AN international affairs fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, Matthew Page, has identified five things President Muhammadu Buhari can do to get Nigeria back on track.

In an article published in the Washington Post, he said the President must “carefully clean the house”, reduce the number of parastatals, “tame the white elephants”, rein in sub-national debt and legislate for the long run.

On tackling graft, Page said Buhari’s reform agenda probably faces its greatest threat from corrupt, old-school politicians within the All Progressives Congress (APC).

“The U.S. Department of Justice has accused one sitting APC governor of helping former dictator Sani Abacha steal at least $458 million from state coffers. Buhari should neutralise some of the APC’s shadiest figures, who could emerge as ‘veto players,’ as described in Carl LeVan’s recent book,” he said.

On parastatals, he said Buhari has an opportunity to realise immediate savings by eliminating or merging some of the more than 500 federal parastatals and boards, which he said were used by past presidents to cultivate national political allies and provincial cronies.



“Buhari may also want to disband some nice-to-have but non-essential parastatals in light of competing priorities and current fiscal constraints. Does Nigeria need to spend more than $4 million annually on a Center for Space Transport and Propulsion?” he wrote.

According to Page, industry experts were worried that Buhari’s bid to revive oil refineries and steel mills might end up like other white elephant projects where state-owned enterprises were funded for long periods, even if they incur huge losses.

“Instead, he should address the graft, inconsistent policies and opaque privatisation deals that experts say turned these industries into white elephants in the first place,” he suggested.

Page said as Buhari tries to put Nigeria’s public finances back in order, the 36 states’ balance sheets are sinking deeper into the red, with his administration having bailed out 27 cash-strapped ones to the tune of $2.1 billion. He believes states’ borrowing trends were risky and needed to be addressed.

On the need to legislate for the long run, Page said: “Nigeria will need to feel the ‘Buhari Effect’ (the sense, evident in a recent New York Times article, that there is a new sheriff in town) long after the president’s tenure is over.

“The best way for him to protect his legacy is to partner with the National Assembly to enact legislation enshrining key reforms. With few other politicians like him on the horizon, Buhari should put his legacy in writing.

“A good place to start would be an act prohibiting the use of ‘security votes.’ Both a definitive article by Uche et al. and a 2007 Human Rights Watch report illustrate how these secretive budgetary line items are used by officials at all levels of government as slush funds.

“Even Nigeria’s leading anti-corruption agency had a $1,000,000 security vote included in its 2014 budget. Buhari has his work cut out for him.”
http://thenationonlineng.net/washington-post-article-five-ways-buhari-can-save-nigeria/

Interesting

To preside over this country Nigeria at this point in time is not an enviable job at all. It's a job that has already named one a failure even before he began the job.
So many things have gone wrong and it will require a long time to repair.
Dear PMB, we pray you don't end up a failure like the Clueless one we had in the last administration.

may God help us

Nigeria fixation has already begun.


#WEBELIEVE

The only reason I have hope in the Buhari's leadership and administration is the fact that the man has no vested personal interest. When a man is able to defeat his personal interest the ones outside would have no choice but to bow in submission. My hope in him was renewed when he said he would not tell lie about the state of Nigeria economy just to deceive the outside world. What this tells me is PMB is truly a leader he is not like those common politicians.

Is that so?

divinehand2003:
To preside over this country Nigeria at this point in time is not an enviable job at all. It's a job that has already named one a failure even before he began the job.
So many things have gone wrong and it will require a long time to repair.
Dear PMB, we pray you don't end up a failure like the Clueless one we had in the last administration.

I agree totally with you but PMB will not fail....

Failure is not an option, Failure as defined means an event that does not achieve its intended purpose.

The key word here is intention, which is the guide behind any action & since most well meaning citizens believe PMB's intent for this country is good then failure is not on the cards...

The success may be slow though but we will see major wholehearted efforts in repairing a bruised & battered Nigeria.... God will help with the right direction to take at the right time to do it....

Nigeria shall rise again.

Double post

And we all also have a role to play in creating wealth and jobs in Nigeria, it starts with a right decision.

As u can see APC is buhari biggest problem and distraction not PDP..

PMB cannot do it alone all the machineries of government must help him to succeed in saving nigeria

Wailers will keep jumping around screaming about foreign investors and marketing, as in Nigerian President is a motor parts seller at Idumota. Or as if PDP did anything serious thing to attract major investment to Nigeria.

Anyone with some sense knows that the problem is corruption and waste of public funds, which causes low productivity an high poverty levels. Nice to see that this government is sticking with its change promise; to do things differently... and the rest of the sane world are happy with that.

Change is here.

6 months into this new government...

No direction yet, Nothing is moving
All we are getting is promises and denials


Where is the Change?

So the nation couldn't offer theirs, they had to quote an outside news network?

See Low Self Esteem!

i believe d majority of Nigerians living below d average standard ov living are solidly behind him, i see only d corrupt citizens wailing everyday. I only pray dat APC will allow him to perform so dat PDP will shut d F up.
God bless Nigeria.

Abacha is not curropt.---- Buharri