Author: The Nation

I make no apology for saying the following.

Lagos is NOT no-man’s land. It belongs to the Yoruba. Other than winning the Presidency, the most important thing for the Yoruba to do today is to ensure that Babajide Sanwo-Olu is re-elected as Governor of Lagos state.

Outside of that we are finished as a race and as a people.

The Labour Party candidate, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, whose mother and wife are Igbo and who is running a patently anti-Yoruba and pro-Igbo campaign, is one of those that burnt properties and buses during the Endsars riots.

He is also in bed with IPOB and is hell bent on imposing an unashamedly Igbo agenda on the people of Lagos state including removing all our Yoruba traditional rulers and imposing Igbo ones.

Would the Igbo allow any Yoruba man to do such a thing in the east?

Our liberalism and willingness to accommodate others has become our biggest albatross.

We gave them land, food and shelter and now they want to take everything from us and rule over us.

They have even infiltrated our Churches and introduced a brand of religious intolerance which is alien to us.

They want to deny us that which our forefathers built, fought and died for and they want to decimate our identity and redefine who we are!

Please take this very seriously and take note that it is beyond politics.

Lagos is for Lagosians and Lagosians are YORUBA!

We welcome visitors and strangers with love, kindness and open arms because that is our nature but we will never let them rule over us in our fathers land, take our land and territory and deprive us of our patrimony, heritage and ancestry.

Anything short of this would be an abomination and would attract the wrath and curse of God.

We know who we are and we know what is ours. Nothing and nobody will take that from us.

It is time to reclaim Lagos and the first step to doing that is to vote for Jide in the Governorship election on Saturday.

I call on all sons and daughters of the West and all true friends of Lagos and the West to come out and vote for Jide and the APC on that day.

Permit me to add the following.

I have spoken up for the Ibo probably more than any other non-Ibo in my generation over the years and in the recent past and I did so when most people remained silent and watched them suffer the most extreme form of persecution, wickedness and barbarity.

I am also one of those that believes strongly in the ‘handshake across the Niger’ and I enunciated my position boldly and clearly at the famous Enugu conference in 2018 when others were scared to speak.

Finally my belief in the concepts of restructuring, self-determination, equity and justice remain unshakable.

I also remain a strong advocate of the unity and indissolable fabric of our rainbow coalition and beautiful union and our quest to establish an exemplary and enviable multi-racial, multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-religious nation where every individual, regardless of tribe or faith, finds a place under the sun.

That is the sacred vision of our forefathers and it is for that vision and preservation of the unity of that unique and marvellous rainbow coalition and great nation of bright and beautiful ethnic nationalities that millions of people died during our civil war.

A heavy price was paid for our unity and the butchers bill for the preservation of our union was very high.

That is all the more reason why we should preserve it at all costs so as not to belittle and mock the sacrifices made by so many and the oceans of blood that was shed to keep us one.

Nigeria is a great, powerful and beautiful nation with so much potential and we shall do all we can to make her even greater and better by striving to live in pace and unity with one another.

However this does not mean that we can take each other for granted or treat one another with contempt.

This does not mean that we must indulge in grabbing the land and coveting the homes of others in the name unity.

This does not mean that we are a nation of anything goes where only the loudest, strongest and most aggressive have their way or where anarchy, ignorance, fascism, ethnic nationalism, racial hegemony, primitive irredentism and barefaced domination reigns supreme.

This does not mean that we will tolerate and allow others to re-echo the expansionist dreams and divisive and weighty words of the late jurist, member of the Legislative Council and Ibo nationalist Charles Daddy Onyeama (the distinguished and respected father of our Foreign Minister, Geoffrey Onyeama) in 1945 when he told the Ibo State Union at the Island Club in Lagos that “the Ibo domination of Nigeria is only a matter of time” .

The angst and fears of the Yorubas, Hausa Fulani, Ijaw and other non-Ibos that heard those words at that time were further fuelled and re-kindled four years later in 1949 when, again in Lagos, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe himself, the Ibo leader of the NCNC, a great nationalist and the man who was almost elected Premier of the old Western Region and was later elected Premier of the old Eastern Region said,

“it would appear that the God of Africa has specially created the Ibo nation to lead the children of Africa from the bondage of the ages”.

I guess little has changed over the last 78 years when it comes to the desire of some to want to dominate others, lead them by force and take over their land and all that is theirs.

How sad that is.

Finally this does not mean that I will sit by silently or idly and accept the absurd notion, emotional blackmail and intellectual tomfoolery of those that say that Lagos, my Lagos, the city that I come from, that I was born in, that I grew up in, that I lived in for most of my life, that my parents and grandparents were buried in and that God-willing, when my time comes, I shall also be buried in, is a ‘no man’s land’ .

Lagos may be an increasingly racial and cultural melting pot but she is NOT a no man’s land.

The history is clear. Lagos is Yoruba territory and she constitutes a vital and integral part of the South Western states of Nigeria and the Yoruba nation.

Whether anyone likes to hear it or not this is an incontrovertible fact.

As Yorubas she is our pride and joy, our shining city on a hill, our New Jerusalem and a stellar example and reflection of our liberal, cosmopolitan, civil, accommodating and generous disposition to strangers and outsiders who, over the last few decades, have made her their home.

Yet no matter how kind and accommodating we Yorubas are as a people and no matter how many non-Yorubas we integrate with, we shall NEVER conceed one inch of our territory to them or allow them to claim our land, culture, values, patrimony and heritage as their own.

The day I, as a Yoruba man, can claim that Enugu belongs to me or that I can safely open a stall in Enugu market or that I can become Governor of Enugu state is the day that I shall review my position. Until then I will not do so.

Permit me to conclude with the following.

I am a proud father of 9 children, 6 of whom have  mothers that are not Yoruba and 3 of whom have a mother that is only half Yoruba.

This proves that I am an intergrationist and I believe in building bridges and creating a society which allows for and encourages the mixing of ethnic bloodlines, racial tolerance and peaceful co-existence.

l am a liberal and I do not believe that it is right or proper for one race or ethnic nationality to look down on or discriminate against another. In my view we are all one, regardless of which ethnic nationality you come from or which faith you espouse.

However this does not mean that I am prepared to sacrifice my racial and cultural identity on the alter of historical revisionism. The history is clear and the facts speak for themselves.

For a non-Yoruba and particularly an Ibo to claim that Lagos belongs to them or that she is a ‘no man’s land’ is not only absurd but also deeply insulting.

Each time they say it they are slapping us in the face and spitting on the graves of our reverred forefathers.

By Emmanuel Umohinyang

The reverberation of the electoral victory of former Lagos state governor, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, in the presidential election of February 25, 2023, is one that is bound to abound for a long time to come.

Even the history books would have it well engraved in a very special place because, for many, it was more than just sweet music to the ears; it was an honour well deserved.

No wonder, the global community spoke with one voice on the election, with congratulatory messages pouring in like torrential rain.

From world leaders in the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Canada, and across the length and breadth of Africa, it has been congratulations galore.

Long before the blast of the whistle and the campaign that ensued, many Nigerians, including this writer, opined that the coveted prize was for Tinubu.

The conviction was not based on guesswork but on a cursory look at the antecedents and accomplishments of the front runners for the seat of the nation’s number one citizen.

Without doubt, Asiwaju was clearly ahead of the pack, leading the rest by miles, based on his enviable record as former governor of Lagos State.

Even his rivals know within themselves that this is one man they cannot match in every critical sector, if accomplishments are anything to go by.

From the way and manner in which they ran their campaigns, Tinubu of the APC was clearly ahead, and the signs were there for all to see, even for the blind and the deaf.

If you break it down to the campaigns of the leading parties, none was a match for Asiwaju, as his “renewed hope” manifesto dwarfed all the others in terms of answers to what their plans are for Nigeria.

Though Atiku Abubakar of the PDP was the first to unveil his manifesto, “My Covenant with Nigerians,” observers say it fell short of providing answers to the myriad of problems facing the nation at this critical period.

Even Obi, who took all the time in the world to release his, was no better, as his manifesto never received the kind of reviews received by the APC manifesto.

Given Tinubu’s background, many were not surprised that he came up with a brilliant document that is bound to remain relevant, even long after he exits the presidency.

No doubt, this is a product of the combination of his experience in the corporate sector, where he rose to become Treasurer at Mobil, and what he garnered as Lagos’s number one citizen, working with some of the best eggheads from across the country.

For the record, “Renewed Hope” addresses the major issue at the heart of attaining prosperity, growth, and development for the nation: security economy, fiscal policy, import substitution, tax reform, optimization of government revenue, monetary policy, exchange rate management, industrial policy, housing, agribusiness, power, and more.

The new agenda seeks to achieve objectives that include job creation and decent wages for youths as a baseline for creating a better life, manufacturing, and invention of goods and services, thereby transforming Nigeria from mere consumers to creators.

It also aims to bring about less importation and more exportation for the purpose of strengthening the naira; an agric policy that promotes productivity, decent income for farmers; the modernization and expansion of public infrastructure, harnessing the energy of youths in the digital economy; entertainment, culture, and tourism; and the abolition of poverty.

On security, Tinubu/Shettima believes that the fundamental responsibility of government is the protection of lives and property.

Consequently, the new administration plans to mobilise the totality of national security, military, and law enforcement assets to protect all Nigerians from danger and the fear of danger.

Tinubu, as Lagos’ helmsman, promised something similar and did exceedingly well; other states copied the Lagos security model, which is still in operation to date.

In the area of power, the President-elect is a firm believer that our economic woes are closely connected with power, as the nation has approximately 12,000 MW of installed capacity, generates only 8,000 MW, and distributes 4500 MW to consumers.

Recall that Lagos State under Asiwaju embarked on the Enron project as a way of filling this void, another first in history by any state government in Nigeria.

These and many more ingenious ideas are what the incoming administration is bringing to tackle the many challenges currently facing the nation.

As somebody who has worked very closely with President Muhammadu Buhari, there is no gain in saying that he has succeeded largely in his task of fixing many of the problems facing the nation.

These could be better appreciated when we look back at events before his assumption of office, when the nation was at the precipice, drifting in a very fearful manner, and needed a captain to save the ship of state from sinking.

Though Buhari may not have done it all, as no administration can fix all our challenges, as a Nigerian and unapologetic Buharist, I and millions of Nigerians can boldly attest to the administration’s accomplishments.

Today, we can look back with pride and boast of better railway services, better roads, modern airports, improved agriculture, well-motivated military and police, a better civil service, fewer bankrupt states paying salaries, courtesy of President Buhari, and, better still, a far better image of Nigeria abroad. Our recent visit to Doha, Qatar, can attest to these things.

Furthermore, President Buhari would go down in history as a president who bequeathed a free, fair, and credible election to Nigerians.

Though some are crying foul, the truth is that there can never be a perfect election anywhere in the world, even in the United States, which is the bastion of democracy.

The same election saw Atiku Abubakar’s PDP winning in Kastina, Kaduna, and Yobe, regarded as nests of the APC, even as Obi won in the Plateau, the FCT, and Lagos, areas it could never have dreamed of winning; the same is true for Tinubu, who won PDP-dominated states.

The greatest challenge before President-elect Bola Tinubu is taking Nigeria from where it is presently to an enviable position that will be the pride of black people around the world.

No doubt, the country is heavily fragmented and would need some healing through unity, for which some have called for a Government of National Unity (GNU). The good thing is that Tinubu is a man with a large heart, a man at home with all Nigerians, irrespective of religious or ethnic background.

He was the one who first appointed Nigerians from other geopolitical zones into his government as governor of Lagos State.

There is no gain in saying that one of the reasons for his victory is his open-mindedness, which has made him a friend to millions locally and internationally.

Such a spirit would no doubt do his administration a lot of good, given the bad blood across ethnic and religious lines as a result of the election.

The good thing is that Tinubu has not just waved the olive branch; he has equally swung into action by constituting a committee to reach out to aggrieved persons.

This shows him as a man who is genuinely concerned about the state of the nation and the need to bring all hands on deck for a better, prosperous nation.

Ultimately, it will do the President-elect a lot of good if he would quickly recognize and find solutions to areas where the Buhari administration failed, namely the badly implemented Naira redesign policy of the federal government. The government exists for the survival of her citizens, not for their funerals. To this end, I invite the president-elect to review when sworn-in most policies of the Emefiele led CBN and sanction officials responsible for the needless pain and agony Nigerians had to go through during the poorly implemented policies.

The earlier this is done, the better for Tinubu himself, as many look forward to him re-enacting the “Lagos magic” at the national level for a better Nigeria and proving to his critics that those achievements were not a fluke. I then leave the City Boy of Lagos with the words of the late Chief Gani Fawehinmi that he should “stand up for what is right even if you are standing alone because at the end you will be vindicated.” Luckily for Bola Tinubu, he is not standing alone because the majority of Nigerians are standing with him for people-oriented governance.

If he succeeds, surely Nigeria succeeds, and the respect for the nation as a true giant in the global arena would surface once more, even as Asiwaju would have succeeded in writing his name in gold.

•Umohinyang, an activist and social commentator, writes from Lagos.

By Abdulsalami Ladigbolu

The ultra-light beam for sustainable development for a nation starts with the mental acceptance of a working ideology conceived by the nation’s leadership and its subordinates.

Nigeria, at present, is caught between a slippery muddy cliff and a distant rocky fall.

Idowu Koyenikan, in his book ‘Wealth for all Africans: How Every African Can Live the Life of Their Dreams’, said: “Show me the heroes that the youth of your country look up to, and I will tell you the future of your country.”

First, congratulations to Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu on his historic victory in the just-concluded 2023 Presidential elections. His emergence at this crucial time in Nigeria’s history is indeed timely.

Tinubu’s emergence will be a litmus test that must overcome all the shortcomings, brimstone and negativity that have stained the status of Nigeria.

As a concerned citizen and strong believer /supporter of smart intellectuals who believe in intergenerational mentorship and solidarity, I put forward to you my opinion about the plight of Nigerian youth and the urgent action that needs to be taken to ensure our youths achieve global success.  I believe that there is no keener revelation of society’s soul than the way in which it treats its youths because discouraging the youth is simultaneously destroying the Nation’s prosperity!

Nigeria is one of the world’s largest producers of crude oil and with an abundance of gas and mineral resources, Nigeria is Africa’s largest economy. The International Monetary Fund predicts that Nigeria could become the ninth-largest economy in the world by 2050 if it mobilizes its 200 million population into a nation of entrepreneurs and producers.

However, Nigeria’s population advantage could become its Achilles heel as it currently struggles to overcome rising unemployment, unstable power supply, poor education and poverty. Nigeria has a range of issues; the government’s fiscal deficit is expanding above budget, unemployment is trending upwards and uncertainty around petrol prices all combine to create an atmosphere of economic instability.

This uncertainty means that the West African nation has seen a steady outflow of its most promising young talent to Europe, leaving behind a damaging human capital problem. With an entrepreneurial deficit, the country is unable to develop the broad-based economy needed to provide employment, competition, and innovation as well as insulation from the global price and demand shocks in its natural resource markets. Mass unemployment and poverty means that many Nigerians lack the basic amenities of life and are vulnerable to crimes such as human trafficking and modern-day slavery.

Furthermore, Nigeria’s youth population sits precariously at over 55% of the total population. Why precarious? It is precarious because, in our current times, where high unemployment rates and misplaced priorities are the norms rather than the exception, and impatience and greed seem to have become a virtue rather than flaws, there is much cause for concern. And necessarily so, when the sheer amount of young unemployed young people with a limited scope of knowledge and skills are taken into account.

Without a doubt, this country’s youth population boasts some of the most original creatives in the world. Given the right tools and environment, Nigerian youths can compete at the highest levels in various industries and exceed expectations. 

It is paramount that meaningful enrichment and sustainable programmes in four identified critical areas among the youth should be put in place, which are;  Intellectual, leadership, economy and digital technology capacity building. 

This will contribute to and accelerate the provision of such improved competencies and capabilities. I hope this will enhance the enlightenment of Nigerian youths about the dynamics of international markets, exposing them to globally recognized and proven wealth creation strategies and doubtlessly satisfying your ambition to make Nigeria an economic powerhouse and establish us firmly in that march towards economic independence.

Africa needs all her young people, and she needs them wise in the business ways of the world. No one is coming to save us. We owe ourselves our salvation. We owe ourselves our rescue. I am aware of the potential impact of Tinubu’s manifesto, and optimally hopeful of producing a flood of empowered young people, with a deliberate focus on popular inclusivity for women with the aim to relaunch the authority of originality in an enterprise, and to encourage the intersection of fresh ideas, “the sex of ideas” as Matt Ridley puts it in his book, The Rational Optimist.

I congratulate you once again on your success as the 16th President of Nigeria and I assure you all of my unflinching commitment to your success if needs arise. Indeed, these are exciting times. Creativity and innovation remain the hallmarks of thriving nations in today’s world, and we’re privileged to put Nigeria on the march towards it. Let us remember that today’s marketplace frustration and hard-to-till entrepreneurial land is tomorrow’s street anger and restlessness.

Finally, I reiterate my abiding dedication to the actualization and the roaring success of Nigeria’s young people in their chosen fields. I am fully committed and will do all in my disposal to assist your mission to launch a new era of economic productivity among our blissfully large youth population as we march towards the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Economic Development.

•Prince Abdulsalami AB.Ladigbolu

princeulobgidal@gmail.com

By Tiko Okoye

Even at the risk of sounding like a broken record let me still yell “I told you so,” knowing that there were many lying in wait to inflict on me a most grievous comeuppance if my predictions had turned awry like those of the numerous professional political seers and prophets.

In the introduction to my my four-part serial on the then-impending presidential election titled “2023 Presidency: How the presumptive frontrunners would likely fare,” I flaunted my 100 percent score in correctly calling every presidential election since 1999 on the basis of being able to separate emotions and sentiments from realpolitik.

I concluded the series by detailing why Bola Tinubu (All Progressives Congress, APC) will win the election, with Atiku Abubakar (Peoples Democratic Party, PDP) and Peter Obi (Labour Party) coming second and third in that order, even as social media buzz was pointing in the very opposite direction! 

As far as I was concerned, it didn’t require a knowledge of rocket science to accept that the PDP was the odds-on favourite to win the election, given the APC’s relatively lacklustre performance, only if the party maintained its voting strongholds in the South-East and South-South as in 2015 and 2019, while plucking some key states in the North-Central and North-East.

Once Obi defected to Labour, PDP chieftains ought to have immediately realised that there was fire on the mountain, particularly if the APC could manage to retain a significant proportion of its coalition of South-West/core North progressives, which if properly handled would guarantee a revolving door of presidents between the North and the South in the foreseeable future.      

The presidential election has come and gone. Someone won and others lost. But as is the case with elections all over the world – more so in developing countries – the dust has refused to settle. Some critics have dubbed it “the worst election ever conducted in Nigeria.” Others have been calling for the dismissal and criminal prosecution of the chairman of the superintending electoral body, INEC.

Truth be told, elections in Nigeria have been typically shambolic. Nevertheless, it’s my well-considered opinion that sulking critics mostly angered by the fact that that their preferred candidate lost only too conveniently desire to pressurize the nation into throwing away the baby with the bath water. Only a Johnny Just Come (JJC) from an alien planet who landed on our shores on election day, would brazenly dub the February 25 presidential election the worst ever.

The 2007 edition was so bad that the declared winner – PDP’s Umaru Yar’Adua – repudiated the electoral process that midwifed his victory, although he thereafter resisted calls to resign and make way for a fresh poll. It was an election in which many people waiting in queues to cast their votes were flabbergasted to hear ‘results’ of their pulling units being declared by INEC while voting was still in progress! Nothing of the sort happened in this election.

I’ll talk very frankly. The January 15, 1966 abortive military putsch was adjudged by the rest of Nigeria to be an ‘Igbo coup’ since no high-profile Igbo politician died in a coup led by a preponderance of Igbo officers. Right or wrong (a debate for another day), the ensuing incendiary mob sentiment led to the massacre of defenceless law-abiding Igbo indigenes all over Nigeria six months later, with the most gruesome killings occurring in Jos and Makurdi (Middle Belt) as well as Warri and Benin (Niger Delta).

To me, the loathing of these minority ethnic nationalities for Ndigbo will continue to manifest until hell freezes over. You can, therefore, only imagine how the announcements by INEC that the Labour Party candidate from Anambra ended up winning the polls in Delta, Edo and Plateau and only lost Benue by about 2,000 votes gave me goose pimples just to excitedly think about it! It would certainly help to pacify and exorcise the ghosts of innocent Ndigbo haunting those areas.

The icing on the cake is definitely the loss of Lagos to a candidate of an opposing party for the very first since 1992. Yet, critics afflicted with chronic short-sightedness are comfortable with downplaying all the ground-breaking firsts recorded in this presidential poll and savaging it as the worst ever. ‘Worst’ must be made of sterner stuff.             

Truth is that Obi surpassed all expectations – and a great deal of the positive development is chiefly attributable to Generation Z – young men and women with a zero-tolerance for tribalism. How they chose to vote constitutes proof that a ‘new Nigeria’ is indeed possible but they would also have to include religion in their zero-tolerance list for future prospects to be truly of uhuru dimension.

But what galls me is that millions of Nigerians are unwilling to face the truth simply because they don’t like it. And they are increasingly being aided and abetted in this undemocratic perambulation by a vast number of media organisations and outlets that have readily transformed from news organisations to propaganda organisations.

Make no mistake about it; it is a very tough call as news organisations must keep a watchful eye on advert and reading patronage for survival and sustainability. And as the ongoing travails of Fox TV (USA) continue to demonstrate, reporting facts, aka truth, as they are can cause a massive loss in patronage if a significant market segment like to read about what they believe in and not necessarily the truth.

Be that as it may, I posit that it’s totally illogical to say that one cannot report the truth because a vociferous significant proportion of the population disagrees with it. Journalism 101 holds that the whole (not just primary) role of a legitimate news organisation is to report facts regardless of readers’ disagreement, and especially when there are concerted efforts to distort the facts.

There was a time in the past when professional media outlets simply reported the news, not bias, fiction, cynicism and hate messages. They effectively dealt with corporate interference, were immune to selective amnesia and shied away from selective coverage and didn’t sacrifice editorial integrity on the puny altar of brand protection.

It has even reached the point where conventional media organisations lift provocative fake news from questionable social media sources without fact-checking, in the mistaken belief that they cannot be held accountable for defamation by just “reporting the news.”

A process is already in place for aggrieved candidates desiring to contest their electoral losses or seeking to reclaim their ‘stolen mandate.’ Both those alleging that the election lacked transparency and was flawed by INEC’s failure to upload results directly to its public result-viewing portal – IReV – and those claiming that electronic transmission of results isn’t mandatory for INEC and that political parties brought in Israeli and Russian hackers preparatory to compromising the transmitted results and creating chaos should have their day in court.

News organisations owe it as a patriotic duty both to themselves, their readers and the rest of the nation not to allow their organs to facilitate trials in the media where ‘truth’ solely depends on who’s saying what.

A sage once said that learning stops in the grave, meaning that as long as we keep open minds and are still alive, learning never ends. I recently watched Mehdi Hasan, the highly-regarded talk-show host who left Al Jazeera for MSNBC, describe what he called the Gish Galloper debating methodology. According to Hasan, the aim of the method is simply to defeat one’s opponents by burying them in a torrent of incorrect, irrelevant or idiotic arguments, given that the amount of energy needed to refute BS is an order of magnitude bigger than to produce it.

The entire strategy rests on exploiting this dubious embedded advantage. By the time the opponent begins preparing his/her rebuttal of the Gish Galloper’s first lie, the latter would’ve rattled off another dozen! The aim is to trick the audience into believing that the facts and the evidence are on their side by spewing forth a slew of examples that cannot be simultaneously fact-checked. Donald Trump has been cited by many as the most visible exponent of this debating methodology.

Rather than enabling social media graffiti, professional news organisations in Nigeria can alternatively a very patriotic role by ensuring that political debates and campaigns opt for depth and substance over delivery, form or proof by verbosity. This is not to say that news analysis – as different from news reportage – isn’t an integral part of the role of the media. But even in that kind of situation, media professionals must attempt to give credit to decisions made in the heat of the moment while enjoying the luxury of highlighting alternative actions or solutions solely based on the comfort of 20/20 hindsight (aka armchair quarterbacking).

 •Okoye is a Financial Inclusion Expert

08054103468 (SMS only)

We have arrived at a key defining moment in the historical trajectory of Nigeria. And that moment is signaled, for me, by the election of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. And it does not matter what architecture of expected failure contrary opinions might have built over time. What is important is that Tinubu has managed with success the dynamics and the struggles that have thrusted him into leadership at the zenith of democratic expectations in Nigeria, and he needs to deliver. I believe that rather than waiting for him to fail, part of our democratic responsibility to our great nation is to give him the best possible supports in terms of ideas and insights, as well as the vigilance to monitor all the policy push and pull, as force-field, that he will be making for the betterment of Nigerians.

The essence of democratic governance is performance. And that performance is measured in terms of what democratic governance could deliver for citizens on whose behalf governments hold political power. George Bernard Shaw once remarked that “democracy is a device that ensures that we shall be governed no better than we deserved.” The critical question, from Shaw’s fundamental understanding of democratic governance, is: what do Nigerians think they deserve? And, to stretch that question further, how can Nigerians lodge what they think they deserve forcefully within the policy architecture of the new administration?

Thus, beyond the mudslinging of the electoral campaign, the anger and bitterness that characterized the administration of the elections, and euphoria of election victory, how can Asiwaju Tinubu assuage the democratic expectations of Nigerians, both those who massively elected him and those who exercised their democratic rights to vote against him? In other words, what are the most strategic and decisive ways for him to hit the ground running, especially within the notorious first one hundred days in office? This question is critical within the context of the debilitating deficits that Nigeria has amassed for its sixty-three years of existence as a sovereign state. In sixty-three years, a lot of things that could go wrong had gone wrong-from inflation and macroeconomic destabilization to insecurity, from youth unemployment to child mortality, from poverty to poor healthcare delivery, and from infrastructural deficit to increasing political apathy. Asking about what Nigerians ought to expect within the first 100 days of this administration is therefore a critical expectation that is justified within the experiential landscape of Nigerians. The new administration is already a burdened one, confronted essentially by the stark tension generated by years of bad governance and bad politics that the political class had foisted on Nigerians. And Nigerians have a right to expect any administration that it pleases fate to put in the saddle to alleviate their suffering.

My own expectation of making the first 100-days symbolically and strategically fundamental is hinged on the divine responsibility of the government to attend to the social contract that binds it to the governed. By its acceptance of the democratic mandate, the Tinubu administration has by that fact signed a performance and good governance contract with Nigerians. Nothing else will consummate this contract than the roll back of all elements of bad governance that have undermined the well-being of Nigerians in the past 63 years. And that objective is facilitated by the possibility of institutional and governance reforms that set the stage critically for the intelligent policymaking that pushes the boundaries of productivity. This implies a vigorous and willful administrative agenda that puts the public service in focus as the engine room of good governance in Nigeria. This is a definite signal to the will to perform that the new administration must send out into the Nigerian space that is so indescribably filled with despair and pain with regards to unabating and ever-recurring governance miscalculations.

For me, there are two big issues that cast their palls on the socioeconomic possibilities of the Nigerian state. They must take precedence in the totality of other issues that the new administration may find fundamental. The first, of course, is the need for an economic and development agenda, and the imperative of determining-as a matter of ideological necessity-the relative roles of the market and of the state, and their relationship with each other. This has very large and determining significance, especially on the nature, content and direction of the policymaking dynamics the new administration would need in order to orient its development agenda. This is critical because an uncritical adoption of market mechanism, which binds a state willy-nilly to the existing neoliberal hegemonic policy framework, could already be suffocating. On the other hand, there is a growing understanding about the role that the state is expected to play in development projects, contrary to the ideological expectations of, say, the Bretton Woods institutions, the Washington Consensus or the Chinese expansive adventurism.

Such a robust developmental role for the state is the idea behind transforming a state into a democratic and developmental one, and infusing it with the capabilities to implement policies and deliver development tangibles. This already implies a policy architecture that demands transforming the policymaking functions into a strategic and intelligent one suited for the twentyfirst century. It also, most fundamentally, speaks to the urgent imperative of an institutional reprofiling of government business and functions. In other to run a lean and efficient administration, the Tinubu government must pay attention to the critical difference between the core and the non-core functions of government. The lifetime of an administration-either four or eight years-are too short to be spent on an unnecessary convolution of businesses and functions that will detract from the utmost impact the government could make in the lives of her citizens. Thus, determining the role of the state in development agenda is also tantamount to determining what will constitute the issues of paramount importance for the government to focus on. For instance, the new administration will need to offload many non-core responsibilities, like the management of unity schools, firmly addressing the matter of institutional (administrative cum financial) autonomy for Nigerian universities, outsourcing of railway services, critical ports administration functions, the airports, to name just a very few.

This takes me directly to my next reflection point for the change management strategy for the new administration. Commencing the task of democratic governance without determining the framework to immediately address the cost of governance burden will already doom the administration to failure. This sounds too gloomy and blunt, but there is no other way to put it. And I am certain Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu understands this explicitly. Part of his democratic credentials and patriotic fervor has to do with his commitment to fiscal federalism that is key to the stentorian call for restructuring that has been one of the core and defining ideological elements of the APC. The unsustainable cost of governance conundrum fractures every attempt at unraveling why Nigeria’s federalism is lopsided and incapacitated.

The critical question that would determine this administration’s success or failure is simple but fundamental: how can this expensive and wasteful brand of federalism be made most cost effective in critical ways that aligned it to productivity indices? One immediate response to this query lies in the capacity of the new Tinubu administration to achieve strategic appointments that will form the content of the change space within which the policy objectives and development agenda of the administration can be crafted and implemented. Of course, the Nigerian Constitution makes it imperative, by virtue of the federal character principle, the need to achieve representation in ministerial appointments across the 36 states plus Abuja. But this requirement must not necessarily translate into 37 ministerial job-roles. Indeed, some high-profile government agencies appointable positions are even more prestigious and powerful than cabinet positions thus qualifying them to be rated, even if not designated, as cabinet ranks for purposes of representativeness of states. With a critical and macro-institutional remapping of the top-level appointable positions such as Chairman (FIRS), EVC (NCC), CG (Customs), Chairman (NPA), the Chief Economic Adviser to the President, MD (NIMASA), ES, NUC, and many crucial others-could serve as the basis not only for inclusion in appointable national top positions, but also the framework for diversity management that emphatically undermine the bad consequences of a good principle.

The president requires a firm and professional statement on some fundamental and strategic appointments that must not be allowed to be sullied by the politics of patronage. Let me quickly elaborate with specifics. First, and obviously, relates to who the administration appoints as the national security adviser. It becomes bad politics as usual if this is made the point of patronage. Appointing a national security adviser must be done with as dispassionate and strategic intention as possible. The same goes for the constitution of an economic team. And the president must be clear about who heads this team. In this sense, the office of the Honourable Minister of Finance and Budget as separate from the National Planning Commission should be restored and the latter headed by a high-end development economist. The same goes for the office of the economic adviser to the President. And this automatically snowballs into the appointment of the secretary to the government of the federation which, though political, should fulfil high-end technocratic competence criteria, as that is an office that is critical for policy management coordination and overall government programmes performance tracking and sundry performance management collaboratives with the National Planning Commission and MDAs.

Five other appointments are key for me. The Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (HCSF) must be a core new generation public manager that possesses the administrative credentials that can motivate the productivity machineries of the MDAs into a performance curve. Whoever handles the Labour and Productivity ministry must have deep knowledge of industrial relations and national productivity assumptions, given the macroeconomic and multi-sectoral nature of the the relationship between labour administration and national productivity. The same goes for who eventually becomes the Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, a ministry that has the capacity to mediate Nigeria’s integration into the knowledge economy and the fourth industrial revolution. I am very concerned with who gets appointed as the director-general of the Bureau of Statistics; someone who understands the roles that a vibrant data culture play in national development planning and management, and who is not ready to play the politics of fabricating facts and figures. And lastly, the Minister of Information must be discerning and foresighted enough to see the office as the hub of strategic communication, national resilience and national orientation. These are by no means exhaustive, but simply indicative.

 The journey of four administrative years in strategic governance and statecraft is about to commence. The first few steps matter for an administration with lots of burdens and skepticism.