President Muhammadu Buhari |
A number of
the contentious results from the elections were the subjects of tribunal and
appeal court verdicts which appear to be changing the political demography and
democratic configurations across the states and nation. As the year ended, the
ultimate landings of all the governorship and legislative seats were yet to be
fully resolved. Yet, under Professor
Attahiru Jega, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), had
transformed into a better organised electoral umpire that raised electoral
conduct to a new level with the introduction of novel features and measures,
which ought to have reduced rigging opportunities to the desperate use of
barefaced violence.
On the
economic front, the global oil glut and threatening economic recession continue
to present enormous challenges for the nation. Governments across the land
have, by default, become chronic debtors, racking up months of unpaid salaries
and other bills. Yet in such a situation where vital needs across the nation
are competing for scarce financial resources, Nigerians witnessed a most
callous and despicable betrayal of trust by leaders who had no qualms funneling
available reserves into the private pockets of party loyalists and cronies, as
is evident in the mind-boggling revelations of corruption now making the
rounds.
Sadly, the
fate of the abducted Chibok girls remains a sore issue gnawing at the conscience
of a bewildered nation, an embarrassment for a sovereign state that ought to
have the capacity to find and rescue even one missing person. Unfortunately,
owing to the failings of a compromised and ineffective security leadership, by
the time our security apparatus was sufficiently empowered, the birds had
flown. Parents and relations are left gutted and in desperate anguish, not
knowing if their children will ever return. Alive or dead, the over 200 girl
students are yet to be located and until they are found, our government cannot
claim any significant measure of victory in the ongoing war against the Boko
Haram insurgency.
The year
2015 will thus go down with the negative legacies of insecurity, of impunity
and profligacy in governance, of indiscipline, of elaborate sleaze, of a
distressed economy serviced by a distorted energy and power supply base, and of
an imploding social infrastructure. The society is riddled with burgeoning
unemployment, civil strife between communities, a subsisting Boko Haram
insurgency, renewed agitation for a breakaway Biafra state, and sporadic fuel
crises exacerbated by industry malfunctions. Seemingly bereft of answers to a
stagnated economy, the past administration had driven the country to the
precipice. And many still wonder whether the new government team – riding on
the mantra of change – has the technical capacity and the political will to
arrest the slide and steer the ship of state towards greater peace and
stability, as well as economic growth and social progress.
What then is
in store for Nigerians coming into 2016, a new year of high hopes? Given that
our circumstance calls for hard decisions, deliberate steps must be taken to
address the various crises confronting the nation. First, the security and
territorial integrity of the nation must be pursued with all vigour and
determination until the terrorist insurgency is neutralised and all captives
are released. In the process, the security agencies must be adequately
empowered beyond the resources of which they had been starved.
Next, even
though by personal example, the new leadership has shown signs of a willingness
to curtail overhead costs of the apparatus of governance; but to make any
meaning out of the gesture beyond the charge of tokenism, government should
proactively negotiate a cost-saving legislation in recognition of current
economic realities, as they affect governance structures and their
bureaucracies.
Then there
is the herculean task of taming the monster that corruption has become.
Instilling discipline and enforcing appropriate sanctions are a sine qua non
for curbing corrupt tendencies. For too long, Nigerian leaders have paid lip
service to fighting corruption and have in fact been complicit in its
entrenchment in the national psyche, by giving room for plea bargaining with
treasury looters, and now and again granting pardon and political
rehabilitation for convicted and indicted persons. The present government must,
therefore, develop zero tolerance for corruption and strengthen anti-corruption
laws and the judiciary as enforcer.
President
Muhammadu Buhari, doubling as Minister for Petroleum, should more than well
understand the rot that has infested the industry for years, and must once and
for all untangle Nigeria’s anomalous position as perhaps the only oil producing
country in the world without its own refining capacity. Bunkering, piracy, oil
pipeline vandalism, uncontrolled gas flaring, subsidy scams and outright theft
and manipulation of oil proceeds have so ravaged the industry that an economic
war has to be waged.
In the same
vein, Nigerians expect the delivery of the promise to enhance the power
generation capacity to at least twice its current figure in two or three years.
The time has come for our leaders to prove critics wrong that vested interests
are invariably behind the perennial failure of national projects. Nigerians can
muster the doggedness, discipline and synergy to perform when they face a
challenge with resilience and determination, which can be replicated in other
critical national endeavours. (Guardian)
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