It is possible to unseat unproductive leaders in Nigeria - the country is ripe. New generation of leaders needs to change strategy and address core issues that Nigerians are facing and proffer solution.
Can you imagine a leader full of the knowledge of the issues bedeviling his people going around and telling those concerned, I hear you, I see you, I will be by your side, I will help solve your problems. Being in politics is about serving the people it is not the other way round. Nigerians who are endowed need to stand up for this country now before it is too late. It will take HARD WORK, LIFE SAVINGS, FIGHTING the ESTABLISHMENT with all things but violence. I encourage well-meaning Nigerians irrespective of their religion and tribe, to stand up, prepare themselves, and know the problems of the people, sit-down together to begin to think about how they will solve these problems.
Nigerians themselves need to stand up, get their voters card, become engaged in the political process, define how to differentiate chop-chop politicians from those who would proffer lasting solutions to their problems.
Majority of Nigerians today are living in poverty from North to East, West to South, many cannot afford to provide 3 meals a day let alone nutritious meal; majority send their wards to school with teachers that are under-trained, underpaid, in dilapidated buildings where there are no teaching materials, nothing to support qualitative education - a visit was paid to my secondary few days ago by some of my old mates, and the pictures they shared brought me too tears - how can anyone learn anything in this type of environment - broken ceiling, broken tables and chair, windowless classrooms, no toilet, no water, no single book in the library, no single school bus. This was an elite school in its hay days from 1960 to about the time we left in 1988. The healthcare sector is almost non-existence. Life expectancy in Nigeria is about 47 years, and this is strongly linked to poor healthcare sector among other factors. Children are daily dying because their parents cannot afford a simple medicine. Healthcare should be free for all Nigerian children in government hospitals. Our doctors are over-worked and underpaid. Public hospitals are now places you get good care only if you know the personnel there. Many doctors are waiting for their own opportunity to leave for the West where they can earn as much as times 100 to 500 of what they are paid in Nigeria. Unemployment among our youth is double digits, as high as 50 or 60%. We sell petroleum to make earnings but spend so much more to import finished petroleum products from countries that do not have one drop or petroleum. There are no jobs for our children. There are so many social problems bedeviling our young girls and women - the issue of early marriage, domestic violence, inheritance law that favors men over women, prostitution, etc. These are few of many social-economic problems that a potential politician can turn to a talking point and device a logical approach to solve. Any leader - old, young, new or old breed that will not approach Nigerians with solutions in 2018 - 2019, should be COMPLETELY IGNORED.
Aspiring politicians must urgently address the following problems:
14. Sanitization of the Public Institutions - Federal Ministries and Parastatals need to be merged, redundant people should be retired or forced to leave, especially those found guilty of stealing public fund.
15. There is a NEED to set realistic NUMERIC GOALS, hire technocrats and not professional politicians, to key institutions and not kinsmen and ethnic friends.
If a leader can deliver half of the above – ethnoreligious crisis will be tamed, agitation for secession will be non-existence, Nigerians abroad will return home to invest and contribute more, the nation will gain more foreign investments, and Nigeria will gain more respect within the committee of nations. Since the fourth republic beginning in 1999, the only regime that got close to delivering anything to Nigerians was that of that of OBJ - but his 3rd term agenda and pride ruined everything for him at the end - he installed a sick man to take over from him in his usual character like he did with Shehu Shagari, when he sided Shagari, a Grade II teacher against an accomplished leader in person of Awolowo; he thought Yar'Adua would be a puppet, because of this, OBJ set the stage for the destruction that followed – GEJ and his cohorts. OBJ’s government became more corrupt because of the 3rd term agenda. Nigeria needs a leader beyond the likes of old military spent cannons who have failed repeatedly - we do NOT need people like Atiku, David Mark, Buhari, Kalu Orji, Fayose, Ladoja, Omisore, El-Rufai, Okorocha, Ngige, Ubah brothers, etc. These are politicians who have had their chances and have failed miserably.
We need leaders like Pat Utomi, Peter Obi, Ribadu, Fashola, Ben Murray-Bruce, Okonjo Iweala, Akinwumi Adesina (former Agriculture Minister under GEJ), Fela Durotoye, Donald Duke, and many more in the public and private sectors that are yet to show their faces. We need those who have been tested and have a track record of outstanding achievements in public and/or private sectors. Nigerians should guard their one vote jealously in 2018-2019 and elect only people who have convincing solutions to their problems into office, not people who after spending N11 trillion in 3 years and nothing much have changed, would then tell us, we have tried our best. Best without result does not deserve a second term.
Can you imagine a leader full of the knowledge of the issues bedeviling his people going around and telling those concerned, I hear you, I see you, I will be by your side, I will help solve your problems. Being in politics is about serving the people it is not the other way round. Nigerians who are endowed need to stand up for this country now before it is too late. It will take HARD WORK, LIFE SAVINGS, FIGHTING the ESTABLISHMENT with all things but violence. I encourage well-meaning Nigerians irrespective of their religion and tribe, to stand up, prepare themselves, and know the problems of the people, sit-down together to begin to think about how they will solve these problems.
Nigerians themselves need to stand up, get their voters card, become engaged in the political process, define how to differentiate chop-chop politicians from those who would proffer lasting solutions to their problems.
Majority of Nigerians today are living in poverty from North to East, West to South, many cannot afford to provide 3 meals a day let alone nutritious meal; majority send their wards to school with teachers that are under-trained, underpaid, in dilapidated buildings where there are no teaching materials, nothing to support qualitative education - a visit was paid to my secondary few days ago by some of my old mates, and the pictures they shared brought me too tears - how can anyone learn anything in this type of environment - broken ceiling, broken tables and chair, windowless classrooms, no toilet, no water, no single book in the library, no single school bus. This was an elite school in its hay days from 1960 to about the time we left in 1988. The healthcare sector is almost non-existence. Life expectancy in Nigeria is about 47 years, and this is strongly linked to poor healthcare sector among other factors. Children are daily dying because their parents cannot afford a simple medicine. Healthcare should be free for all Nigerian children in government hospitals. Our doctors are over-worked and underpaid. Public hospitals are now places you get good care only if you know the personnel there. Many doctors are waiting for their own opportunity to leave for the West where they can earn as much as times 100 to 500 of what they are paid in Nigeria. Unemployment among our youth is double digits, as high as 50 or 60%. We sell petroleum to make earnings but spend so much more to import finished petroleum products from countries that do not have one drop or petroleum. There are no jobs for our children. There are so many social problems bedeviling our young girls and women - the issue of early marriage, domestic violence, inheritance law that favors men over women, prostitution, etc. These are few of many social-economic problems that a potential politician can turn to a talking point and device a logical approach to solve. Any leader - old, young, new or old breed that will not approach Nigerians with solutions in 2018 - 2019, should be COMPLETELY IGNORED.
Aspiring politicians must urgently address the following problems:
1. Education - all Nigerian youth MUST have access to qualitative free education, up to the secondary level as a minimum.
2. Qualitative healthcare delivery - we need to stop the brain drain by providing enabling an environment for our health practitioners to function, provide avenue for continuous improvement for them in local, national and international collaboration and training opportunities. We need to build many more MODERN hospitals. Nigeria has not built a single new hospital in the South West (and other parts) in decades.
3. Power supply problem - if this single problem can be solved, I predict it will increase Nigeria's GDP by 100% or more in one year.
4. Local refining problem must be solved quickly through a private-public partnership. It is a shame we sell petroleum and buy petroleum value-added products at exorbitant prices. Nigeria will save billions in subsidy and foreign exchange.
5. Need to diversify our economy from petroleum-based to agricultural production and processing, IT, Manufacturing, etc.
6. There is a need to focus on agri-food processing. Value-added products fetch multiples of what raw agri-products like chocolate and cocoa drink instead of cocoa; fabrics of all kind instead of cotton; peanut oil and butter instead of peanut; soap, creams, chemicals of all kind instead of palm oil; Gucci shoes, bags, clothing instead of hide and skin.
7. Ajaokuta problem MUST be solved. US is imposing new tariffs on Aluminum and Iron citing national security concern. Nigeria's inability to have a functioning steel company has hampered its industrial growth and puts the nation at the risk of extinction. We can NEVER become industrialized if we do not locally produce steel and other metals that will fuel industrial growth.
8. Massive investment in science, engineering and technological development through competitive funding of our universities, private establishments who wish to break into new frontiers of knowledge. We should challenge a lot of our gifted scientists, prodigies to produce intellectual properties that will make us competitors, not consumers - we have the brains.
9. We need to be strategic in our foreign partnership, especially with China. We MUST no set up posterity for enslavement as the colonial masters have done to us and our fathers in the 1950s and 1960s.
10. There is a need for serious purging of our judiciary system if the war on corruption will be won. We need a president that will lobby National Assembly to enact laws that would allow speedy dismal of corrupt judges and justices.
11. We need to strengthen the Police and the anti-corruption bodies, and perhaps raise new ones that would deal strategically with different aspect of corruption. We need state police with wisely crafted laws that will control them. The WAR on corruption MUST be won else, we are not going anywhere. If we make economic gains, corrupt individuals will ruin it all. We need a few cases of high profile sentencing of big FISH, jail them for upward of 20 to 30 years,others will think twice before they steal public fund.
12. We need to enact laws that will control cross-carpeting. If a politician leaves a party on whose platform they were elected, there MUST be a re-run election. This will strengthen our political institutions.
13. We need to curb wasteful spending of public fund on stupid things - overseas treatment of politicians and their families must not be paid for by public fund; ghost workers menace should be addressed; budget padding should be done away with; foreign auditing firm should be hired to audit ALL federal ministries in order to plug loopholes that allow for siphoning of public funds by civil servants.
15. There is a NEED to set realistic NUMERIC GOALS, hire technocrats and not professional politicians, to key institutions and not kinsmen and ethnic friends.
If a leader can deliver half of the above – ethnoreligious crisis will be tamed, agitation for secession will be non-existence, Nigerians abroad will return home to invest and contribute more, the nation will gain more foreign investments, and Nigeria will gain more respect within the committee of nations. Since the fourth republic beginning in 1999, the only regime that got close to delivering anything to Nigerians was that of that of OBJ - but his 3rd term agenda and pride ruined everything for him at the end - he installed a sick man to take over from him in his usual character like he did with Shehu Shagari, when he sided Shagari, a Grade II teacher against an accomplished leader in person of Awolowo; he thought Yar'Adua would be a puppet, because of this, OBJ set the stage for the destruction that followed – GEJ and his cohorts. OBJ’s government became more corrupt because of the 3rd term agenda. Nigeria needs a leader beyond the likes of old military spent cannons who have failed repeatedly - we do NOT need people like Atiku, David Mark, Buhari, Kalu Orji, Fayose, Ladoja, Omisore, El-Rufai, Okorocha, Ngige, Ubah brothers, etc. These are politicians who have had their chances and have failed miserably.
We need leaders like Pat Utomi, Peter Obi, Ribadu, Fashola, Ben Murray-Bruce, Okonjo Iweala, Akinwumi Adesina (former Agriculture Minister under GEJ), Fela Durotoye, Donald Duke, and many more in the public and private sectors that are yet to show their faces. We need those who have been tested and have a track record of outstanding achievements in public and/or private sectors. Nigerians should guard their one vote jealously in 2018-2019 and elect only people who have convincing solutions to their problems into office, not people who after spending N11 trillion in 3 years and nothing much have changed, would then tell us, we have tried our best. Best without result does not deserve a second term.
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