Buhari needs to take a backseat during his second term to enable Nigeria gain her rightful place as a member of the $1trn economy club

By Ayo Akinfe 

(1) I have been through President Buhari’s list of 43 ministerial nominees trying to figure out who will be those making up his economic team as that is where the real work is but alas, I fail to see anything that inspires me. From all indications, it appears that Zainab Ahmed will be returned as finance minister and I see no evidence of a change of policy. None of the names on that list make we go to wow!

(2) Nigeria currently has a gross domestic product (GDP) of $375bn but if we want to end the current spate of unemployment, lawlessness, banditry, terrorism, violence and chronic poverty plaguing the country, we simply need to boost this to $1trn by 2023. I see no such plans on the horizon indicating that the present government is even thinking along these lines

(3) When you have the highest number of people living in poverty in the world, have that highest number of out-of-school children on earth and have the highest number of internally displaced persons on the planet, it is clear that what you need to do is lift people out of poverty. Nigeria currently has 87m of her people living in extreme poverty. We need to reduce that figure to say 30m to live at ease with ourselves 

(4) With a total lack of opportunity, it is inevitable that our youths will turn to the likes of Abubakar Shekau, Ibrahim El-Zakzaky and Macban for redemption. If all these youths were employed in manufacturing plants churning out industrial goods, all these extremist organisations would wither on the vine. Industrial workers who do double shifts have no time to go on Shiite marches from Kano to Zaria, attend overnight church vigils, carry AK47s or act as thugs for politicians 

(5) President Buhari essentially has three main challenges today. They are the economy, security and infrastructure. If he sorts those three out, watch everything else fall into place. Problems like religious intolerance, ethnic hatred, calls for secession, Islamic militancy, etc will all evaporate overnight because a people enjoying improved living standards will have no reason to be bitter 

(6) To make things move in his second term, President Buhari needs three “prime ministers” to get Nigeria off her knees:

(i) Coordinating minister for the economy with oversight for the ministries for finance, petroleum, agriculture, trade & industry, tourism and solid minerals 

(ii) Coordinating minister for security with oversight for the ministries of defence, foreign affairs and internal affairs 

(iii) Coordinating minister for infrastructure with oversight for the ministries of works, power, transport, housing, health, education and water resources 

(7) These three ministers along with the president and vice president should form the cabinet coordinating committee (CCC) that meets on a weekly basis. They should aggressively implement economic diversification programmes approved by the Federal Executive Council. The buck should stop at their desk 

(8) Personally, I would desperately like to see President Buhari take a back seat in government during his second tenure. He should restrict his involvement in government to presiding over FEC meetings, chairing CCC meetings, his war against corruption and carrying out ceremonial duties. Do you know that after a year as president, Nelson Mandela took a back seat serving as a ceremonial figure, handing over the day-to-day governing of South Africa to his Vice President Thabo Mbeki? Look at how the country benefited from this 

(9) For Nigeria to grow economically, it is the 36 states that need to be the driving forces. This is where the office of vice president is key. He needs to be in charge of measuring the performance of governors, setting them targets, ensuring they meet those targets and then ensuring they aggressively implement policies introduced by the CCC

(10) If President Buhari wants to leave a legacy, he should look at these GDP figures and pledge to place Nigeria where she should be with her contemporaries - South Korea ($1.7trn); Australia ($1.5trn); Mexico ($1.28trn); Indonesia ($1.15trn); Turkey ($961bn); Nigeria ($375bn). It is crystal clear that Nigeria belongs in the $1trn economy club with a GDP the same size as her Mint colleagues. Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey (Mint) are all supposed to have identical economies. President Buhari should make gaining membership of the $1trn GDP club his cardinal objective in his second term. Him taking a back seat in governance is ironically the best way he can do this