Many Nigerians believed in you long before you joined politics. Many saw you as a true fearless leader. A no-nonsense disciplinarian anti-corruption czar. This belief was durable, and so translated into votes for you in 2015.
Many people began to adjust their seats and belts as soon as the presidential election results were announced. You took office, and many of us watched in utter disbelief as you staggered from one blunder to another. Not that you registered no successes, far from that, but that those successes were far below expectations.
It took some of us two to three years to come to terms that indeed this was not the Buhari we had hoped for, we had seen briefly in 1983. The cry of dissatisfaction was loud and clear from all corners of Nigeria.
Your emerging the winner of the February 23rd, 2019 presidential elections was more due to lack of credible competitor than deservingness. Although still being challenged, you must see your victory as an act of God. You must therefore pay back or show gratitude to God by ensuring that your second term is administered with the fear of God.
Many of us still believe you can meet our expectations. You don’t need to be a genius, but you need to be able to build a good team. This is a great opportunity to write your name in gold. The following tips may give you an idea of what we are expecting:
Your Cabinet
Formation should take place within the first week of your taking oath of office. Key words should be competence, passion and spread. Prepare grounds for easy release of non-performing persons. The crooks around you now must be flushed out and flung far away.
Unity
I learnt one thing recently from our political commentators: in politics perception is more important than the truth. Body language, public utterances must not be handled as to give negative impressions. Your lowest scores came from the South-South and the South East. There is no reason why you should not work out a clear programme of full engagement with these two zones. You should be popular everywhere in Nigeria. Other programmes specifically designed to promote unity should be put in place. The culture of lopsided appointments must be dropped like hot iron. A good pleasant surprise could be a security chiefs line-up that contains no Katsina state indigene.
Security
The kernel of Boko Haram has not been cracked. You may need to put back your helmet to get the job done. Whatever it would take to put it out, should be raised. Other areas of security concerns need modernized approach. A clear sustainable programme of steady strengthening of our security forces, especially the police should be put in place.
Education
A complete revolution in this sector is essential. A lot of our current problems are traceable to the low performance of this sector. Admirable models are available elsewhere, from which we can learn.
Economy
Most Nigerians cannot understand the reason for the slow motion in improving the ease of doing business in Nigeria. A rapid improvement in this area will take away most of your headache. Nigerians are resilient hard workers and are ready to make this country proud.
Justice System
You must, without delay, initiate action towards an overhaul of the justice system so that it will begin to deliver justice for all. The nature of our society and what we want to achieve must be our guiding factors and not who speaks closest to Aristotle. It must be Nigerianized.
Anti-corruption
The anti-corruption war must now become comprehensive in scope. It has so far not been. It’s not just about chasing those who have stolen stupendous amounts of money. Prevailing daily operations need to be checked. I know many foreign firms that have vowed never to operate in Nigeria until corruption is brought down to tolerable levels.
Power Supply
Excuses on power supply are no longer acceptable. We are far less interested in talks about how many megawatts of electricity are being generated than having quality steady power supply in our homes and industries. In the good old days, most Nigerians did not know where power was coming from let alone the number of megawatts generated. The only thing they needed to know was that the switch hardly failed them whenever it was flipped on.
Past Regimes
Every Nigerian knows that past regimes mismanaged our economy. That was why we voted for change in 2015. Tell us less of how many billions they could not account for, more of what changes you have caused in the life of an average Nigerian.
The NASS Factor
I believe there must be an effective way to take the NASS members along no matter how irresponsible some of them may prove to be. Frequent open clashes with them retards our progress.
And more.
God bless our country!
