As Nigerians await with eagerness for the May 29 inauguration of a new administration after eight years of President Muhammadu Buhari in office, eminent Nigerians and development partners have come up with some policy guidelines for the incoming administration. Anambra State governor, Professor Charles Chukwuma Soludo, Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State, former Emir of Kano, Alhaji Muhammadu Sanusi II and the World Bank Country Director for Nigeria, Dr. Chubham Chaudhuri, and others have suggested ways to achieve transformational and sustainable development in the country.
While lamenting Nigeria’s uninspiring growth and uncoordinated transformation trajectory, the participants who spoke in Abuja recently at a policy conversation and book launch organised by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in collaboration with Agora Policy, called for an urgent paradigm shift in Nigeria’s transformation and development process.
Soludo, who spoke on ‘How Nigeria Can Build a Post-oil Economic Future,’ decried that ‘several diagnosis on the challenges of Nigeria’s rapid development had remained similar, ranging from one think-tank, institution, analysts, experts or even studies.’ Although the former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) observed that the country had witnessed episodic moments of surge and decline, he also opined that it had been characterised by occasional transformational and transactional leaderships.
He equally argued that ‘Nigeria’s development travails did not stem from lack of awareness of the problem, but the lack of the needed political will to implement impactful, enduring, transformational and development policies.’ Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State used the occasion to call for an upward review of the revenue sharing formula in favour of the states. He urged leaders to muster the courage and political will to take pragmatic measures to solve national problems. Similarly, Sanusi called for transparent and purposeful leadership. In the same vein, Chaudhuri tasked Nigerian politicians to embrace transformational leadership which had put Indonesia, India and others on the path of sustainable growth.
Beyond these measures, the incoming administration must, as a matter of priority, take bold decisions on how to quickly reset and revamp the ailing economy. It is sad that the economy is in a terrible shape on account of conflicting and unsustainable policies. The economy cannot witness any appreciable growth with multiple tax regime and the ubiquitous dual exchange rate. These policies do not encourage or favour the manufacturing sector. The incoming administration must put in place one exchange rate and do away with the vagaries of the parallel market. The government should prioritise the development of agriculture in all ramifications. We can still regain our position as the largest producer of palm oil, cocoa, groundnut, rubber, cashew nuts, coconut and others. The agricultural sector is key to our overall socio-economic development trajectory.
Apart from providing the much-needed jobs, agriculture will bring foreign exchange and ensure food security if it is run as a business. Nigeria has enough arable land for agriculture, enough water bodies for fish farming and the needed expertise and manpower. Let state governments take more than a passing interest in agriculture and use it to grow their internally generated revenues instead of depending on the federal government for the monthly handout.
However, the power sector needs to be overhauled for more efficiency and effectiveness in power generation and distribution. At less than 3000kw of electricity, Nigeria can hardly witness the necessary economic growth and development. For transformational and sustainable development, the next government should aim at generating up to 10,000kw of electricity every year to reach the 40,000kw mark in the next four years.
Without stable power supply, the country cannot witness any phenomenal industrial development. Let the new administration come up with far-reaching measures to curb the migration of Nigerian youths to countries in Europe and America. No nation can develop when millions of its youths are daily migrating to foreign countries in search of good life or the proverbial greener pastures. Nigerian youths migrate to the United Kingdom (UK), United States (US) and Canada because of the seeming hopelessness at home, characterised by bad governance, lack of jobs, political exclusion and poor value of the naira. The government should evolve new policies to overhaul the education and health sectors and stem the brain drain in both sectors.
Above all, the new administration should not shy away from devolution of powers from the centre to the states as well as decentralisation of policing, which will help tackle the nation’s insecurity.