The Way Forward For Transforming Nigeria

Sincerely, speaking, Nigeria can be the true giant of Africa and be respected across the world. The issue is that we are not doing the right things that will help to develop the country.

Remember, the late Sonny Okosun in 1984, he released a song titled: Which Way Nigeria? Now, this is my advice for taking Nigeria to greater heights of irreversible achievements. To start with, to make it Nigeria needs leaders that are prepared to govern us well, not political gamblers who want power to benefit themselves, family members and friends.

For instance, take the case of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. He told Nigerians that he will give them stable, available, accessible and affordable electricity during his campaign for the 2023 presidential election. Three years down the line in 2026 electricity supply has worsened.

Also, he told voters that if he doesn't provide electricity the people should not vote for him in the second term.

But here we are in 2026 and he is doing the unimaginable to get a second tenure. Such an action cannot take us forward because progress does not come from recycling failed leadership. If you cannot deliver on your pròmise, the best thing for you to do is to go and allow another person step into the leadership position.

For me, the way forward is to have serious and well prepared leaders with the correct ideas, physical energy and mental alertness to govern Nigeria. My hope is that the person who wants to be our next president will learn from Tinubu's mistake. Never you lie to the people. Only promise what you can deliver.

Secondly, to make progress in Nigeria, politicians must endeavour to not only establish new companies, firms and industries but work hard to strengthen existing ones. This is what happened in the past in Nigeria. At that time, Nigeria had functioning Defence Industries Corporation, Peugeot Automobile Company, Michelin, Dunlop, Agbede Farm, Tropic Foods, and several others across the country. Millions of persons were employed by them with good salaries and welfare packages.

Lots of vacancies existed which people applied for without the help of godfathers. Sometimes, these companies visited final year students of polytechnics, colleges of education and universities on recruitment exercises during this period, even graduates of secondary schools awaiting admission to higher school got temporary jobs. Infact, there were good jobs for all categories of people. Job selection was the order of the day.

Today, these companies which offered employments to millions of Nigerians have packed up due to oil boom, poor management, nonavailability of enabling environment, economic negligence and political incompetence.

The result is that the rate of joblessness is increasing daily at a time the number of graduates outputs from higher institutions is expanding rapidly. Expectedly, there are so many idle hands in Nigeria and as they say the devil finds work for idlers. Hence, crime is on the rise currently. You cannot fight insecurity while millions of able-bodied people are hungry at home or roaming the streets for jobs that don't exist.

So, to curb crime, insecurity and fight hunger as well as poverty in Nigeria, our politicians should rethink the whole idea of bringing back relevant factories, plants, companies, firms and industries to Nigeria. Also, new ones should be created while existing ones should be expanded and strengthened.

It is wrong for any government to stop embarking on the capital intensive project of job creation through setting up industries but merely take to youth empowerment with skills and giving poor people palliatives. This is not the way to go to move Nigeria forward.

Now, that the campaign for the 2027 election is going on, voters should check properly for candidates with workable ideas to create jobs and also examine how honest they are in implementing their agenda. The days of voting for politicians with sweet talks only is over.

This brings me to the next issue. Thirdly, it is totally unacceptable to me for government to say it has no business investing punlic funds in establishing industries that will create jobs. I don't think the private sector alone should handle job creation after even giving them the enabling environment. That is a lazy excuse by government. Job creation is a joint responsibility of the government, public sector and provate businessmen. More jobs are created this way. Take for example, the case of oil refinery. Only the person of Alhaji Aliko Dangote now has a functional oil refinery which is already creating thousands of jobs.

Assume the government's refineries in Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna are operational this means much more additional jobs would have been generated for Nigerians to take up.

Then, of course, the right tax regime should be put in place to enable those who are self-employed to survive. Such people belong to the informal sector which is considered as the largest employer of labour.

All I am saying here is that all hands must be on deck before enòugh jobs can be cŕeated in Nigeria for the country to make progress. The private sector can never do it alone.

Politicians seeking the people's mandate need to realise this absolute truth of eçonomics.

Also, to take Nigeria to great height we need to reposition our higher institutions to offer courses that are relevant to the modern age as well as empower them with all they require for conducting researches into our problems and thereafter profer practical solutions suited to our African condition.

The practice of always looking abroad and importing their solutions for addressing our unique challenges is one reason why Nigeria is not progressing.

Lest I forget, let me add here that it is not good for our higher institutions to continue the old attitude of teaching students how only to use their brains. Too much book education has contributed to joblessness. What our higher institutions of learning should now be serious about is teaching handwork alongside bookwork.

What I am saying, in other words, is that we need academic learning but the emphasis should be on technological and vocational skill acquisition that puts food on the table.

Moreover, the National Orientation Agency should work closely with our universities in conducting researches on how to solve the problems of poor governance, bad leadership recruitment into public office, high distrust for our leaders as well as our failing democracy. Unless this is done, the national Orientation Agency will not have the tools for mobilising the populace for Nigeria's development.

The agency will remain a propaganda megaphone for government feeding lies to the people. Lies drag a nation backwards. So, do corruption, lack of patroitism, lawlessness and indiscipline. These problems also must be addressed by all of us to enable Nigerians to get to the Promise land.

There is, indeed, a lot to do before we can transform Nigeria to a country of our dream.

The time to rebuild Nigeria should begin now as the 2027 electioneering campaigns are ongoìng. Be bold. Scrutinize all the politicians seeking public offices and vote only for those with credible records and the fear of God to carry out reforms that will transform Nigeria.