Does President Umaru Musa Yar Adua (UMYA) Have the Courage to Change Nigeria?

Dan Azumi Kofarmata

The first100 Days in power of Umaru Musa Yar Adua’s (UMYA) presidency, which commenced on May 29, 2007 have come and gone. However, since becoming president (presently, the presidential election result is still being contested at the election complaints tribunal by some of the presidential contenders) about seven months ago, UMYA has not personally launched any new policy initiative apart from establishing a nebulous National Energy Council (NEC) that will produce blueprints for the energy and power sectors and the Electoral Reform Panel tasked with addressing the nation’s ever-troubled electoral system and practice. Outside these two major initiatives, a few public policies have either been pronounced and or actions taken to overturn some of the misguided left-over policies of former president Obasanjo. For example, a number of policies, programmes and projects in the energy, power, health and education sectors respectively, are either presently being reviewed, suspended and or out rightly buried six feet in the political graveyards of Nigeria’s ever growing failed and or misguided public policies.

Therefore, the stark reality and truths are that there have been no new freshly minted government policies that can be ascribed to UMYA to date. The only areas in which he is trying to make some efforts at stamping his presidential foot-prints are in the energy, power and electoral reforms, for example. However, as mentioned above, even in these sectors, all that have been going on in the presidency are the review, suspension and or cancellation of former president Obasanjo’s leftover failed policies, programmes and projects. Moreover, even the seven-point presidential election campaign agenda of president UMYA are still tall dreams as not much have been done thus far, in terms of turning them from political rhetoric to practical and actionable programmes and projects. It seems his economic management team (EMT) is yet to pick-up the necessary steam and start breaking the seven-point agenda into real programmes and projects with actionable work plans for implementation by the ministers. No wonder therefore, the ministers and their respective ministries all seem to be quiet and inactive; while the national economy has been put on standby.

Probably it is the legitimacy issue hanging over his declaration by the Nigerian Independent election authority – INEC, as the winner of the very controversial April 2007 presidential election that is making him not to act quickly in the area of development programmes and projects. For example, the local and international condemnations of his declaration as the winner of the alleged most fraudulent presidential polls ever witnessed in Nigeria and elsewhere by the international and local elections observers and monitors may be making president UMYA to be cautiously optimistic and slow in picking up the courage to face the challenges of leadership and governing Nigeria. The legitimacy issue notwithstanding, president UMYA should not let this concern induce paralyses that will most certainly, delay key decisions imperative to Nigeria’s governance and intractable development processes. For example, the vexed issues of personal security, electricity and petroleum products availability and supplies, health and clean water supplies are still not urgently and properly addressed by UMYA more than six months at the helms of the affairs of the country.

While his inaugurated economic management team is busy crafting new economic roadmap for the administration (as president UMYA continues to discard former president Obasanjo’s inherited failed and misguided public policies as he cautiously navigates Nigeria’s highly rugged and tedious political landscape), president UMYA needs to consider the following policy decisions that must be made quickly in order to make a difference in the lives of millions of Nigerians waiting for his leadership dividends. These include but not limited to the following ones:

Radical (but effective) total transformation of the nation’s national security order and institutions. For example, starting with the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), the government needs to shake the entire foundation of the institution up; from the officer corps and the rank and file of the force. This is with a view to changing its total quality in terms of vision, mission and operational structure; efficacy, remuneration, equipment and facilities, tactics and strategies among others. This is urgently needed because the raising rate of armed robbery, serious crimes and general lack of security to life and property is becoming very nasty and nuisance to everyone in the country; rich and poor and urban and rural dwellers alike. Therefore, a total surgical overhaul or turn-around operation of the nation’s policing and national security arrangement is urgently needed and now. In addition, president UMYA needs to urgently dismantle the fraudulent so-called Police Equipment Fund (PEF) and direct the nation’s anti-corruption agencies to start investigating the Fund and its managers with a view to recovering any misused and or stolen monies by the crooks who hoodwinked the government and the general public into the disgraceful scam of the highest order.

Having provided the sumptuous and juicy jobs to the members of Nigerian political, bureaucratic and technocratic elites, the administration must quickly come up with a sustainable economic stimulus package to address the large existing army of youth’s unemployment in Nigeria’s urban and rural places. Private manufacturing industries are closing shops by the day; particularly the textiles industries for reasons connected with failed and misguided public policies of the past years. Hence, economic stimulus policy package, which will jump-start public and private job opportunities, will go along way in reducing the existing horrifying level of insecurity all over the country. In addition, president UMYA needs to dismantle the existing poverty alleviation strategy left behind by the immediate previous administration. It is a grand failure and does not address the roots causes of poverty and neither does the approach alleviate poverty; it is rather too cumbersome, laced with too much bureaucratic red tape and superficial in design, orientation and delivery, to say the least. Moreover, it is a huge drain pipe of good resources for the benefits of a very few selected politically connected members of the ruling elites. A new result oriented approach is needed and there are many much better ones to select from by the administration. For example, better approaches are the ones that are anchored upon agriculture, small and medium scale enterprises, entrepreneurial, skills acquisitions and training-based programmes and projects.

Therefore, a new poverty alleviation and development approach should be generally community-based and bottom up rather than top-down and should be backed by sustainable micro-financing opportunities. Hence, president UMYA would be well-advised to adopt a more grassroots oriented approach to development policy in order to redress the increasing disparity in development opportunities nationwide; closing the ever-widening income gaps among and between individuals and across the nation’s geographical units. The increasing and ever-widening economic, income and political opportunities in the country are largely responsible for the ever-rising and intensifying horrible crimes taking place in the country today.

The president must take all the necessary steps to wage effective and result-oriented anti-corruption war (not rhetoric), particularly against elected public office holders at all levels, government bureaucrats and technocrats as well as the private sector as a whole. The nation needs urgent national emergency declaration on corruption, bribery and abuse of trust. The time to declare the national emergency is now. The mere declaration and pronouncement of Zero tolerance rhetoric against corruption is not enough. The government needs to show tangible efforts on the ground in this direction. If nothing tangible is done now to address these concerns, the economic and political consequences will definitely likely endanger the administration’s quests for legitimacy, political stability nationwide and also jeopardizes president UMYA’s national aspiration and goal of guiding the country’s growth and development towards becoming one of the top 20 most developed nations of the world by the year 2020.

The government should consider devolving more developmental responsibilities to the States and local government councils. This then calls for giving them more funds to execute grassroots programmes and projects. This also means very close monitoring of how the funds are expended and making every State and Local government’s official accountable and transparent by establishing effective and trusted national and local programmes and projects monitoring arrangements. All monies statutorily released to all the three tiers of the government must be accounted for and all programmes and projects must be budgeted for and transparently publicised in the media.

As a “servant-leader,” president UMYA would also be better advised to consider setting up machinery to review the following vanity programmes and projects with a view to stopping any financial and economic waste associated with them. Moreover, these seemingly “white elephant” projects and programmes were not subjected to due process in the award of their contracts and or there seems to be little or no preliminary discussions and practically no public debates on their desirability. Some of them are listed below:

a) The on-going N56bn 56-storey Abuja new National Cultural Centre and Millennium Tower;

b) National Highways Rehabilitation Projects (1999 – 2007);

c) The African Institute for Science and Technology (a.k.a. The Nelson Mandela Science and Technology Institute) Nigeria Campus;

d) The Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) - initiated by the Nigerian Central Bank (CBN) – probably without executive and legislative backing to date;

e) The Lekki Peninsula Nigeria Finance Centre - initiated by the Nigerian Central Bank (CBN) – probably without executive and legislative backing to date;

f) The controversial president Obasanjo’s “private” Presidential Library Project. Remember, upon assuming office in 1999, former president Obasanjo’s administration confiscated a similar project that was initiated in the name of the then Head of State (now late), General Sani Abacha. The building was however, unilaterally re-designated by president Obasanjo as the Centre for Conflict Resolution and handed over to the now defunct Ministry of Integration and Cooperation in Africa, presently an arm of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The General Sani Abacha Centre was constructed through public and corporate donations facilitated by former Governor Ahmed Makarfi and Alhaji Idi Farouk, now Director-General of the National Orientation Agency (NOA). That building should be returned to its original owners in the name of fairness and level playing field should the controversial and fraudulently financed Obasanjo’s Presidential Library Plaza stands.

g) The on-going hosting competition for the 2014 Commonwealth Games;

h) The National Rural Electrification Project under the former ministry of power and Steel Development;

i) The old and the proposed new National Identity Card Projects;

j) The National Information Super Highway (i.e. internet/ICT) Backbone projects;

k) The multi-billion Naira Federal Teaching Hospital Rehabilitations/Renovations/Equipping Projects (Contract awarded to a single company without competitive bidding);

l) The National Rural Telephony project under the federal ministry of information and communications;

m) Scandalous and laughable “Heart of Africa” Nigeria’s image laundering project of the ministry of information and communications and

n) The Defence Industry Corporation of Nigeria’s (DICON): “Obasanjo Gun,” among others.

President UMYA would also be better advised to consider setting up investigative panels to investigate the finances/accounts of the following national agencies, departments and programmes as the case may be, from 1997 – 2007. These are:

a) The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and all its strategic business units (SBUs);

b) The defunct National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) – now known as the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN);

c) The defunct federal ministry of works;

d) The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA);

e) The Nigerian Maritime Authority (NMA) – now known as the Nigerian Maritime Authority and Security Administration (NIMASA) – the missing $20m;

f) The Nigeria Telecommunication Communications Limited (NITEL);

g) The Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF);

h) The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) and

i) The Nigeria Police Force (NPF), among others.

Furthermore, president UMYA can change Nigeria for good without undertaking expensive globe trotting/shuttle salesmanship and marketing of Nigeria (e.g. the worthless and wasteful projects like the so-called “Heart of Africa” project) to the yet unconvinced foreign investors. All the basic things that are needed are transparent, accountable and truly democratic leadership and good governance regime and honest business management systems and practices.

Therefore, if president UMYA, the self-styled “servant-leader” has the courage to undertake these above listed rather Herculean tasks, he will certainly win any properly organised presidential election in Nigeria without the help of any godfather. Certainly, he will also win on his side and for the country in general, the much needed international investments, business acceptability and improved image. Therefore, the above outlined policy propositions are some of the least cost ways that can repair Nigeria’s battered and tattered image and significantly improve the general socio-political and economic wellbeing of Nigerians. Moreover, the best outcome from the implementation of these propositions is that president UMYA would have succeeded in fully wining the hearts and minds of the generality of Nigerians and establishing his authority in the political arena of Nigeria and internationally, the present legitimacy question notwithstanding.

Last but by no means the least, if the cancellations of the challenged fraudulent April 14 2007 gubernatorial elections results, which affected three of the ruling party’s Governorship candidates; including the latest, which affected the president’s own new Son-in-law, the Kebbi State Governor, Alhaji Saidu Usman Dakin Gari are anything to celebrate, then there are rays of hope in president UMYA’s leadership qualities compared to the nation’s past military leaders and his immediate “civilian” predecessor. Should this exemplary character treat and responsible leadership qualities continue, then, the pertinent question I asked at the start of this piece, that is: does president UMYA have the courage to change Nigeria is close to being answered in positive term. The nation and indeed, Nigerians are patiently waiting for more positive results from the “servant-leader,” president Umaru Musa Yar Adua (UMYA).

Dan Azumi Kofarmata

Monday, 22 October 2007

danazumikofarmata@yahoo.com