Politics, Priorities, and Policies

Editor’s note: This essay is available in our print issue, A Nation Divided. Buy the issue here.

Following the emergence of the president-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC), other contenders including Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) have challenged his victory in court. This follows the trend of general elections which have taken place since 1999, which marked the return to democratic rule and the beginning of the country’s Fourth Republic after several years of military rule. From previous experiences (where although the court cases mostly ended up in the Supreme Court, the electoral outcomes remained unchanged) there are also concerns by some Nigerians today that the outcome of the court cases are not likely to upturn the emergence of the president-elect Tinubu.

As it is, the 2023 general elections laid bare the existing cracks and cleavages in Nigeria’s pluralist society which has since become widely polarized in the aftermath of the elections. The quest for nation building must, therefore, first begin with national reconciliation which would be best achieved through the president-elect’s magnanimity reflected through political inclusivity and the pursuit of national unity. The prioritization of these objectives will potentially help with dosing some of the existing grievances that traverse the land, while presenting the nation with an opportunity for a much-needed reset.

Given these realities, the incoming administration, which will be inaugurated on 29 May, is off to a tumultuous start. It is also for this very reason that the incoming administration must first and foremost address the contentiously polarizing issues surrounding the controversies, and circumstances of its emergence. There are also the twin challenges of national unity and nation building in the current atmosphere of disenchantment. These issues are further complicated by the limited resources at Nigeria’s disposal which highlights the need for the soon-to-be president to make difficult choices. To do so efficiently and effectively, ‘politics’ will have to give way to the deliberate prioritization of concrete ‘policies’.

Nigeria’s debt profile as of June 2022, stood at an alarming N42.84 trillion and is expected to hit N77 trillion by June 2023. This comes at a time of double-digit inflation in the country. Managing Nigeria’s rising debt will need to be among Nigeria’s next president’s key priorities. As of January 2023, headline inflation had risen to 21.82 per cent from its previous 21.34 per cent in December 2022. These macro-economic realities point to a struggling economy. As of 2022, a total number of 133 million Nigerians (63 per cent of persons in Nigeria) were said to be living in multidimensional poverty. With a teaming youth population, the need to address unemployment through the provision of jobs and an enabling environment especially for micro, small and medium-scale enterprises remains paramount.  The first point of call for the incoming administration will be to prioritize policies targeted at curtailing the country’s current rising debt profile by cutting excesses and wastages. One of such areas is the contentious fuel subsidy regime, which has come at great cost to the Nigerian economy. According to the Africa Report, Nigeria currently spends a whopping $43 million (an average of N18.39 billion) daily on fuel subsidies. An unsustainable venture. Redirecting these funds would no doubt contribute towards freeing up much needed resources that could be channelled towards critical infrastructural development thereby stimulating additional job creation and economic activities across the country.

Difficult as this is expected to be on ordinary Nigerians, the incoming administration as part of efforts to build trust with Nigerian society, must ensure that it institutionalizes a system of transparency and accountability on what these funds are redirected at. Another important issue on the macroeconomic front that must be accorded speedy attention post-inauguration is the need to prioritize the floatage of the naira. This departure from the current grip of the naira by the Central Bank of Nigeria, would go a long way in helping to ensure foreign exchange stability thereby tackling inflation in the long run. In addition to this, the post-inauguration era must prioritize rebuilding investors’ confidence in the Nigerian economy and attracting massive foreign direct investment, which holds the potential of injecting life into and boosting Nigeria’s ailing economy. But doing so requires an assurance of safety and security.

This leads to the second policy area that must be accorded utmost attention, which is on national security. Currently faced with multiple threats to its national security such as violent extremism, banditry, communal violence, cultism, ethno-religious tensions, militancy, and secessionist agitations to mention a few, the urgency of deliberateness in improved security sector governance and reforms cannot be overemphasized. So far, Nigeria’s approach to tacking most threats to its national security have been characterized by overly militarized efforts. The problem with such approaches is their unintended consequences in contributing to the protractedness of the ongoing internal security wars. The next administration will need to consider security alternatives. Plagued with numerous challenges including misappropriation of funds, inadequate manpower, lack of demonstrable professionalism, insufficient state-of-the-art equipment and technology, and deficiencies in transparency and accountability among others, accomplishing the task ahead within the shortest possible time, which is required to reposition Nigeria’s security sector is no mean feat.