AWAITING THE NWAJIUBA PHENOMENON (1)
BY PASCHAL EGERUE
Nigeria is at it’s most challenging time since her independence in 1960. The sovereignty of the country is being challenged by a lot of non state actors, posing as terrorists, bandits, kidnappers and armed robbers. The impetus for this development is the noticeable weaknesses in our institutions and the lawlessness bred by these weaknesses. Patriotic citizens of this country are called to action and duty to choose the next President of Nigeria.
We need an entirely new President, youthful enough to challenge the statusquo, fearless enough to make security of lives and property of citizens the primary duty of government and humble and pan Nigerian enough to get all hands on deck to ensure that the sovereignty of Nigeria is not violated by any person. The skill set for this critical intervention is beyond that of our conventional politicians steeped in prebendal politics that has brought this country to her knees.
Nigeria at this juncture needs a pragmatic middle aged person with optimal health, energy, pan Nigerian social network outlook and competitive knowledge of how the local and global economy works. We need a President that will stand eyeball to eyeball with world leaders to negotiate from a position of sound knowledge, what is in the best interest of Nigeria.The position of the President of Nigeria should not be a trivial matter of satisfying the personal aspiration and fancy of those who merely want it just to add it to their CV. It should therefore not be for sale to the highest bidder. We are in a war situation and a smart versatile leader is required.
The years of experimentation are gone. Let us rebuild Nigeria. As 2023 beckons, there is every reason to look to the direction of Hon(Dr)Emeka Nwajiuba as the next President of Nigeria. He has the humility, dynamism, selflessness, dedication and loyalty to serve. He has been tested with very significant federal assignments on which he performed excellently well and without blemish. He is a strong bridge
linking the youths and the elders, the north and south and the corporate world and the political class. Even though he is power packed with knowledge, Hon(Dr) Emeka Nwajiuba has this disarming humility and dedication to serve and to be held accountable on his functions. He is a secure leader that will assemble timely, the needed technocrats to bring back this country from the brinks and reposition her as the giant of Africa. It is very important that the ruling party embrace the Emeka Nwajiuba phenomenon ahead of the party’s convention. This ofcourse is the sure way APC can retain power in 2023 and beyond. Retaining power in 2023 by APC should be important to the incumbent President and should be rated higher than any other consideration. Dr Emeka Nwajiuba is surely the answer. Any other option will amount to dangerous gambling that will send the APC out of power.
AWAITING THE NWAJIUBA PHENOMENON (2)
Nigeria is today a leadership nightmare. This is not because of lack of good men. This nightmare exists because leaders abdicate on the essentials of governance as articulated in chapter 2 of the Constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended). This chapter invokes the Fundamental Objectives and Directive principles of state policy. The approaches of the successive governments to this section of our various constitutions have been escapist. Most see the provision from the convenient perspective that it is not justiceable.
However, as long as we latch on this notion to abdicate or abandon the enormous responsibilities imposed on national leadership by this constitutional provision, Nigeria will neither develop nor be regarded as a civilized nation. There are also leaders who think that the the dwindling fortunes of Nigeria make it impossible to deliver on the mandates in this Fundamental Objectives and Directive principles of state policy. These leaders with all due respect are perhaps understating the the locked up strong fundamentals of this nation which can only be unlocked by a determined vibrant and effective leadership. These leaders also underestimate the enormous ruin we have brought to this nation by not plugging the loopholes that fester the gargantuan corruption that drains the resources of this nation through unproductive illicit fund flows.
We need to recover, rebuild and reposition this nation now. Nigeria can not remain the way it is right now. We must get this country ready for the next revolution in global economic development. Singapore did it, China did it, Brazil recovered, India with it’s overhang of population is showing a lot of promise. We can do it in Nigeria. Hon(Dr) Emeka Nwajiuba, the current Minister of State, Education holds the greatest prospect to give Nigeria transformational
leadership in the next dispensation. He is young, ebullient, versatile, dogged, knowledgeable, calm, attentive to details and indeed a team worker. Nwajiuba’s foray into the national assembly prepared him for the crucial interface of the three arms of Government in the development tasks ahead. As a Minister of State, Education, he worked seamlessly with the substantive Minister and did all key assignments to him with his trademark humility. He sees the current ASUU strike which has kept our dear Children including his children out of school for seven months as unfortunate. ASUU strike has remained perennial in Nigeria.
He believes a permanent solution is possible if all parties embrace productive dialogue of finding a good alignment of University funding to both federal allocation and the opportunities in the universitys’ operating environment. It was with this in mind that his Ministry set up a Presidential Visitation panel to the Federal Universities and polytechnics. Recall that this was not done in the past ten years. Nwajiuba’s effort to revamp and upgrade the physical infrastructure and instructional facilities in our tertiary education Institutions can never be denied or understated. As Chairman of TETFUND, his impact on infrastructural upgrade of our tertiary institutions is there for all to see. The fact that he led this very big tertiary education financial intervention agency for two years with so much achievement and no corruption label on him marks him out as a man to be celebrated and trusted with leadership.
In Hon(Dr) Emeka Nwajiuba, the ruling party has the ace to win in the 2023 Presidential election. There is no criteria for electing a person the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria that Hon(Dr) Emeka Nwajiuba will not come tops. The delegates at the Presidential nomination convention of APC should realize early enough that voting for Emeka Nwajiuba as the Presidential candidate of APC is the surest way to win and retain power in 2023. Hon(Dr) Emeka Nwajiuba as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria will effect a revolutionary transformation of Nigeria. With Emeka Nwajiuba, a new Nigeria is set to emerge. Let us all be part of this glorious transformation. Let us wake up the giant in this our Nation.
AWAITING THE NWAJIUBA PHENOMENON (3)
As we gradually approach the 2023 elections that will herald a new political dispensation, there is palpable tension in the country. Popular opinion is that the country is now more divided than ever before. National integration is now a big challenge. The rhetorics of political engagement must therefore change. An environment of trust must be reinvigorated. The citizens of this country need to be navigated back to the ethos of unity, faith, peace and progress. It is often said and it is true that we have no other country other than Nigeria. Making Nigeria work is therefore a task that must be done. This task can not be done by ignoring the basic issues. We must unchain ourselves from hostages of ethnicity, religious intolerance, bribery and corruption and the concomitants of these vices now erupting as violence everywhere. This is an unfortunate situation that has become complicated by the intrusion into our national space of international terrorists spilling over from other crises points in Africa. These things fester because we tend to wish them away with out making them a compelling focus of government. These problems have therefore transmuted to a vicious circle that can distract even the most technocratic of leaders. This is why we must thoroughly scrutinize the leadership credentials and temperament of the numerous people seeking to become President of Nigeria by 2023.
The next political dispensation is going to require a President with fatalistic political will to do all those things not done and which are killing this country gradually.To borrow a popular cliché, it
is only the paranoid that can cause a revolutionary groundswell that will return this country to sustainable growth and prosperity. The political will that will generate this momentum can not be in rhetorical and theatrical bravado of aspirants. It is going to be based on the trust which every part of this country will have and invest on the leader to be fair and just. This trust is not
acquired on the Presidential seat. It is something that is earned and built over time. Amongst all the APC Presidential aspirants, Hon Emeka Nwajiuba holds the ace in this regard. His acceptance is nationwide. He is a bridge across all divides. He is humble yet fearless. He is well educated, competent and experienced. Above all else, he has commonsese and native intelligence. The legal education he has up to doctorate degree puts him ahead of every other candidate in understanding the intricacies in the multilateral agreements and treaties that must be negotiated and or renegotiated. This nation is already in huge debt cornundrum and rigorous renegotiations including waivers and debt relief and forgiveness options must be be urgently pursued. We have come to a stage in this country that nothing should be taken for granted any longer. Only the best is good enough to be the President of Nigeria at this point in our history.
I am hopeful that other aspirants within APC will realize this fact and in the course of time choose this ebullient young man – Hon(Dr) Emeka Nwajiuba as the consensus candidate of APC to face the best that PDP and other parties have to offer. I urge all the political parties to bring out their best for the 2023 Presidential contest. The line up so far is very impressive. We are indeed set for a very exciting issue based Presidential debate. Let the candidates who can make promises from the very bottom of their heart and based on clear understanding of the solutions to our national problems mount the stage. Let them tell us the actionable time frame to resolve these problems and the expected deliverables. The era of docile unquestioning acquiescence is gone. We Nigerians have suffered enough. We need to know from these Presidential aspirants how best they can resolve the nation’s financial nightmares especially that of managing our
over bloated bureaucracy and other recurrent expenditures that are asphyxiating this nation. We want Presidential candidates that will devote and concentrate all energies on nation rebuilding and not on pursuit of primordial interests. Nigeria at this point in time must be entrusted to agile middle aged persons with creative ideas on how best to free up the numerous opportunities for wealth creation in the nation. The party in power APC has a date with history. It is a new narration and a new face that will make her retain power in 2023. The party hierarchy and indeed all the delegates must realize this fact and begin to know that failure is an orphan. The cold outside for failed political parties can never be assauged by decamping to the winning party. The opportunity beckons now for APC delegates to put the right foot forward and win the Presidential election by voting for Hon(Dr) Emeka Nwajiuba. I have this gut feeling that presenting Hon(Dr) Emeka Nwajiuba as the Presidential candidate of APC in 2023 will be the most rewarding political decision for APC as a party. A national rebirth and resurgence is possible and should and must happen.
AWAITING THE NWAJIUBA PHENOMENON (4)
A man must stand for something. I stand resolutely for and will campaign that all political parties bring out their best candidates to contest for the position of President of Nigeria, come 2023
The year 2023 is a crucial year to decide whether Nigeria will survive or die. This is why I whole heartedly endorse Hon Emeka Nwajiuba to emerge from the APC convention as the party’s Presidential candidate for the 2023 Presidential election. In doing this, I also acknowledge other capable persons in the race within APC. We have for instance, Prof Osibanjo who is a very cerebral Professor of law and the incumbent Vice President. We also have his
boss of all times – Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the Jagaban of Borgu who will have the distinguished honor of having over six of his boys vying with him for same position in APC. The horse trading gets more interesting with the said entry to the race on APC platform of Godwin Emefiele, the CBN Governor and Akin Adesina, the African Development Bank President. I can’t begin to mention the names of others because the deluge of expression of interest by purchase of application forms at homongous sum of N100 million per form is not only mind bugging but has reduced the very serious exercise of expression of interest to vie to be nominated a Presidential candidate of a party to a circus show.
I have no doubt in my mind that at the right time, the leader of the ruling party – the incumbent President will call for sanity and give a progressive direction. As we approach this stage, it is important that we continue to remind ourselves that with all the imperfections of the 1999 constitution, one clear thing is that this constitution provided a good template for national integration and cohesion. Section 15(1) of this constitution specified that national integration shall be actively encouraged, whilst discrimination on grounds of place of origin, sex, religion, status, ethnic or linguistic association or ties shall be prohibited. The key word here is
‘prohibited’. This clear provision of the Constitution together with other similar provisions is the rationale for zoning arrangement of parties. These provisions of the Constitution also make the Emeka Nwajiuba presidential project very compelling. Hon(Dr) Emeka Nwajiuba is easily the best candidate from South Eastern Nigeria in APC. Emeka’s genius and competence is beyond reproach. His nationalist credential is overwhelming. In a country that is bedeviled by ethnic suspicions, profiling and rejection, Nwajiuba has worked most perfectly well with the Senior Minister of Education; a northerner. The Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu, a man of high intellect himself has continued to demonstrate high confidence in the Minister of State, Hon (Dr) Emeka Nwajiuba and infact virtually made him the face of the Education Ministry. This is a rare development in Nigeria. It takes a secure man of wisdom and foresight to do what Mallam Adamu is doing. The crowning glory of Mallam Adamu will come shortly as the awaited
Nwajiuba phenomenon berths.
This series is not about foretelling the manifesto of Hon(Dr) Emeka Nwajiuba. There is no point revealing his dazzling intentions before the convention date and Presidential campaigns. It is however important to inform Nigerians that a manifesto of the people, integrative of the people and to be executed by the people is what is in the offing.
We can only at this juncture be asking APC as the political party in power to show the way to national integration and cohesion by electing Hon(Dr) Emeka Nwajiuba as their flag bearer in the
2023 Presidential election. This is the time to engage our consciences as Nigerians. In the 61 years of Nigerian independence, no South Easterner has been elected Prime Minister or Executive President of Nigeria. Major General Ironsi became a head of state by default. He was in the position for six months before he was killed in subsequent coup. Shortly after, an unfortunate civil war erupted and lasted for three years and cost the South Eastern Nigeria over three million lives. In the words of the Federal Government of Nigeria, this war ended on a note of no victor, no vanquished. The south easterners accepted this mantra and got themselves reintegrated holistically into the Nigerian nation. The 2023 Presidential election presents an opportunity for Nigeria to show in real terms that, the three year civil war was a sacrifice to Integrate and not to disintegrate Nigeria. Those who are still fanning embers of discrimination of the South Easterners in national affairs, 52 years after the end of this war are getting things wrong and may indeed be the real enemies of the country Nigeria. Nigeria at independence stood solidly on a tripod. The country is wobbling today and defying all economic prescriptions because the third leg of the tripod appears being pushed away with out a consideration of the enormous talents and contribution to national growth from this South East geopolitical zone. History beckons on all members of APC to seize the emerging opportunity to enthrone equity and meritocracy in Nigeria. APC as a political party should live up to her name as All People’s
Congress. Four or eight years in the life of a nation is nothing very significant. Nigeria should pause and heal the wound that is festering agitations and self determination struggles in the South East. This is the time when the major political parties in Nigeria should live up to the provision in section 15(1)(4) of the Constitution which states – “The State shall foster a feeling of belonging and of involvement among the various peoples of the Federation, to the end that loyalty to the nation shall override sectional loyalties”. This incontrovertible provision is the fulcrum of the Constitution of all political parties in Nigeria. The Presidency of Hon(Dr) Emeka Nwajiuba at this point in Nigeria history should be welcomed by every Nigerian as it provides a
win win in all ramifications. I therefore urge all the delegates at the forthcoming APC convention to have an eye on history and vote for Hon(Dr) Emeka Nwajiuba as APC Presidential candidate
in the 2023 Nigerian Presidential election. He is young, Intelligent, tasted , humble, educated, knowledgeable and a detribalised Nigerian. Let us taste his genuis and jointly activate a revolutionary groundswell of all round development of Nigeria in our lifetime.
AWAITING THE NWAJIUBA PHENOMENON (5)
– Some thoughts on Security and welfare of Nigerians.
Security is the bedrock for national social and economic development. The 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria(as amended) recognizes this much when in section 14(2)(b), it stated emphatically and unequivocally that “the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of Government”. Welfare and Security are interlinked. A government that can not secure and guarantee both is a failed government. Governments the world over fail in this department of security and welfare because of poor articulation of regimes objectives on the subject matter. This poor articulation inexorably yields low or non segmentation and prioritization of the critical security needs of the nation. Our security vulnerabilities must be understood and clearly spelt out if we as a nation must move forward. Nigeria has at the moment been variously classified as the poverty capital of the world. The country’s performance on various index of human development is dismal and incomperable to the fine fundamentals of this nation. What then is wrong that cannot be resolved? Some analysts, especially the foreign media describe Nigeria as a failed state while others say it is failing but still has little window for salvation. I do not encourage that we argue with these opinions but to see them as a challenge to change our ways and begin to do better. The fact, if we must face the truth is that the managerial/administrative tools and skills for enthroning security and welfare of the citizens as a cardinal strategy for economic development of Nigeria have changed radically. It will be highly illusory in this regard for any person to seek to be elected President of Nigeria without realizing this fact. The game has changed. It is not going to be business as usual as from 2023.
Insecurity is holding this nation hostage in different directions. Life and property are no longer safe. Our agriculture farm lands are being abandoned to bandits. Our territories are being violated by foreign terrorists and some areas now are classified as ungoverned. Our educational
infrastructure is collasping by systemic forces and social welfare architecture especially for the aged is non existent. In addition to all these is the problem posed by corruption and illicit financial flows, currency instability and policy inconsistencies. The various insecurities befuddling Nigeria does not need knee jerk approach and neither are they all amenable to conventional kinetic manouvres which seem to be the central but failing strategy of most African countries. By this failing strategy, these countries are subjected to too much bleeding and haemorage from huge money spent on security without commensurate result.
It is therefore important for a change, that our country Nigeria begins to evaluate her limitations in the understanding and tackling of her security vulnerabilities in contemporary times. The first action in this direction will be to elect as a President of this great but precipitiously beleaguered nation, a person who is mentally and physically alert, very knowledgeable and perceptive, agile and angrily commited to tackling and eliminating the various insecurities bedeviling this nation. This is where the Presidential aspiration of Hon(Dr) Emeka Nwajiuba should matter to all of us. The cap fits him. He has been studying, researching, commissioning studies, understudying and subjecting himself to being mentored by the global best in leadership. As a lawyer who has had the benefits of comparative studies of various jurisdictions and which earned him a doctorate, he knows that the battle to salvage Nigeria and retrieve her from the pangs of insecurity will necessarily start from enthroning the rule of law alongside revamping and strengthening the critical Institutions for criminal investigations and justice delivery.
Hon(Dr) Emeka Nwajiuba strongly believes that without massive deployment of appropriate technology, most provisions of the Constitution especially S.14(2)(b) will be mere inactive platitude. The world today is not only a global village but a village digitized to the extent that big advantages including wealth is now being generated from big data analysis. Big data was in the past confounding to both nations and corporates and was indeed a nightmare. Acquisition of relevant information, communication and technology governance tools is becoming cheaper and any country that says she is financially constrained in this regard can never be regarded as a serious country. The cost savings from good and relevant ICT is highly compensatory. The training that comes with it generates multiplier effect momentum in the economy. Of course, such training compels the professionalization and rightsizing of our federal civil service. With big data analytics capability, Nigeria should be able to account for every citizen and space in this country. We already have deluge of data stretching from those harnessed from BVN, NIN, TIN and others. With these data alone, various crimes, especially armed robbery, kidnapping, banditry, terrorism and indeed any crime that derives fuel from ICT platforms and legitimate financial flow channels will be a thing of the past. It is well appreciated that to tackle Nigeria’s security vulnerabilities is to tackle vested interest. It is only a younger Nigerian with the agility, zest, panache, education, national social and political outlook and a hunger for legacy like Hon(Dr) Emeka Nwajiuba that should be voted to be the President of Nigeria at this crucial time in the life of this nation. He will usher in transformational leadership. The standard he will set will give a new direction to leadership in this country. The APC as a party seeking to return to
power has the ace in Hon (Dr) Emeka Nwajiuba. I urge all APC delegates to massively vote for
Hon(Dr) Emeka Nwajiuba. He will make you and all of us proud by making Nigeria great again.
AWAITING THE NWAJIUBA PHENOMENON (6)
Spotlight on Governance
The Presidential system of government stands on a tripod – the Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary. Notwithstanding the fact that for checks and balances purposes, their powers are separated (Sections 4,5&6 of 1999CFRN), there is enormous responsibilities placed by the Constitution on the shoulders of the executive led by the President. This is why the Nigerian President as Executive Head of Government and Commander in Chief of the Armed forces is often referred to as the most powerful President in the world. Unfortunately, most contestants for this highly exalted position only look at the boundless powers and never consider the enormous responsibilities. That these responsibilities float without accountability is a major reason why the rule of law is floundering and our economic development is in a state of flux. This is a systemic issue that must be addressed.
The view by some analysts that this systemic issue breeds excessive bureaucratization, nightmarish oversight requirement and concomitant high cost of government is not altogether wrong. We have to accept this fact and begin to install a process that will enable efficiency, effectiveness and accountability. Anything otherwise will still entrap this nation in a situation of locomotion without movement or what some development economists call growth without development. This is an unacceptable euphemism for stagnation which must be done away with in the governance of our dear nation. Thus, Nigerians need to enter the next republic asking crucial questions as to why we are where we are despite our long trek in the past 60 years. Why are we as a nation always lagging behind in almost all index of human development. The next President of Nigeria need to establish right from the beginning, the right template for measuring deliverables from appointed officers of the state and be clear of the sanctions for non performance. The next republic should not be business as usual. To pull Nigeria out of doldrums, we should elect as our President, somebody who is agile, intelligent, healthy and knowledgeable; a person restlessly in search of solution and
ready to devote our human and material resources at solving emergent problems. From among all the Presidential aspirants from APC, Hon (Dr) Emeka Nwajiuba towers over and above others on this bill. Hon(Dr) Emeka Nwajiuba firmly realizes that good governance is the key to and bedrock of economic development. Good governance regenerates trust in the system and creates the momentum for voluntary participation of the citizens to the rebuilding of Nigeria.
Leading global Institutions such as the United Nations (UN) have continued to emphasize that governance will define the future growth trajectory of countries. The World Bank in their 1992 publication – Governance and Development defines governance as a process by which legitimized power had been exercised for utilization of resources of countries for development. Hon(Dr) Emeka Nwajiuba will come to the Presidency on this basic foundation which the UN anchors on citizen participation, rule of law, transperancy, responsiveness, equity, inclusiveness, effectiveness, efficiency and accountability. Sadly, we in Nigeria seem to care less about the global development templates and benchmarks that propels the civilized world. This is why we gleefully and rather shamefully failed on all the Millennium Development Goal parameters and benchmarks. Never again!!!.
Hon(Dr) Emeka Nwajiuba realizes the urgency to kick start this nation to growth and development through aggressive empowerment of institutional coordination, supervision and accountability management. He realizes that the key way to unlock the national wealth is to put every person to productive work. Hon(Dr) Emeka Nwajiuba knows perfectly well that this can only happen in an atmosphere of trust and nationalistic thinking. The truth that must be humbly admitted is that rather unfortunately, our citizens have been drained of their patriotism and altruistic propensities. This sad situation of despair, pessimism and cynicism must be reversed by depersonalizing governance and building early enough, strong institutional enablers of an environment that will foster private sector growth, delivers public sector effectiveness and efficiency, reduces poverty and earns confidence and collaboration of the citizens.
The 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) is no doubt an imperfect document but it provides a clear direction as to how national unity and consensus can be achieved to conquer our vulnerabilities and move this nation forward. The focus primarily should be on the optimal efficiency and effectiveness of all the bodies established by S.153(1) of the Constitution. These are – The Code of Conduct Bureau, Federal Character Commission, Federal Civil Service Commission, Federal Judicial Service Commission, Independent National Electoral Commission, National Defence Council, National Economic Council, National Judicial Council, National Population Commission, National Security Council, Nigeria Police Council, Police Service Commission and Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission . By getting these bodies working and thinking together under a modern performance template and deliverable benchmark, Dr Emeka Nwajiuba will recover Nigeria and trigger for her phenomenal socio economic development. China, Singapore and our own Rwanda did it. Why not Nigeria? Our future is in our hand. I urge all APC delegates at the forthcoming convention to vote for Hon(Dr) Emeka Nwajiuba as the Presidential candidate of APC. God will do the rest and give us a new Nigeria.
AWAITING THE NWAJIUBA PHENOMENON (7)
At this critical point in our national history, we must do more of thinking of how to recover our country from economic stagnation and extinction than playing politics. What we need in the next dispensation is transformational leadership. Transactional leadership which reared its head in the military era and continues to be the means of political survival in Nigeria has brought ruin to all of us. Today, our budgeting circle and appropriation regime are purely transactional at all levels and no way near transformational. The Ministries, Departments and Agencies of Government and the legislators always think of what is in it for them both as individuals and as institutions.
The mess created is what we often refer to as budget padding and shrinking done to satisfy personal or group choices rather than national development priorities. Any nation founded on lies and deceit will never develop and prosper. Our first task therefore is to elect a transformational leader as President of Nigeria in 2023. He will provide the leadership that will create the psychic momentum for all citizens to engage in the national recovery process. We need a President that will demonstrate commitment and positive influence. We want a President whose vision is easily embraced by all because it is visibly tied to the strategy for it’s achievement. We want a President whose development action points and deliverables timelines are specified and accounted for. We want a President who will be decisive on crucial national issues and by that generate citizenship confidence, trust and optimism and which in turn will make grateful citizens to pay their taxes and do voluntarily,
other citizenship obligations and duties as stipulated in S.24(a-f) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended).
Nigeria by share size of land mass, mineral endowment and population is a potentially great country. It is sad that 61 years after independence, we are still talking about our dear country in terms of potentiality and not the full realization of nationhood. The demographic dynamics of the nation is skewed to youthful vibrant population. This gives hope that with the right leadership and strategy, Nigeria will be great again. What we need essentially is to align planning horizon to the vision of the leader. Ad-hocism in national planning matters has wrecked havoc on this nation. The first Republic was able to thrive because it was predicated on longer development planning horizon of four years minimum. Our present Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) on which the nation’s annual budget is based is very fixated on past year performance in fixing current year budget figures.
In a nation plagued by dismal budget performance, budget deficit and the burden of escalating recurrent expenditure, this is an invitation to disaster. An exhaustive rethinking of our yearly development plan(budget) strategy is therefore imperative. Hon( Dr) Emeka Nwajiuba’s Presidency come 2023 has the greatest prospect of putting back this nation – Nigeria on the path of sustainable economic development. The APC delegates at the next convention have a national and indeed highly patriotic duty to elect Dr Emeka Nwajiuba in the primaries as the flag bearer of APC in the 2023 Presidential Election. He has consistently shown strength of character and industry. He has served the party and the nation loyally without blemish. As a key member of the strategy room of CPC, he was a central person in midwifing the Present APC and indeed was a leading figure in drafting the Constitution of APC based on which the merger of CPC with ACN to form APC was achieved. Hon(Dr)Emeka Nwajiuba has paid his dues. As a mark of his faith in Nigeria and his seriousness and readiness for this Presidential project, he was the first contestant to obtain his nomination form and the first to resign from his Ministerial position. The accolade he got on this feat from no other person than Mr President speaks volumes of this emerging phenomenon. Writing independently, Mr Dialoke, a Lagos based public policy analyst and researcher on transformational leadership has this to say of Hon(Dr) Emeka Nwajiuba – “From his antecedents, and given his verve, acumen, industry, resilience and patriotism, the indications are that the nation will hear more from Nwajiuba in the not distant future as it is hoped that he will join hand with his other compatriots to build a better Nigeria”.
AWAITING THE NWAJIUBA PHENOMENON (8)
Reinventing the Nigerian wheel.
Thank you Hon(Dr) Emeka Nwajiuba for the superlative performance, scintillating erudition and profound propositions on national rebirth made at the Channels Politics Today interview anchored by the irrepressible Seun Okinbaleye last night, 15th may, 2022. Nigerians no doubt have found a leader in you. We are only waiting for your party, the All Progressive Congress(APC) to do the needful and present you to to the nation as their flag bearer in the 2023 Presidential election.
We have come to a stage in this country where we need to step back to think of what to do to recover Nigeria, how to do it and who will do it. By the 1960s up to the unfortunate debacle of 1965/66 and the civil war, the engine of growth of the nation was on full throttle, 100% acceleration and with excellent drivers. A mixture of imponderable things altered our thought processes and began to reverse the growth of the nation. We completely lost the momentum generated by regionalism and their neo welfarist orientation. Emerging from this spectacular race in the first republic, the post war economy created a deceptive boom that was based on
the importation of just everything without an agenda of how to stimulate local production. Fueled by oil money and stuck in this nebulous trap of importation of everything, the fundamental orientation of Nigerians for hard work and ingenuity snapped. It was in this fatalistic condition that we swallowed the externally applied neo liberal pills of economic liberalization policies of privatization, deregulation, globalization, free trade and all that which were expected to reduce government spending while accelerating privator interventions and growth. These were good sounding policies that never factored our national capacity to manage their unintended consequences. One offshoot of such unintended consequences was that the wealth of the nation was effectively put in a few ‘non’ productive hands who got so wealthy by this accident of history and began to influence the policy direction of the nation. The result is the economic culdesac we have found ourselves in and which effectively is stagnation. In truth however, we are not even in a state of stagnation. We are in a worse situation of receding backwards. As Albert Einstein posited, it is only a mad man that does the same thing all over again and expects a different result. No different result will ever happen if we do not change the development paradigm of this nation.
What Nigeria needs at the moment is an effective, young and agile leader that will fast track this economy with disruptive thinking and extra ordinary execution. We must draw our run rate as a nation by effectively evaluating how far behind we are from the developed nations, especially the emerging nations of Asia and keep strictly to the estimated speed of annual growth rate that will make us catch up with these nations at a precise year/time point. This is doable with Hon(Dr) Emeka Nwajiuba as the next President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. A legislative agenda to drive this transformation will be pursued while the structure for the triumph of the rule of law will be established. The regulatory template in all facets of economic activities will be geared to measurable growth and extent of ease of doing business. There is so much to learn in this new drive for national resurgence from the profound effect the transformation of China and India is having on global economy. Our future with these emerging economies should be based on modelling our economy on what made them contemporary giants and not a fixation on borrowing from them. While recognizing that interdependence of nations can not be avoided, it is however important as a matter of national pride for Nigeria to create substantially and endogenously, her own wealth.
China and India which are today globally respected share some peculiarities with Nigeria. The three countries have same complexity arising from high population growth, huge land mass and diverse ethnicities even though China is largely homogeneous. This is however where the comparison stops. China and India have made tremendous progress in the past ten years. They have created new market opportunities predicated on enhanced domestic purchasing power, greater competitiveness as producers of selected products and aggressive external trade via export of products and skills. India for instance is a key player in global software and programming industry. For the two countries, growth in agriculture has dovetailed to industrial growth and escalation of income from non agricultural sectors. This was made possible in a sequence of value chains that stimulated rise in income, domestic consumption, higher savings rate and programmed institutional interventions including conventional banking and microfinance Institutions that transfer these savings to physical capital investments in the non
agricultural sectors. In all these, no person mentions oil or what I may call the hydrocarbon distraction which is now more or less the biggest nuisance to stretching our growth capabilities in Nigeria as a nation. The highly successful China Township and Village Enterprises ( TVE) model can be replicated in Nigeria. Nigeria can achieve self sufficiency of these towns and villages by creating road, electricity, internet access and financing model to suit the comparative advantages which our diverse towns and villages have. With this got right, citizens will be kept productively busy, our per capita GDP will rise and criminal activities manifesting as armed robbery, kidnapping, banditry and terrorism will take a back seat if not disappear.
Nigeria will be in upward swing if hard decisions are taken now to elect the right person as President in 2023. Let us do away with primordial sentiments and go for a leader that will create a Marshall plan for the nation’s economic recovery and execute same with precision. The cap for this generational challenge fits Hon(Dr) Emeka Nwajiuba perfectly well. His intellectual reflexes are in turn with the speed required for the ardous task ahead. Hon(Dr) Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba has a lot of positive energy in him. Importantly, he has the humility to win as a team player. In him, APC as a party has the ace to defeat other parties in the forthcoming Presidential election and retain power. I pray the delegates will listen and do the right thing at the primaries.
AWAITING THE NWAJIUBA PHENOMENON (9)
– A focus on iron and steel; the bedrock to rejuvenate the nation’s decrepit infrastructure.
Nigerian Presidential campaign in contemporary times hardly focuses on serious issues of nation building especially key strategies for accelerating the socio economic development of the country. Precious time is wasted on mundane things such as tribe, religion, personal wealth of the contestants etc. Little premium is paid on the abilities and preparedness of the candidates. Largely, our politicians are yet to evolve as statesmen with foresight and farsight. What still dominates our politics is crude adaptation of the Laskian definition of politics as who gets what, where and when and this unfortunately is in the unedifying context of advancing personal, group or ethnic interests over and above national interest. In this setting, Nigeria continues to bleed and suffocate under our collective amnesia and prebendal proclivities. This must stop. This nation has to move forward. We all need to rise up to the occasion and do everything civically and legally possible to get the right person elected as President of Nigeria in 2023.
Hon(Dr) Emeka Nwajiuba fits the bill. Besides cognate experience in actively participating in managing the educational sector of Nigeria as Chairman of TETFUND and Minister of State for Education, he was the Chairman of works committee during his time in the Federal House of Representatives. The unfortunate perennial strikes by ASUU notwithstanding, his contribution to funding the physical development of the Universities through TETFUND remains legendary. In his position as Minister of State, he was able to design programs that reduced the out of school children very significantly. The Education sector is set to be the biggest beneficiary of his
Presidency if he wins. He appreciates the interlinked nature of our socio – economic problems and knows that the wealth of the nation has to be activated and regenerated to fund the capacity for revolutionary change in the country’s education sector.
One area of acute interest is the iron and steel industry. Nigeria had all it takes to escalate phenomenally, her industrial, urban and mortgage industry development and forex earnings through a vibrant iron and steel industry. The country had and still has the requisite raw materials – iron ore, natural gas, coal and limestone. The third National Development plan(1975 -1980) captured the required momentum for take off and creating in Nigeria, a vibrant iron and steel sub sector. It was with this impetus that Ajeokuta and Aladja steel Mills were started between 1976 and 1978 and followed by the rolling mills at Oshogbo, Jos and Katsina. Most regrettably and sadly typical of Nigeria, this opportunity to create a sound iron and steel industrial environment underpinning for the country’s frog leap to a developed nation was was wasted by the interplay of political, technical, logistical and managerial capacity challenges which ensured that all these publicly-owned iron and steel companies folded up. This sad development has continued to affect the privately-owned iron and steel companies, being mostly rolling mills that depend on the integrated mills for billets. The privatization of the publicly-owned iron and steel companies (ASC, DSC and the three inland rolling mills) in 2000-2005 was unable to resurrect this comatosed Industry. Today, Nigeria has become a graveyard of iron and steel companies. This nation cannot continue like this. If we do not by our determined choices cause a sustainable resurgence of the iron and steel industry in Nigeria in the next four years, our country Nigeria will be permanently left behind in the modernization race. Iron and steel is the foundation for the development of a number of industries in the modern economy and must be prioritized in the next political dispensation as a critical partner to our emerging information technology industry.
What gives me profound hope in this expectation is the entry of Hon(Dr) Emeka Nwajiuba into the Presidential race. Hon(Dr) Emeka Nwajiuba is hot and well documented in what he wants to achieve for Nigeria as a President. He leaves no person in doubt at every discussion that he knows the problems of the country, knows how to solve them and how to finance the solution. In his always uniquely faultless analysis, it is obvious that once some critical sectors of this economy are kickstarted, every Nigerian will be kept productively busy and there will be no idle hand or workshop for the devil currently afflicting the nation to operate. The All Progressive Congress as a party should hold himjealously. Hon(Dr) Emeka Nwajiuba is the jewel and the ace, a worth successor that will make President Buhari radiant in retirement. Permit me therefore to join other millions of Nigerians to appeal to all APC delegates to vote for Hon(Dr) Emeka Nwajiuba as the APC Presidential candidate in the 2023 Presidential Election. With Dr Emeka Nwajiuba as the Presidential candidate, APC can never get it wrong. To Match and surpass the PDP 16 years in power is possible. Let us make the riot choice. Hon(Dr) Emeka Nwajiuba is it.
AWAITING THE NWAJIUBA PHENOMENON (10)
– Our future is in our hands
In ten days time, the All Progressive Congress will be choosing her Presidential candidate for the 2023 Presidential election. The negative events in the country in the past ten days have slowed down every person and made otherwise patriotic Nigerians uncertain of the future of this country. At extremes were the murder of Deborah in Sokoto, the killing of the young okada commuter in Lagos, the destruction of properties worth millions of naira in the Sokoto riot that followed the arrest of suspected Deborah’s killers and that of the mega arson at Dei timber market in Abuja leading to loss of goods worth billions of naira. In tow was the Okokomaiko/Volks Okada riders v Police riot in Lagos which virtually closed down the mile 2/Badagry axis of Lagos State. As if all these were not enough, the gate keeper of the nation’s finances; the Accountant General of the Federation was arrested for a record N80 billion fraud allegation. These indeed are trying times and which emphasises the fact that all effort must be made to restore hope in this country through our choices in 2023. We all need to put selfishness aside and appreciate the fact that recent happenings in this country should change the dynamics of our political reasoning and permutations. We must show love to this country by doing the right thing through electing capable leaders in such a way that equity and justice remains the protector of the beauty in our diversity. It is fitting therefore to appeal to the delegates to the convention for the election of Presidential candidates of our major political parties to consider as a matter of priority, equity and national cohesion by electing as Presidential candidates of our major parties, southern Christians who are young, very educated, competent, loyal and trusted as successor candidates to our incumbent President. This is what the mood of the country can accommodate at this point in time. We all need to rise up and save this nation from collapse. Let us stop yielding to selfish manipulations of our politicians in their
greed to grab power for personal aggrandizement rather than nation building. Prof Pat Utomi, a former Presidential candidate and a political economist said this much, more eloquently in his Press release of Thursday, 19th May, 2023 titled – The Duty of Wisdom. He said “when darkness looms over a nation, the wise, the privileged and those who have been looked to in the past to show the way have a moral obligation and a call of duty to raise a torch or raise a candle”.
We can not and should not be taken in by the promises of politicians who are incapable of knowing and incapable of handling issues around the close link between economic, social and environmental outcome of government decisions and policy choices. These kind of politicians are driven by playing to the gallery with very high falutin promises and unedifying things that have no substance and financiability but are only mere good music to the ears of the downtrodden. Nigeria is at the moment very resource constrained and the era of frivolity is gone. What we need now is radical economic transformation. Radical transformation requires the integrated activities of radical thinking and transformative action. This is not what our normal run of the mill politicians most of who are now seeking to be elected President can do. We need as President in 2023, somebody passionate and intellectualized enough to get the nation’s fundamentals right from inception of tenure, build up on it to transform agriculture as the building block to creating jobs for millions of Nigerians. We need somebody who will energize Nigeria by creating a modern energy transition program that will upscale our manufacturing and general industrialization objective based on the nation’s comparative advantages in the abundant mineral resources and other industrial raw materials in the country. We must return this country to a production economy and do away with our wasteful consumption habit that can no longer be sustained by our external reserve. This porocity must be cured as a defense to our currency – naira. We need to completely cure the nation of our Dutch disease and exorcise the oil curse on all of us, especially the political class. The remaining earnings from perishing or vanishing hydrocarbon resources should be saved for the future generation while we begin serious work in earnest on alternatives to oil.
I have tried my best to scrutinize the candidates on APC side and I will encourage you to do so too. So far, the only candidate amongst the rest who is well grounded and prepared for the ardous task ahead of recovering this country from the precipice is Hon(Dr) Emeka Nwajiuba, the immediate past Hon Minister of State for Education. He understands the Nigerian problem or cornundrum thoroughly and is able to draw causal nexus between them. Looking at the energy sector for example, he knows effusively the nexus between energy consumption per capita and our quest for modernization. This is same for GDP per capita and it’s effect on national economy. Energy for Nigeria remains the pillar for the nation’s wealth creation. Unfortunately, this has become an albatross and the index of failure of most past administrations. We can’t continue to do the same thing all over again and expect a different result. That is insanity defined. Nigeria’s energy consumption per capita of miserly 12 watts trails very far behind India at 85 watts, China at 397 watts, South Africa at 496 watts, Japan at 774 watts and USA at 1,363 watts. This is unacceptable because this gloomy trend can never make Nigeria to be competitive in Africa economy and certainly not in the world of today. This is where transformational leadership comes in. This is where radical transformation becomes a war cry and this is where Hon(Dr) Emeka Nwajiuba is needed urgently. Hon(Dr) Emeka Nwajiuba is
intellectually and emotionally prepared and at home with the critical issues afflicting our nationhood at this point in our history. He is very ready with his coalition of experts to tackle these issues holistically and in their interlinked elements towards midwifing a new Nigeria. Surely, it will be a new dawn in this country if Hon(Dr) Emeka Nwajiuba is elected or endorsed by his party – APC to fly their flag against the best that PDP can offer. The nation awaits the Nwajiuba phenomenon and there should be no hesitation in heralding him into the ring. Doing otherwise will be a monumental mistake by APC. To the delegates, let me say it again, our future is in our hands.
Paschal Emeka Egerue, ACII, FIIN, FCIB, M.Sc. MBA, LL. B (Hons), is a Lagos based Insurance and Management Consultant.
