A word for the president-elect

Lekan Sote

lekansote@yahoo.com 08050220816

Now that the electioneering hurly burly is done, and the
Independent National Electoral Commission will soon unveil the
winner of the presidential election, every Nigerian should be
preparing to congratulate the winner of the epic battle; the one
who will take the presidential oyster.

Whosever that will emerge as the President-elect must know that
the major concern of Nigerians are existential issues. After all,
the campaign strategy of sharing money and “essential commodities,”
like rice, and garri, agrees with the political brinkmanship of
ebullient and erstwhile Ekiti State governor, Ayo Fayose, who
introduced “stomach infrastructure” into Nigeria’s political
lexicon.

Section 14 of Nigeria’s Constitution has your job clearly cut
out: Job No: 1 of government is to provide security and look after
the welfare of the people. It’s not more specific than that.

Chapter II of the Constitution, otherwise known as the Objective
Principles of State Policy, prescribes how the economy should run.
If you take your cue from that corpus, you can be Nigeria’s
economic messiah.

A friend posted the following on a WhatsApp group platform just
before the presidential election: “Whichever party wins the 2019
elections must seriously look into this prevailing poverty … with a
view to minimising or eradicating (the) same. We have all these
abjectly poor citizens in the country where(as) there are many
stupendously rich citizens!”

The President-elect must urgently provide a plan to engage the
agricultural, extractive, manufacturing, and service sectors of
Nigeria’s economy to provide at least the basic human needs of
food, clothing, shelter, transport, electricity, and security, for
all citizens.

His economic policies must drastically reduce importation of
consumer goods, industrial raw materials and petroleum products,
items that have put extreme pressure on Nigeria’s inflation,
interest, and foreign exchange rates.

A sure way to achieve this is to increase the nation’s
infrastructure inventory, like electricity, roads, transport
(seaports, airports, railway – especially Calabar-Lagos line), and
petroleum refineries, especially in the rural areas. The monetary
policies of the Central Bank of Nigeria must be reviewed to ease
inflation, interest, and foreign exchange rates.

He also needs a robust agro-allied industry policy that will
convert a substantial portion of Nigeria’s agricultural produce
into industrial manufacture. Also, he may have to put a large share
of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation on the stock
exchange.

Apart from making the ownership of the nation’s petroleum
resources more democratic and real to Nigerians, the statutory
requirement for publication of the financial reports of companies
listed in the bourse will ensure transparency in the oil
sector.

He must also provide an urgent plan to put the 13.5 million
school age children roaming the streets into some decent school
environment. It is irresponsible, if not criminal, to leave that
many Nigerian children outside of the education loop.

Added to this is the need to pay attention to the human capital
needs of the nation. Nowadays, schoolchildren at all levels are
aided by their teachers and parents to buy admission and final
examinations results, and the children see no reasons to do serious
academic work anymore.

Regrettably, these will be the employees who will run the
workplace of the future, without being able to add any significant
value on their beats. This can’t continue, or the future of Nigeria
will be seriously compromised – if it is not already
compromised.

He must also note that human capital development requires good
healthcare delivery infrastructure to ensure a healthy workforce. A
high level of absenteeism, due to ill-health, has robbed the
Nigerian economy of a substantial degree of productivity.

The next most important expectation of Nigerians is what he
intends to do about restructuring the polity. Nigerians have heard
enough of promises and false starts on this contentious issue. They
desire real action to be taken.

To be more categorical in this matter, Southern Nigerians are
tired of being held back in the hope that the North will play
catch-up. It doesn’t work that way. Every region should grow at its
own pace.

Note that Northern Nigerians are unhappy that Southern Nigeria
is not sympathetic to the dearth of educational facilities that
lock out of Northern kids from access to functional education
needed to cope with the demands of the 21st Century’s digital
economy.

Mr. President-elect, you have quite a handful on your hands. And
the biggest of the bad news is that Nigerians are going to be
extremely impatient with you. As they say it on the “Who Wants To
Be A Millionaire” TV show, your time starts now! Come May 29, 2019,
you must hit the ground running. That, unfortunately, is the
minimum expected. It’s an understatement to say that you have to
move fast.

Be warned however, that your biggest problem will come from the
National Assembly: By their job definition, they have come to
represent interests that run the gamut of the parochial, to the
personal, sectional, ethnic, and economic interests.

It’s going to be your lot to intelligently meander your way
through their elaborately contrived maze. President Muhammadu
Buhari, who heads the current government, failed to factor their
idiosyncrasies into his governance, paid dearly for it.

The National Assembly’s tail wagged the President Buhari dog
vigorously. His government almost became lame duck from the day
Bukola Saraki and Yakubu Dogara emerged as the Senate President and
Speaker of the House of Representatives, respectively.

He must rue his loss of initiative on that score up, even if he
has not publicly acknowledged the same. You must avoid the wobbles
that President Buhari’s government experienced due to his lack of
brinkmanship.

His famous Innaugural Day declaration, “I belong to nobody. And
I belong to everybody,” turned out to be a disingenuous move on the
political chessboard. They seized his queen, and bishops, and his
pawns became fodder for the masters.

Now, this is not an endorsement or encouragement for you to
emasculate the National Assembly. But you must find a way to work
with them to get results. Remember that Nigerians won’t hold them
responsible for the failure of governance. The buck stops at your
table.

You also need the mass media to buy into your policies. But do
not confuse this with the media agreeing with you all the time.
Remember that Section 22 of the Constitution requires the media to
hold your government accountable to the people.

You must find a way to engage the media so that they will own
your policies and programmes. But you must never expect the media
to abandon their sacred responsibility for you. As far as the media
is concerned, your office, or even your cabinet, is just one of the
agencies of democratic governance.

Your cabinet is not superior to the National Assembly, the
Supreme Court. Indeed, your office as President may be senior to
that of the cleaner who sweeps your office every day, but it is not
superior. That, in the lingo of the New York city mafia, is the
size of it.

The media generally agree with late American Supreme Court
Associate Justice Louis Brandeis who insisted that the office of
the citizen is the most important office in the polity. It is from
this office, which you retain for life that you become a
President.

And, please note, Nigerians expect a clear road map in your
Inaugural Speech of May 29, 2019. Kapish?

Twitter @lekansote