Fayemi can fix Nigeria

Fayemi can fix Nigeria

By Laleye Lashore

Nigeria remains a potentially great country because of its huge material and human resources. The major problem with the country appears to be with planning and putting things in the right perspective. The 2023 election offers a golden opportunity to rework, remix and re-engineer the country with the aim of initiating the desired development that would truly make the country great.

There is no doubt that a lot of misfortunes have bedeviled the country. The first thing to do is to go beyond our tribal, religious and regional sentiments to look dispassionately at all issues and make objective analysis of all matters with a view of coming out stronger as a nation from the plethora of problems confronting the country. It is now time for our leaders from all parts of the country to come together and brainstorm on how to formulate a development agenda for Nigeria that will wear a new character, having learnt our lessons from the experience of the past years. We must come together to agree on the need for a new Nigeria other than the present one, which appears not to serve the interest of our people, irrespective of their creed, region or religion. It is the average Nigerian that is bearing the brunt of the present deficiencies in our economic growth and security architecture.

This is why our leaders from all facets of life, be it religious, political, traditional, as well as captains of industries and those with economic muscles must come together at all levels (local, state and zonal as well as national) to brainstorm on different issues that can unite us and move our nation forward. The problem currently facing Nigeria is that the country is bearing the brunt of its refusal as the giant of Africa, to champion an economic development agenda for the continent. The criminals pounding the country from all fronts now are mostly those from the west and northern regions of the African continent. The economies of their countries are in shambles, with most of them having been in regional and civil conflicts that we thought were not our concerns. With our porous, long borders and ECOWAS protocols, we have no option than to harbour these fierce refugees, who came in with their weapons.

We may try to deny it but Nigeria is already flooded with refugees from many countries of the African continent. This accounts for the trailer loads of masses that are daily thronging the southern part of the country from the northern part.

We need a new Nigeria, not one bugged down with perennial mundane issues such as ethnicity and tribalism. We need to build a nation, where the focus will be the development of human resources, which will be applied to the natural endowments with the aim of making Nigeria a major player in the dynamism of the world economy, which is growing at an alarming rate. We should shift focus from merely sharing our monthly oil revenue to developing other sectors of the economy, to provide employment for our citizens and give them opportunities to contribute their taxes to further development of the economy.

Focus on the 2023 elections should not just be who would be the president but all regions of the country should start to look dispassionately at issues to be addressed before shopping for a candidate, who would address those issues. We should not start by climbing the tree from the leaves; we should make someone the president and not someone making himself the president. The national debate here needs no national confab. Rather, we need to initiate the national debate at all levels. Our traditional, religious, political and economic leaders must be involved in initiating a people’s government for the next dispensation.

This will be done after a proper appraisal of the main issues. 2023 can still be made the year of rebirth of Nigeria only if we brainstorm properly from now on. Nigeria can no longer afford to leave issues to chances. We must take our destiny in our own hands.
Lashore is a journalist, writes from Ado-Ekiti