What Nigerians Want From This New Administration

Following the inauguration of President Muhammadu Buhari on May 29 (Democracy Day), we spoke to Nigerian citizens on their expectations for the future political era. “What would you like President Buhari to do for Nigeria? What sort of changes would you like to witness in the country?” What emerged was a plethora of insightful and interesting answers to note and even learn from: A lawyer based in Port Harcourt was quick to point out that “real change started this morning (May 29) when the new Rivers State government, immediately after taking an oath of allegiance, appointed an acting Chief Judge for the State. There has been none since 2013 when the last occupant retired.” We can understand how hopeful he is about the new political year ahead. “We need a solution to the refinery problem, Boko Haram and the inadequacy of the military and our economy,” Ikem cited. “Buhari is not an economist per say so to see how he’ll handle issues pertaining to the economy would be quite interesting,” he added. When we asked Uzo, his demands included, “Power, Security…  [the government] should bring back our girls… and they should work on helping small businesses because they are our future.” “Let [Buhari] work on our education sector, our SMEs and cut the federal government expense on salaries,” Akeem said. According to a young female respondent, Omonoh, “[Buhari] should change the life cycle of the rural girl child and ensure good education.  He should organize systems so that there are equal opportunities for everyone. Moreover, he should invest in human development to improve the workforce and reduce illiteracy levels, and eventually a stronger economy will emerge… I could list so much but we need divine intervention upon this country. Even the people need to reprogram their mindset.” The economy was one of the major issues pointed out by Mason. He believes that the previous President, Goodluck Jonathan, made minor contributions in this sector and that Buhari should “take it up from where Jonathan left it.” “There are a lot of things that need to change,” said Sam. “But these three are a start: our dependence on oil, the ‘scarcity of security’ and the laws that are inspired by lust and convenience.” A further explanation of his third point was as follows, “Those laws that contain ‘technicalities’, the crazy back doors in laws. Crafty and unscrupulous individuals are more likely to exploit these to escape prosecution.” For Aghogho, issues to solve include “The cost of governance… [the government] needs to stop the leakage and shrink and merge parastatals as well, and thirdly corruption.” He also adds that “if we would see Nigeria become a desirable nation by 2025, [ this] depends strongly on the people.” “He would need to tackle the issue of insecurity and by doing that, he will build confidence in his government. Also, he has to look at the issue of  job creation. His government is already saying that they’ll look into mining and agriculture, and I really hope they do that. The economy in general… there has to be a clearance of institutions that are the backbones of the economy. He has to be able tackle corruption or at least reduce it to a minute level,” said Ajayi. “I look forward to a country where corruption would not be tolerated in any way,” Sandra added.   Join the conversation. What would you like to see in the new administration? Please share in the comments section below.  

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This article was first published on 30th May 2015

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