Choose brains in our collective interest

It would be recalled that for almost 16 years, Nigeria’s People’s Democratic Party (PDP) have always won landslide victory in elections with a promises that Nigerians will be taken to the ‘Promised Land’ of prosperity.

Unfortunately, PDP’s leadership has not always met the expectations of about 170 million people because the sabre-rattlers inside and outside of government hijacked control of state affairs in order to perpetuate their selfish interests.

The truth about PDP’s failure is that some of its members did not assist the political party to succeed as they were running their personal parochial agenda in government offices. This is because the PDP has always assembled a large number of cabinet members who are often very busy muddling figures, compromising ethical standards, and favorably predisposed to all forms of corruption.

In the past 16 years, most cabinet members imported archaic ideas to tackle indigenous problems forgetting that what the people desire is a prosperous nation. PDP tried to accelerate development, formulated policies that would enable global competitiveness and wealth creation, regrettably its cabinet members took the nation through a tortuous development trajectory that has made Nigeria  have the following profile:

a)Drop in foreign reserve from $42 billion in 2012 to $29.97 billion in March 2015.

b) Highest illicit financial flow in Africa between 2004 and 2012, and on the average tenth among world’s developing economies (Global Financial Integrity).

c) About 3,874.5 MW of electricity generated as at 27 February 2015 after spending about $ 20 billion only.

d) About 93.9 percent Nigerians are poor with a poverty rate of 69 percent. North West and North East geo-political Zones recording highest poverty rates of 77.7 percent and 76.3 percent respectively.

e)Unemployment rate averaged 14.6 percent from 2006 to 2011 reaching an all-time high of 23.9 percent in 2011.

f) About 13 million Nigerians suffer from hunger, while malnutrition is still high. Two out of every five children are chronically malnourished and, according to Global Hunger Index, and Nigeria contributes 58 percent to the global hunger problem”.

This is not a worthy profile as the economy is seriously battered and stressed. The economy was moving towards depression with ministries, departments and agencies manipulating figures in a manner not conterminous with our collective interest of having a prosperous nation.

Accordingly, we have the ‘Matthew effect’ or the accumulated advantage in our society in which the “rich get richer, and the poor get poorer”.

The year 2015 general elections are over and Nigerians are anxiously waiting for elected politicians to be sworn into various offices on May 29, 2015. When they are sworn in, what are expectations of Nigerians from the president-elect?

Nigerians desire a fair and prosperous society but nothing can be achieved without electricity as no industry can function effectively without power. A nation that cannot give adequate healthcare and appropriate education to its citizens will not be adjudged as being fair.

Albeit, all the problems of Nigeria cannot be solved within four years of Muhammadu Buhari’s tenure. As a politician and military strategist, Buhari must choose key sectors of the economy that will drive others to start growing positively. I will suggest he looks at security, education, health and transportation. He must find means and ways of improving electricity and road network in the country.

Overtime, Buhari has built a reputation for himself. When he assumes office, he is humbly advised to constantly display a combination of commitment, courage, determination, character and ability to enable Nigerians follow him as a leader irrespective of political or religious beliefs.

Report has it that Buhari is likely to be a reformist with the will to actually change things, and that he has a lot of political allies and heavyweights with broad governing experience who are working with him. He needs to reform the civil service but the greatest challenge he will have is the selection of those who are going to work with him.

Currently, we are witnessing a bandwagon-effect among politicians. Most of these politicians who in the past perpetrated treasury looting and endorsed corruption are now abandoning their political parties for the All Progressives Congress (APC).May Almighty God help the General to choose brains, not fraudsters because he has to evolve coherent strategies to create a new economy that will engender prosperity for Nigerians.

At the time of writing this piece, the nation’s economy has started improving with ‘rise in stock market equities by 16.9 percent to 35728.12 points on a weekly basis, while market capitalization rose by N1.82 trillion to N12.13 trillion’. Additionally, the nation has recorded an ‘appreciation of the Naira by 8.41 percent at the Bureau De Change segment and 9.53 percent at the parallel market segment’.

Despite these positives, Buhari needs good people to be successful in government. He cannot do it alone. He needs people who are willing, able and ready. He needs brains not brawns. For the nation to witness rapid improvement in the next  four years, it has to muster state governors, federal and state legislators, as well as local government chairmen irrespective of political affiliation who are of the same vision with Buhari in at least two-thirds of 36 states including the Federal Capital Territory.

This appears to be a delusion of grandeur in public governance. His greatest task would be how to find people who will key into his vision, align themselves always to the vision in order to achieve overall strategic objective of providing prosperity for Nigerians.

No matter how good the intention and sincerity of Buhari, including the system of government he intends to run, surrounding himself with charlatans will make him lose focus with regrettable consequences for the people of Nigeria. If he has good and strong leaders in various ministries, departments, and agencies, Nigeria will be well governed.

The General has to cast a wide net beyond the spectrum of political parties for young talented Nigerians including those in the Diaspora with good judgment and interpersonal skills to work with him. He should look for competent professionals and business executives with integrity who have proved to be ‘thoughtful doers’ in their areas of endeavor and willing to serve.

This category of individuals with impeccable character are available in the country and they should be given appointments that are strategic to the well-being of Nigerians and survival as a nation.  We are in austere times; it is in our collective interest and joint responsibility to ensure that Nigeria continues to be governed by able, honest and dedicated men, not by second-rate politicians and individuals.