I wish to welcome President Muhammadu Buhari from his medical vacation. I pray that the Almighty Allah will perfect his healing. It is heartwarming to listen to the Mr. President, last Monday during his official broadcast to the nation. Though I am disappointed that the much anticipated critical decisions that would energise governance were not contained in his speech, it was not a vacuous statement. He did show grasp of the need to unite in order to solve the nation’s nagging problems including insecurity.
Since Monday, I have been the guest of several media houses especially at the Federal Capital Territory, viz, Vision 92.1 FM, Nigerian Television Authority, Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria and Arise TV to mention but a few, where on invitation, I analysed the importance of the President’s return, the gist of the national broadcast and agenda setting for him. It is just fit and proper for me to condense my presentations into writing for posterity. First and foremost, I commend Vice President Yemi Osinbajo who as Acting President for the over 104 days of Buhari’s absence held fort as a loyal, humble, conscientious and disciplined deputy. Osinbajo, among several other things, signed the 2017 budget into law and engaged all major leaders of ethnic nationalities in a bid to quell the groundswell of agitation and threat to national security by some elements among us. He also swore in the two newly appointed ministers and assigned them portfolios just as he appointed about 21 new permanent secretaries and assigned them to their new duty posts.
The Acting President also issued four Executive Orders aimed at facilitating ease of doing business as well as launched the Voluntary Assets and Income Declaration Scheme on June 29. At the rebound of Boko Haram insurgency, Osinbajo ordered the military high command back to Borno State to take charge and contain the resurgence of the extremist group. These he did while ensuring that there were regular meetings of the Federal Executive Council and National Economic Council. I sincerely thank Mr. President for the trust and confidence reposed in the Vice President which ensured that there was no power vacuum while he was away.
Now that the President is back, I do hope he has convalesced well enough to fully resume duties and not get back to work out of pressure from certain interest groups. I do know that that he has officially communicated the National Assembly about his resumption of duty in accordance with constitutional requirement. That makes me glad. Let me now lay bare some issues that I consider need the President’s urgent attention. As he rightly pointed out in his national broadcast of last Monday, security remains a top priority. Aside from the rebound of Boko Haram, incidences of crime and criminality have been increasing at exponential rate across the country. Kidnapping, armed robbery, rape, drug trafficking, ritual killings, fraud and many more have been on the rise with law enforcement agencies appearing overwhelmed.
The other issue is the economy that is still in the doldrums. There is intolerable level of unemployment and poverty in this country. As the economy is in recession, many compatriots are slipping into depression. Suicide rate is increasing while psychiatrist hospitals are getting fuller by the day due to high cases of mental illness plaguing the people. I stand to be corrected but the bulk of the promised social intervention programmes has yet to be implemented. Only about half of all the states in the country are currently enjoying the homegrown school feeding programme of the administration while the outstanding 300,000 graduates to be employed under the N-Power scheme have yet to be recruited two years into the noble scheme. Due to high cost of doing business arising from epileptic power supply, access to land and high interest rate on loan, not many new businesses are coming on board while many of the existing ones are folding up.
Given the fact that government at all levels cannot absorb the teeming unemployed Nigerians, it’s important to incentivise the organised private sector through tax holidays, low interest rate on loan and provisioning of social infrastructure such as good roads, electricity, pipe-borne water, railway, etc. It is heartrending that Buhari’s government celebrated two years in office without opening any tangible infrastructure. This should not be the case in 2018. Otherwise, the President and his All Progressives Party may as well not bother to field a presidential candidate in 2019.
The President set up the Senator Ken Nnamani Presidential Committee on Electoral Reform in October 2016. The committee has since submitted its report to the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, for onward transmission to him. I doubt if Nnamani was able to present it to the President before his departure to the UK on medical leave. For whatever it is worth, the President should call for the report and do the needful on it even though the National Assembly is far gone in its constitution and Electoral Act amendment efforts.
It may interest you to know that despite several measures taken by the administration to combat bribery and corruption such as the whistleblower policy, Treasury Single Account, setting up of the Efficiency Unit in the federal civil service and arresting and prosecution of some key government officials, the hydra-headed monster is still alive and well. According to the 2016 Corruption Perception Index by Transparency International, Nigeria is ranked 136 out of 176 profiled countries. In sub-Saharan Africa, Nigeria is ranked 28 out of about 50 countries. This is still unenviable for a so-called giant of Africa. Just last week, a joint report by the National Bureau of Statistics and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes revealed that a total of N400bn was received in bribes by public officials within a period of one year. The NBS National Corruption Report stated that 32.3 per cent of Nigerian adults who had contact with public officials between June 2015 and May 2016 had to pay bribes to the government workers. This is very shameful and a pointer to the fact that many Nigerians have yet to imbibe the “Change Begins With Me” mantra of this administration.
I look forward to Buhari receiving the official report of the findings of the Osinbajo-headed three-man fact-finding committee set up to investigate the suspended Secretary to the Federal Government, David Bachair Lawal, and Director General of National Intelligence Agency, Ambassador Ayo Oke. It is important for the report of the committee to be made public as it borders on anti-corruption. In closing, the ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities should not be allowed to linger. Everything humanly possible should be done to address and redress the university teachers’ grievances.
Follow me on Twitter: @jideojong
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