₦airaland Forum

frankijege:
The campaigns for the 2023 general elections are already here. However, I already see a pattern repeating itself.

Since the return to democracy in 1999, Nigeria has had six general elections. The campaigns at these elections have always had Nigeria trouping to campaign venues to dance with politicians. While these go on, issues are relegated to the background. After dancing at these venues, Nigerians grapple with endless pains and anguish when the politicians attain political power and start running the country aground.

Another pattern that is reoccurring is the choice of candidates. Over the past years, Nigerians have not had the benefit of selecting from a retinue of candidates based on ideology. No party in Nigeria has a clear cut ideology anyway. Therefore, what most people do is to pitch their tent with a candidate they perceive would perform. The result so far has shown that perception is not enough.

The campaigns for next year’s elections must be issue based. Aspirants for political offices must address issues head on by providing practical solutions to the challenges in the country. This is a first part of a series, where I intend to discuss areas I think should be the focus with the hope that Nigerians would engage them in these areas. I must hasten to add that this is by no means exhaustive and I do not lay claim to all answers. This is only an attempt to refocus the minds of Nigerians and ensure that political campaigns become talking points; one focused on cogent issues.

Over the years, Nigeria has grappled with immense poor power supply. All the investments in the power sector by the previous government have not yielded positive impacts. Despite the huge amount spent, Nigeria’s power generation is still less than 20,000 megawatts with less than 5000 megawatts distributable (accentuated by the low capacity of distribution companies). This is grossly inadequate for a country with a population of about 200 million people.

Electricity is used in all fields of human activity; from the welder on the streets to large manufacturing companies. Stability electricity translates into cost effective production and jobs for a majority of people and improved standard of living for the majority of Nigerians. A lack of it translates into business collapse and lack of jobs; infrastructural collapse, pollution, and increase in poverty etc.

No serious country can advance without a stable power supply. Leaders and aspiring leaders must make that sector a priority. Any politician hoping to be voted for as president during the 2023 presidential election must present practical solutions to the electricity needs of the country. It is so dire that Nigerians should not wait for elections to be concluded before asking tough questions about the sector. They must demand to know the plans to improve generation, capacity, distribution and a prevention of incessant collapse of the national grid.

There are countries in Africa that have achieved 100% electricity access for their citizens. Nigeria cannot pride itself as the giant of Africa, while the majority of her citizens live in darkness. Our inability to meet the electricity needs of our people makes us a mockery of Africa. Countries such as Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia have achieved 100% electricity access for its people. Apart from Tunisia, they rely on renewable energy. We should learn from them and diversity too.

President Buhari's administration with Siemens is probably yielding results already, as certain infrastructures are being imported into the country. Aspirants must tell Nigerians how they intend to build on this and not let it go down the drain with the end of the administration like previous projects that did not survive beyond their administrations.

Investing in the power sector is not cheap. Aspirants should discuss the incentives it will put in place for investors who are interested in the area. We must break monopoly and encourage diversity. States should be allowed to generate electricity either for their own consumption or distribution and not what currently obtains where any megawatt generated must be sent to the national grid. All these should form talking points at political campaigns.

Nigerians should prepare to go to election campaign venues to engage and not enjoy the beats of music and drums or echoes of rhetoric. We must ask difficult questions which are not geared towards ridiculing candidates, but questions that will aid us in assessing them in order to make an informed decision of who to vote for.

In the past, elections debates have been conducted for candidates. This in my opinion is inadequate. Only a few have the opportunity to attend in person and many do not have power to watch it on television and many people are not given the opportunity to phone in with their questions. Every election cycle must be an improvement of the previous one. This is why I am worried about the recurring pattern of emotions, jollification and dance steps that may be the common features of this election circle. Have we learned any lessons from the past?

The appropriate time to constructively engage leaders is during campaigns and not only when they have attained political power. An army of patriotic Nigerians must make the sacrifice of reawakening this consciousness in Nigerians.

If we do this, electoral aspirants would spend more time researching on the electoral messages and not on rehearsing on how to dance at campaign venues. God bless Nigeria.

This is the first part of a series. Stay with me

frankijege@yahoo.com

Ashl:
Please I lost my reference number and now I can check my status. Is there anyway I can get it back? Please if anyone has a working lawschool number can I get it. Thank you

frankijege:
Since the return to democracy in 1999, no election has been celebrated like the one that brought General Muhammadu Buhari to power in 2015. His victory saw a lot of Nigerians throng to the streets in jubilation for the victory of a man they feel would wipe away their tears and bring an end to the pain and suffering they went through under the regime of the PDP.

We had witnessed sixteen years of monumental corruption; clueless leadership and an unwillingness to try, under the PDP. Our collective patrimony was shared by a few; for those in government and for those who had friends or links with government

It was therefore, not surprising that, the people had great hopes and expectations in the administration of General Muhammadu Buhari. But after one year, has President Buhari discharged the burden placed on his shoulders? Has he succeeded in wiping away the tears from the eyes of the people? Are we now better off than we were under the last administration of President Jonathan? 

The truth here is that after one year with president Muhammadu Buahri at the saddle of leadership, not much has changed.  His performance in following sector to underscores this point.

Power: during the last administration, power generation was low. This was not surprising as corruption was the order of the day. However, as at May 29th, 2015, we were producing well over 2,000 megawatts of electricity. It is not out of place to expect the APC administration to build on that and increase power generation to around 5,000 megawatts. Unfortunately, little or nothing has been done within the last one year.  On the 29th of March, 2016, power generation dropped to its lowest. We generated zero megawatts. This, to my knowledge, is the first time we are generating zero megawatts. That should go into the history books. As at May 26th, 2016, we are generating 1, 580 megawatts of electricity. This is very poor and shows lack of progress in that sector. Despite the fact that electricity tariff was increased by the government to ensure steady supply, all consumers get in return for paying high is darkness. So, as far as the power sector is concerned, nothing has changed; except of course, we now pay more for darkness.

The next sector that readily comes to mind is security. One of the greatest challenges that threatened the last administration was insecurity; especially boko haram. The Goodluck Jonathan’s administration was overtly clueless in tackling the menace, or it was simply not interested in tackling it. This is because after postponing the election from February to March last year, we saw a massive onslaught on the dreaded sect. Nigerians began to see a new attitude of government against insurgency. 

However, while the PDP administration remained clueless, the APC as a political party was dangerously mouthed. It was castigating the government and priding itself that it would end the insurgency within six months of attaining power. Twelve months after, it  has not ended boko haram. In fairness to President Buhari, one must commend him for the successes recorded so far. The attacks have drastically reduced, but they have not been completely phased out. Boko haram is thus, down but not out. The recent attacks by the sect confirm this.
If one is to look at insecurity as a whole, President Buhari has not really done much in terms of securing the lives of the people. The rising spate of kidnapping and the recent onslaught by the Fulani herdsmen where hundreds of people have lost their lives in avoidable circumstances are there for all to see. For a government that promised change, one expects it to do better.

In terms of employment, government has no achieved much within the past twelve months. According to the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics, unemployment grew from 10.4% in the last quarter of 2015; to 12.1 % in the first quarter of 2016 (when compared with the corresponding quarter of 2015, it is 3.96%). Working class employment grew by one million, five hundred people. The total number of full time employed, decreased by 528, 148 persons or 0.97%. Youth unemployment rose by 42.24%. Although the Minister of Labour and Productivity tried to peg unemployment rate at eighteen million people, there are indication that it is higher than that. Every serious government should be bothered by these statistics. More bothering is the fact that people are losing their jobs on a daily basis. According to president of the Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry, fifty thousand people have lost their jobs in Abuja alone

In terms of the economy, President Buhari has not fared better. Under his watch, the naira has crashed to the dollar. The economy shrank to 0.36% in the first quarter of 2016, while it was 3.96% in the corresponding first quarter of 2015.  The Gross Domestic Product dropped to a new low in the first quarter of 2016; it was 0.36%! The economy has continued to nose-dive under his watch of. For instance, Nigeria used to be the third fastest growing economy in the world. Today, thanks to Buhari, we are not even among the top fifteen!

This collapse of the economy has translated into great hardship for the people. Prices of commodities have gone up; the quality of life of the people is on the decline. When one compares the situation with the enthusiasm of the people on the day the election results were announced, it is nothing but disappointing. A lot of Nigerians had high hopes that this government would assuage their pain and suffering; but what they have gotten within the past twelve months is a meteoric rise in their pains. During the election period, I heard someone say Buhari will bring down the price of a bag of rice to N 5,000. Please, how much is a bag of rice today? The enthusiasm and hopes the people had in this government has since evaporated. The general feeling of the people now is one of frustration. They are just praying for the years to roll by as fast as it can.  Every reasonable government should be bothered about its evaporating goodwill. I frankly can’t tell if this government bothered. Chief Olusegun Obasnjo had rightly said that President Buhari is not an economist; but the president should have constituted an economic team or expand the one he currently has. 

One of the greatest selling points of General Muhammadu Buhari during the election was his integrity and his anti corruption posture. However, one year on, we are yet to see a serious fight against corruption. Apart from one or two cases that have been instituted, nobody has been tried for corruption. What we have had is the trial of people in the media and not in the courts. There are also people with questions bothering on corruption hanging on their neck, but the president seems not to have any problem associating with them. That is unlike Buahri!

The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources announced the removal of fuel subsidy. Since the announcement, people groaning and lamenting the hardship it would cause and was already causing. The Nigeria Labour Congress declared a national strike but was blackmailed into calling it off. In the midst of all these, the president has not deemed it fit to address the nation. 
That announcement was not without confusion. The Minister of State for Petroleum said it was a removal of subsidy; while the vice president said it was price increase. The people remain in the dark while our president is reticent.

Considering the fact that the APC had viciously condemned the removal of fuel subsidy by the last administration, one is perplexed that it is doing the same thing and sees nothing wrong. The president had said he doesn’t believe in fuel subsidy. Now that he is there, is there really anything like fuel subsidy? If according to wide spread belief, people get paid to the tune of billions of dollars for not importing a single litre of fuel, why not clean up the system and ensure every dime collected is accounted for? Should we even be importing fuel in the first place?

A common feature that is prominent in all the sectors considered above is disappointment. Unfortunately, there is nothing tangible on ground to show that within the next fear years, things would pick up. When a foundation is faulty, the whole building becomes faulty. The APC rode to power through propaganda and rhetoric. Unfortunately, twelve months after being on the saddle, it is still believes it will survive through propaganda and rhetoric. The earlier it realizes that this will not stand the test of time, the better for it.

The president must redeem himself. The first step towards doing this is to do something about the disconnect that exists between him and the people. Only the people can honestly give him a fair assessment of his administration. Those around him may just be painting the wrong picture to him. 
Let me end by saying may Buhari succeed. 

Frank Ijege
frankijege@yahoo.com

frankijege:
I saw this around Abdulrahaman Okene road, Kaduna. Kudos to other people on the queue as dem no remove the firewood.

Which way Nigeria?