what is not clear and to which we are very eager to hear are the plans of the two top candidates on the many socio-economic challenges facing Nigeria!
According to World Economic Forum, ‘Nigeria, a country with immense growth potential and resources, is however constrained by many challenges such as issues of good governance, limited infrastructure development, insecurity, climate change, youth unemployment/underemployment and human capital development. Even with these challenges, the economic potential of the country remains compelling. It has the biggest market in Africa with about 200 million citizens, including over 100 million below the age of 40, many of whom have demonstrated enormous entrepreneurial spirit. In addition to oil and gas, there are large deposits of other natural resources such coal, gold, bauxite and copper in different parts of the country. With a visionary and committed leadership, the challenges facing the country can be effectively addressed and the potential opportunities exploited to achieve rapid, sustainable and inclusive economic growth’.
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Your Excellencies, the above is a fair summary definition of the country you are eager to govern. Nigerians are desperate to hear your detailed plans on how the identified key challenges will be addressed. While we have tested PMB on two occasions now, Atiku has not really been properly tested as the main driver. However, as they say that experience can help to improve performance, Nigerians are very desperate to hear how both PMB and Atiku will leverage on their experiences to rescue Nigeria from the varied crisis we are presently in. This is not the time to talk through campaign aides or representatives who are most of the time unprepared and not committed to the progress of the country. As both PMB and Atiku can be said to be among the very few Nigerians that have immensely benefitted from Nigeria far more than they can ever repay, I beseech them to focus on Nigeria. Looking at their life trajectories, they come across as full-time recipients of Nigeria’s generosity. I implore them to deeply appreciate that their privileged positions cannot be attributed only to their hard work and intellect but mainly due to the good heartedness and generosity of Nigerians and God. A constant question that should be in their minds is ‘How to give back to Nigerians for all the unmerited gifts and blessings?
Nigeria is in crisis and urgently requires serious thinking and governance. We are desperate for very competent leaders to properly and graciously lead and govern. The 2019 election should be for PMB and Atiku a period to show gratitude to Nigerians through a detailed, measurable and achievable plan for a sustainable growth and development of the country. The detailed plan is very important as it will help Nigerians to make an informed decision on whom to further bless with their votes. While PMB might claim that his government has the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) as a development blueprint, the reality on ground does not suggest that the ERGP is presently working. Even though the focus of this contribution is not on ERGP, it is important for the PMB government to understand and appreciate that Nigerians are asking for something more realistic and practicable as the ERGP is limitedly achievable as it ignores inherent but very important Nigerian peculiarities.
For instance, focusing on job creation, Nigerians want to know in very clear, visible and achievable details how millions of jobs will be created to address the frightening unemployment and underemployment levels. They want to know how many untapped opportunities such as the communications sector, the six regional structure, the sports and agricultural sectors can be harnessed and exploited to create over 10 million jobs in two years. Your Excellencies, are you aware that the Nigerian Postal Service for instance can be innovatively organized to create over 1 million jobs in 1 year. Are you aware that over 15 million Nigerians in diasporas can be leveraged on to create over 2 million local jobs in Nigeria and over N5 trillion annual trade opportunity? I am not sure that you appreciate that the present insecurity situation we have can be utilized to create over 100, 000 new police jobs with little or no government expenditure. Nigerians want to know how our industrialization can be achieved through the building and location of one industry in each of our 109 senatorial zones. In our increasing Chinese engagement, we are eager to hear how it will be managed to ensure that the engagement will not result into immitigable negative consequences. The challenges and opportunities are numerous and it is the details that Nigerians want to hear not that PMB now has WAEC attestation certificate or that Atiku’s private jet was searched when it arrived the poverty capital of the world!
Franklin Nnaemeka Ngwu (PhD)
Dr. Ngwu is a Senior Lecturer in Strategy, Finance and Risk Management, Lagos Business School and a Member, Expert Network, World Economic Forum.
