President Muhammadu Buhari |
By
governance, therefore, we mean real governance—the act of exercising authority
appropriately and allocating resources effectively to achieve the objectives of
the state, which is to promote public interest and guarantee public safety and
the collective welfare of the citizenry.
Now, in a
country where fundamentalist insurgency, ethnic divisiveness, daily looting of
public treasury, and resource protective militancy are gaining more attention
than infrastructure provisioning and service delivery to the people, and thus
making real governance an uphill task for state actors, how can the trust and
confidence of the people be restored? How can public trust and confidence in
the affairs of state be re-kindled?
The
youth—the active population of the country—are not gainfully and constructively
engaged. A seven-month old government should, by now, commenced concrete and
visible action in the direction of profitable change by way of gainful
employment programs nation-wide. That is not happening yet. As oil revenue is
dwindling, investment in agriculture is being daily verbalized and touted as a
long neglected sector for economic diversification.
Unfortunately,
without good, motorable road and rail infrastructure criss-crossing the major
zones of the country, investment in agriculture cannot be encouraged and
accelerated. Those who are going to invest in agriculture will need to move
freely from the cities to the rural communities and vice-versa. They need good
road and rail transport system to do that. There appears not to be a visible activity
in that arena.
Massive road
and rail construction will provide immediate employment for the idle youths,
now being lured, for want of jobs, into militancy, insurgency, kidnapping, and
armed robbery. Well-constructed roads, rail- tracks and train wagons will make
investment in agriculture attractive for urban dwellers who need to travel and
convey materials—agricultural inputs and outputs—frequently.
Regular,
uninterrupted electric power supply nation-wide will also boost agricultural
investment and productivity. You need storage facilities for a good number of
agricultural raw-materials. These raw-materials also need to be processed into
finished products with shelf life to make investment in agriculture profitable
for investors. Efficient power supply is indispensible for this to happen. The
last government had provided the foundation for power, agriculture and rail
infrastructure.
All that is
required is for the Buhari government to build on the foundation already laid.
Where political contractors had failed in the past government to deliver road
infrastructure as desired and required, the new Buhari government should assign
tested professional road builders to commence work immediately on the
Shagamu-Ore Expressway, the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, and several other roads
in the eastern and northern parts of the country in a similar state of
disrepair.
It does not
speak well of the new government that all we see after seven months of
ascension to power is power tussle within and between political parties; power
tussle within and between the legislature and the executive arm of government.
At this rate, it is difficult to fathom when the government in power intends
to set the ball of service delivery to the people rolling. Delay is dangerous
considering the tempo of youth restiveness, armed robbery and kidnapping going
on nationwide.
We think
that the Federal Government should commence activities in road and rail
construction, and the strengthening of security in all the 36 states of the
country to effectively check armed robbery and kidnapping. Otherwise people
will migrate to the cities in large numbers, and abandon the rural communities.
Security, road and electricity are indispensable even for investment in
agriculture to produce the desired effect.
Getting down
to work and avoiding and abandoning corrupt elements, rather than continue to
trade blames with the opposition and mere detractors, will send the right
signals that the dispensation means business. And the Nigerian people will
notice that politicking is over for Mr. President who is now poised for real
governance, for effective service delivery to people who trusted his change
mantra with confidence that he will perform creditably and admirably.
Every
Nigerian citizen, including Mr. President, should borrow a leaf from what the
Tanzanian President, Mr. Mugulufi,
has been doing since he assumed office. That is how not to squander the good
will of a change mantra that brought an embattled President to power. That is
indeed how to restore public trust and confidence in the business of governance
in a country that had been plagued, for a long time, by corruption, impunity
and mediocrity. (National Mirror)
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