Issues That Should Shape 2007
Polls
culled from THISDAY, November 30,
2006
By the last count, about 20 men
and women who want to succeed President Olusegun Obasanjo as head of the
Nigerian state have declared their intentions to seek the nominations of the
various political parties. Many of them have been criss-crossing the length
and breadth of the country seeking support of their party supporters as it
is compulsory that one can only seek that office by being sponsored by a
party. Many of these aspirants have also visited newsrooms to explain their
missions and seek support of men of the fourth estate of the realm. However,
one thing that is still worrying many Nigerians is that the presidential
campaigns are still not issue-driven.
The emphasis is still on mundane issues as who will President Obasanjo
annoint, which of the larger geo-political divide-North or South- will or
should produce the next president. The candidates are still not well-defined
and differentiated in terms of what their programmes or ideas are on issues
of national develoment. Many of the candidates seem to have nothing to offer
other than political intrigues while a few others seem to have declared
their interests only with a view to bask in the euphoria of being a
presidential aspirant, a tag which enables the wearer to participate in the
negotiations that are bound to ensue as the presidential primaries get
nearer.
As at today, it is common song among aspirants to mouth the phrase 'I will
continue the reforms programme of the present administration' or ' I will
fight corruption' and such other slogans which have now become cliches of
the present political era. I have not seen any of the aspirants who did a
detailed analysis of the Reform Programme or its thematic document, the
National Economic Empowerment Development Scheme (NEEDS). I am expecting any
aspirant who wants to adopt Obasanjo's reform programme to critically do a
re-appraisal of the programme, let us into his understanding of what the
programme is set to achieve and what it has achieved and what a future
government is expected to do further beyond the aims of the programme. I
expect our presidential aspirants to tell us the areas of the reforms
programme, which needs to either be dumped or finetuned.
I also believe that the campaign should move to the level where aspirants go
beyond the rethoric and the general. There should be extensive discussions
of issues, which will define the specific programmes and policies or ideas
aimed at addressing them. The aspirants should from now on talk of their
priorities when they get to office. Such priorities should be so
passionately and frequently articulated that each aspirant will be
identified by the populace with the ideas or solutions that they have
canvassed. It should be possible for members of the public to identify the
aspirants so well with his ideas that whether they are eventually elected or
not, it can be said that aspirant A stands for solution X on YZ issue.
It is part of the efforts to raise the level of dabate in the 2007
presidential race that THISDAY Board of Editors began the Presidential
Series where aspirants were asked questions on their plans for the people.
Most of the aspirants had only dwelt on the general programmes, their
positions are still short on the specifics.
On Monday, as part of efforts to further sharpen the debates and improve on
the quality of the men who want to lead the nation from next year, Eni-B in
his column set some irreducible minimum qualities that the men should
possess. I believe we should take the debate further by asking the
presidential aspirants to give specific programmes, policies and ideas they
will utilise in dealing with the following issues, which I believe should
define the 2007 polls.
Economic Development: There is no doubt that the nation's economy has still
not recovered. We still have an economy, which still mainly depend on oil.
Even, all the other products, which could be developed from crude oil is
still not being exploited. And this is an oil producing nation, which
depends on imported refined petroleum. Industrialisation in this country is
at the barest level and majority of the people are still suffering and are
extremely poor despite the numerous resources with which the country is
blessed. Infact, the Nigerian nation is one in which the middle class has
disappeared and a citizen is either fabulously rich because he has been
fortunate to have been able to manipulate state resources or he is so poor
because he has been denied the opportunity to fully realise his potentials.
Here’s a country where politics or access to state resources not productive
ability is the easiest way of making money. It is the challenge of the next
president to do what has been done in some Asian countries like Malaysia,
Singapore, and Thailand. The President should create an enabling atmosphere
as well as make other economic indices like interest rate, inflation ratio
et cetera right so as to encourage production, exportation of qualitative
locally produced goods and national self-reliance.
Employment creation: When earlier in the year THISDAY held a town-hall
meeting attended by many members of the political elite to deliberate on the
National Agenda in the post Obasanjo years, one of the general conclusions
is that the next administrations should take the issue of job creation as
number one priority. I believe any presidential candidate, who cannot unfold
a programme through, which he can generate millions of jobs in his first
four-year term is not fit to lead this country. The issue of job creation is
key to the achievement of several other targets. I believe our next
president should set for himself and accomplish. Issues like security, the
Niger-Delta question, economic development and tackling corruption are only
best resolved when almost all capable hands who wish to work has something
meaningful to do. The presidential aspirants should tell us how they will
ensure that the old, moribund industries resumed production, how many new
industries will be established that will employ people en masse and how
small and medium scale businesses will be encourage to flourish. There can
also be ways of government's investment in building of infrastructural
facilities targetted at creating employment opportunities while foreign
investments in the economy should be encouraged. The presidential aspirants
should tell us how they will accomplish all these.
Food Security: One Israeli ambassador in Nigeria was quoted to have once
said if his country has just the expanse of land that Nigeria has between
Lagos and Ibadan for agricultural purposes, it would have given the United
States of America a big challenge in terms of food production for local
consumption and export. However, this country has hundreds of arable land of
the size available along Lagos-Ibadan expressway. Yet, many of its citizenry
are hungry. Most of the food items are still imported. Many of its capable
hands are still unemployed and the land are lying unutilised. Also, the
negligible percentage of the population engaged in food production are not
encouraged. They lack basic amenities. They are poor because they still
practice subsistence farming and they lack modern knowledge of increasing
their yield or preserving the excess yield. Even, they earn pittance that is
not commensurate with the efforts they put in. We need our presidential
aspirants to articulate a food security policy which will liberate our
agricultural potentials and make Nigeria the biggest producer and exporter
of agricultural products in Africa.
Niger-Delta: This oil-producing area of the country has suffered neglect for
so long that its youths can no longer trust any government to deliver the
much needed succour. The youths have taken up arms and agitation for
justice has been mixed with criminality so much so that if the next
president does not devise an ingenious way of assuaging the feeling of the
people in that area,he will have a time bomb in his hand. And when it
explodes, it may consume the administration, or at least damage its economy.
Corruption: It is not enough for all the presidential aspirants to claim
that they will continue the anti-corruption stance of the present
administration. It will be good if each aspirant can tell us what they will
do differently to further solidify and institutionalise the anti-graft war.
Infrastructural Development: I expect each of the aspirants to unfold their
blueprint for rebuilding national infrastructural facilities like roads,
railway, fixing the problems in the aviation sector, building inland
waterways and other facilities which will make life better longer and more
meaningful for the citizenry.
Power problem: It has been widely canvassed that one of the easiest ways of
jump-starting the economy and freeing the productive potentials of the
people is to provide constant power supply for the entire country all-year
round. However, the present administration seems to have failed in this
direction. Its various promises have failed to materialise. Those planning
to succeed Obasanjo need to convince the nation that they have a workable
plan for tremendous improvement of power generation, distribution and
consevation in such a way that power failure will be a thing of the past in
their first-two years in office.
Political Reforms: It is obvious that the present political system is
anti-development and does not encourage the emergence of a peaceful
atmosphere for honest governance. There is need for sincere reforms which
will encompass thorough constitutional amendment to correct the weak areas
of the 1999 constitution. The constitutional amendment must address the
issue of devolutions., fiscal federalism, strengthening of democratic
instutions and mobilising the people behind national objectives. We must
know where each aspirant stands on all these issues.
International Affairs: This is one area where the present administration
appears to have done so well. The administration has restored Nigeria into
the mainstream in the comity of nations from the pariah status it use to
have. But it will still be good to hear the position of the aspirants on
Nigeria's foreign policy. It is possible some of them have different ideas
about our foreign policy, concerning the overall objective, the method of
achieving them or certain position the nation has taken on specific issues.
Education and Heath Sector: These are two critical sectors which can give
meanings to our development efforts. An enlightenened and healthy citizenry
are both necessities for national development. But perhaps there are no two
areas which demonstrate our backwardness than those two areas where the
political leaders have not been able to formualte consistent, enduring and
popular policies for catering for the interest of majority of the populace
who are too poor to take care of themselves. Now, we need a well-articulated
policy on how to ensure qualitative health and educational services to the
masses at little or no cost. This will result from a welfare programme which
must have been well-thought out and debated. So, let the aspirants start
addressing the issues now.
Security: There are so many reasons for one to believe Nigerian has gotten
to the Hobbessian state of nature where life is short, brutish and nasty.
The security agencies seem to be overwhelmed by the activities of the armed
robbers, hired assassins, the 'area boys' and other criminals who make
living in the country one of the riskiest venture to engage in. Inability of
the government to address successfully some of the issues enumerated above
has also exacerbated the security problem. So, we need to know what the
aspirants will do to make life saver, to further protect our teritorial
boundaries fom internal and external aggression and to shore up our foreign
relations achievements as a major African power and a safe haven for both
the citizenry and foreigners doing business in the country.
Lastly, we need to keep the debate going. The 2007 polls should define the
aspirants in terms of their ideas for making this nation to realise her
manifest destiny. Enough of bland politicking, bereft of ideas. Enough of
sheer sophistry and rethorics. Nigerians want to sign a well defined
contract with their next president and may the man with the best ideas
emerge.
