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Buhari Must "Reset" Nigeria By Chiedu Nweke

May 18, 2015

The election of Muhammadu Buhari as President is a reset for Nigeria. It is an extra ordinary reset. A milestone. A Phenomenon. It is a turning point. It is the first time the of merger of small opposition parties has been successful in Nigeria. It is the first time the opposition has won a Presidential election. It is the first time such momentous election has gone without Violence and the first the defeated candidate had conceded victory and congratulated the winner. It has opened the vista for new opportunities. A new reset for Nigeria.

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The word ‘’reset‘’ is exciting in business circles. It gained currency following the global financial crisis of 2008. But it has its roots in computer password. Steve Tappins and Andrew Cave in their book "The new secret of CEO’s" (book I recommend to all top business people and political executives) believe the word found its way into business lexicon from the very respected Jeff Kindler, the CEO of American Pharamaceutical giant Pfizer. In assessing the debilitating economic effects of the financial crisis of 2008 and the collapse or bail out of such giants like Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Washington Mutual, Wachovia, Citigroup etc.; Mr. kindler had said that the political environment in the US was "toxic" that there was an urgent need to "reset" the economy. "Reset" means to discover "new opportunities" and "new direction". It means a change. For Nigeria, change means the reset of the polity. The reset of the economy. A new direction for Nigeria. New opportunities.

The election of Muhammadu Buhari as President is a reset for Nigeria. It is an extra ordinary reset. A milestone. A Phenomenon. It is a turning point. It is the first time the of merger of small opposition parties has been successful in Nigeria. It is the first time the opposition has won a Presidential election. It is the first time such momentous election has gone without Violence and the first the defeated candidate had conceded victory and congratulated the winner. It has opened the vista for new opportunities. A new reset for Nigeria.

With the elections over, the focus now is on the man Muhammudu Buhari. Can he reset Nigeria? Does he have the vision to reset Nigeria? Where does he want Nigeria to be in 2019? Where does he want Nigeria to be in 2025? Will his vision reset Nigeria and change lives? Does he have exciting and concrete plans to reset the polity and the economy? Can he inspire hope and optimism for a better future? Will he take responsibility or search for excuses? Can Buhari inspire his cabinet, governors and the National Assembly to make sacrifices and live above board in the face of corruption and abuse of office?

To be a great president, Buhari must have the right mindset. He must set out to be Nigeria's Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore or Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum of Dubai or Nelson Mandela of South African. What these men have in common is that they left visible legacies in their countries. Does Buhari have a big or small mindset? Does he want to Leapfrog Nigeria to the level of India and China? Or is he thinking of being a small ethnic and religious champion?

What will help Buhari is the groundswell of popular support that he commands. Today, he is arguably the most popular politician in Nigeria. It is not just that the man is popular but he is reputed to be a man of integrity and selflessness. He stands heads and shoulders above the motley of questionable folks in the political circle. His reputation and popular support will help him through the challenging first one hundred days in office as he navigates legacy issues and booby traps of fuel subsidy crisis, forming his cabinet and defining the character and direction of his government.

Buhari has a huge task ahead. Things are really bad. But if things are so bad, they can only get better. Heroes they say are not made in good but in the worst of times. He has the opportunity to write his name in gold if he could make things better than they are today. For him to succeed, he must set out running. No excuses. No blames. And no name-calling.

Many countries have been led into splendor of opportunities from the ruins and pains of adversity. Take the now famous case of Dubai; by mid 1980s, Dubai oil income (like Nigeria's today) had dropped to an all – time low and corruption was rife forcing the emirate to diversify heavily (really heavily) to tourism. With the new opportunity, it ambitiously deployed so much capital to infrastructure; built the tallest hotels Bars Al Arab and the tallest building in the world Burg Khalifa. It relaxed taxes, tariffs and visa applications. It created wide highways and built refineries. The transformation of Dubai was complete and visible to the world.

Dubai government also tackled corruption. It sensationally arrested, tried and jailed the head of its customs and his aides for receiving bribes. The trials and jailing sent a shock to all private and public servants as well as the international community. The result was rewarding. In a short time, Dubai became a world tourist destination. The success of Dubai was based on a ‘’ reset’’, new ideas and new opportunities.

Buhari must come up with new ideas and explore new opportunities. He must head hunt for best the talents. Talents with new ideas, independent thought, courage and ability to deliver within short term. He must build the talents into team. They must have the right mix of experienced, gender and youth. He must inspire and build his team into real disciples, his believers and possibly his successors. He will need ardent disciples to spearhead ministries like finance, petroleum, agriculture, education and health. The arrowhead of the team will be his spokesman may be this time, spokeswoman. He will need to do a lot of talking. He will need to win over Nigerians. He will need a mixture of pure communication and little propaganda. But if the Bible’s motifs are to be followed, one of his expected disciples will eventually fall victim of Buhari's anti corruption net.

Take the issue of corruption. Corruption is so endemic in Nigeria today that some bet that Buhari may fail in his much publicized declaration that he would curb corruption. Buhari alone cannot fight corruption. He would need honest, disciplined and committed lieutenants who would buy into the ‘’war’’ against corruption and become the crusaders. He will need such disciples as ministers, as head of National Assembly, as head of police, Army, Customs, and Immigration etc. These lieutenants, will be the whistle blowers, naming and shaming the corrupt. By doing so, the Nigerian public and the international community will be convinced about the war on corruption.

Buhari must reset the economy. He will need to clear the arena stable in the Petroleum ministry where a whopping $18.5 billion is said to be missing. He will need to reduce the cost of governance particularly the scandalous security votes of state governors and wages and allowances of members of the National Assembly. He will need to diversify to new opportunities like agriculture and manufacturing. He could partner individual state governments and the private sector to boost agricultural production.

Nigeria is a vast country. New idea may be to discard the idea of developing the entire country at the same pace for selected zones or regions. Urban states like Lagos, Port Harcourt, Kano and Abuja could be selected zone for electricity emergency while rural states like Yobe, Kebbi and Gombe could be zone for agricultural emergency. This kind of strategy would reduce excessive capital deployment and encourage economy of scale.

He must reset the polity and encourage genuine democratization. He should allow his party APC to grow as a democratic institution without executive imperial interference. He must not muscle opposition parties or directly interfere in party politics. He must strengthen the judiciary and grow the institution by encouraging financial autonomy.

He must reset the security apparatus by taking full charge as commander-in-chief. He must lead and take full responsibility. He will need fresh ideas in tackling Boko Haram and the militants in Niger Delta. New ideas and new thinking must take course for better opportunities. He must go further than merely changing the heads of army and police. Can he push for state police? Do we really need the army to fight a small band of terrorists? Why don't we build a strong police force? Does Buhari know that private individuals now dress up their drivers and gatemen in police uniform?

Buhari must reset and tackle the fuel subsidy crisis. Everyone agrees the solution is the privatization of the downstream. But this is not without its challenges. The past government had little political will to face the challenges. However, Buhari is a strong man who can take head-on at vested interests and the so-called cabals. To win the battle against the notorious marketers he will need the support of Nigerians. Nigerians will make sacrifices if they believe government is sincere.

Buhari must also reset the failing electricity generation in the country. This area also calls for fresh ideas and new opportunities. Lagos state government has shown that new ideas can help in resetting the power sector. The Lagos strategy is the building of several small independent private power stations. If he adopts the strategy and supports Lagos there could be stable power in Lagos within two years. If it works in Lagos the strategy could be extended to key cities like Abuja, Kano, Port Harcourt, Aba, Onitsha etc. But he must first privatize the transmission lines. State governments, local governments and private companies should be encouraged to buy and own transmission grids.

Buhari will need a bold reset of infrastructure. He must initiate flagship infrastructural projects. New ideas are needed. Why don't we create regional rail authorities like Eastern line (Aba, Enugu, Onitsha), Northern line (Kaduna, Kano, Maiduguri) and western line (Lagos, Ibadan, Abeokuta)? Why can’t we have privatize highways, and create Trans regional wide highways? Why can’t we transform two or three airports to international hubs with facilities comparable to JFK or Heathrow.

One would to ask Buhari for one more favor. Can he help reduce the ludicrous and ostentatious lifestyle of Nigerian politicians by wearing rolled white shirts and trousers instead of being decked in huge expensive babariga. Can he wear simple wristwatches rather Rolex and Omega? Can he ride convoy of two vehicles?. The Nigerian politician today competes with billionaires and rock stars in lifestyle. Even local government chairmen and Baales ride long convoys on major roads complete with uniformed police escorts. Buhari has started well by directing his convoy to obey traffic rule. He must lead by example in far more ways. Nigeria is in dire of a virtuous role model.

Buhari will need to come up with very bold ideas for Nigeria. He must set out running on 29 May. He must lead by example and get his ministers and even governors to buy into his approach. He must do more to drive home his message of an era of sacrifice, simplicity and selflessness. Nigeria needs Buharism.

Chiedu Nweke
Barrister at Law, Lagos