With Nigerians breathing fresh air from the successful conclusion of the Presidential election, Nigerians are eagerly looking forward to the inauguration of the new government to be headed by General Muhammadu Buhari. They are also eagerly waiting to see the reforms promised by Buhari and his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), while offering suggestions on the way forward.
One of such Nigerians is Salihu Isa Nataro who contested the governorship of the All Progressives Congress in Kebbi State, but lost to Atiku Bagudu in the primaries. Nataro believe that some of the sectors that need surgical operation from the Buhari government include education, security and the economy. He believes that re-shaping the educational system in the country is a panacea for the success of whatever reform the Buhari government wants to put in place. He said “We must review our education policy by going back to former 6- 5- 4 system and recruit qualified teachers with NCE, BSC, Masters and PhD to teach in our primary and secondary schools. They should be placed on the same salary structure with those in the universities. That is the only way to boost our education and make them compete favorably with the rest of the world. Otherwise, any reform in the sector will fail woefully”.
While expressing concern about the cost of governance in the country, he said “I have worked with a lot of industrialist, academicians, administrators in the past and I happened to be a modern politician who is concerned about the cost of governance. That is why I always call on the federal government to reduce the number the of ministries, parastatals, agencies of government and to cut down the workforce by up to 60 percent. Those to be affected should be given long term credit facilities to go into mechanised farming as a way of reducing crime in our society. At the same time, government should equip the remaining civil servants with modern equipment, especially audit department to make them efficient and effective in discharging their responsibilities. The same thing must be done for our military through training and re-training and the provision of modern equipment so that they can protect our territorial integrity. The police must also be equipped with modern communication gadgets so that we can reduce incidents of many of them carrying arms and walking along the road”.
Isa Nataro who said he has never seen Nigerians so excited about change however believes that the coming change will not come easy, saying “I hope the masses will endure the hardship that will accompany the process and allow the incoming president revamp the economy and restore discipline in our day to day activities which is absent in our society today”. He also believes that the government must be encouraged to withdraw security men from private individuals and to post them to places where they will be more useful to the society and help in fighting crime which is the primary reason why they were trained. He also believes that modern equipment as well as communication gadgets must be given to the security agents, especially the police, while reducing cases of police officers carrying arms in public.
He however expressed confidence that he “will be part of Buhari government as he is always looking for an opportunity to reconstruct this country. As an advocate of public sector reform and a former APC governorship aspirant, I believe that this is a chance for me to help Buhari in carrying out his electoral promises”.