WHAT NIGERIAN LEADERS NEED TO DO IN 2022

It has been a topsy turvy year for Nigeria in 2021.The country was bedeviled by various challenges that tested the character and the strength of the people. But Nigeria will always survive because of the innate ability we have as a country.

Nigerians have been bedeviled with a lot of economic headwinds, maliciously destroying our national fabric. The web of debt and corruption has become bigger and hope is far from the view of the people. Despite the turbulence occasioned by the Covid-19 pandemic I must salute the resilience of Nigerians, but it’s leaders need to do more for the people. The problem of Nigeria has been about the cerebral convulsions its leadership suffers and this leads to no clear plan for the people.

In 2022 the Nigerian leadership must sign the new electoral bill into law, the democratic process is the first state to change any nation. We have a faulty political class because we have a faulty system. In an intellectually driven system, we ought not to have leaders we have; I must repeat some of our leaders are not even fit to be servants, let alone leaders.

That is why elections matter. We must shout constantly until we have a new electoral law; so the leadership must make this priority once they reconvene. The Nigerian leadership must work on the economy and stop borrowing. We must promote structural changes to governance and how the financial state of the administration works. I have always argued that borrowing to fund long term infrastructure is wrong while the people suffer.

What is important is to empower the people through education and solid welfare and give them skills so that Nigerians can start building their own railway lines. We should spend more in 2022 in improving our educational system and research that will lead to development, taking more loans from China to build rail lines by China is not a good thing. In the first place, we should ask how did China learn how to build rail lines? They did by investment in education that provided the skill. So the earlier we do it, the better.

In 2022 our leaders must support SMEs. The quickest way to provide jobs is through SMEs. We have over 40 million SMEs. The government must create an enabling environment for the businesses to do well, we must give them loans and not kill them with taxation. We must also prevent smuggling; we all remember how dumping of electronics from other countries destroyed the likes of Adebowale industries in the 1980s. The government must be protectionist of its own businesses to grow.

In 2022, we must provide power, electricity is a big deal and it is needed for the development of any economy. Just imagine if there were 20 hours a day constant power supply in Nigeria. Our leaders must revisit the power distribution deal with Siemens or look for alternatives if that is not working. We must also liberalize the grid system. We can create multiple grid system and increase development capacity by sourcing funding and developing the power sector.

In 2022, our leaders must also tackle insecurity and look for ways to restore the national pride of Nigeria. Our national pride has suffered; the Nigerian passport is worth nothing today. Our leaders must work on the image of Nigeria and this can only come through development, all round socio-economic development. Most importantly our leaders must unite Nigerians, we can’t continue with this ethnic jingoism. Our leaders must in their words and deeds unite Nigerians. 2022 should not be the year to compare killer herdsmen and hardworking spare part sellers. We must uphold and unite our country. 2022 is another blank canvas, what we write on it matters. God bless Nigeria.

Rufai Oseni, rufaioseni@gmail.com