Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja
The Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), the apex body overseeing the affairs of Muslims in Nigeria, at the weekend released a five-point demand for the next president of Nigeria.
The 50-year organisation led by its President-General, the Sultan of Sokoto, HRM Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar, argued that after alternating military and civilian administrations for several decades, Nigeria is still far from the expectations of its citizens and the global black community.
In the charter of demand signed by the body’s Deputy Secretary General, Prof Salisu Shehu and the Council’s Director of Administration, Zubairu Usman-Ugwu, NSCIA noted that it had become imperative to convey to presidential candidates and the electorate in the coming general election, its concerns and expectations to avoid past mistakes.
On the insecurity ravaging the land, the NSCIA stated that for almost one and a half decades, Nigeria has been traumatised by an unprecedented level of carnage with losses of thousands of human lives and millions of displaced people as well as a thriving kidnapping industry.
It stated that the growing and seemingly unending insecurity had crippled agriculture, commerce and education, with all the consequences in its trail, explaining that assurances of successive governments have been largely fruitless.
“The incoming president is expected to make this his top priority and to deploy the highest political will and resources to bring this menace to a quick end. Some of the key lessons to note here include the dismantling of the war economy from which a few officials are feeding fat and the integrity of commanders,” NSCIA said.
In addition, it maintained that there has been an absence of synergy between the different security services and the building of local trust for effective intelligence.
Besides, the incoming government, it said, must curb the proliferation of small arms and light weapons.
Stressing that all is not well with the economy, NSCIA urged the incoming government to address the grinding poverty, joblessness and severe inequities across the populace.
“The statistics are frightening, as they suggest that nearly 2/3 of the Nigerian population live below the poverty line. Given the structure of our economy, the greatest sector and one with the capacity to expand and absorb the most in agriculture.
“We, therefore, expect the incoming government to give it a priority. Here it is important to emphasise the need to make a paradigm shift from production to processing because that is how value chains are fixed, jobs provided and prosperity created,” it pointed out.
On its demand for more infrastructure, it stated that over the last quarter of a century, Nigeria’s infrastructure has continued to decay and has affected the economy.
“One particularly critical sector is the power sector. From 1999 to date, we have compromised our power sector reform, not because of the dearth of ideas but because of the absence of political will and the inordinate greed of government officials.
“We expect the incoming president and his government to end this anomaly. There are experts with knowledge of the sector, who have what it takes to bring back sufficient electricity to power our industries.
“We expect the incoming government to identify them and work diligently to restore power to this country which has groped in the dark for too long. We also need to have a sustainable energy plan that will unleash our natural resources while protecting the environment.
“Other critical areas of infrastructure include improving roads and rail, recharging the Lake Chad waters to boost agriculture, arresting desertification and boosting digital literacy,” it stated.
The NSCIA further harped on the need to grow Nigeria’s human capital, stressing that this is critical to economic recovery and the future of the country.
In global competitiveness, the group said that this area remains Nigeria’s comparative advantage as 65 per cent of the population is under 35 years of age.
“At the moment, the records show that we have the largest out-of-school children in the world. Our girl-child enrolment presents another worrying statistic, with implications for our development.
“If we can educate this population and give them basic health care, they alone can be a powerful momentum in our economy. We expect the incoming government to come up with a plan to educate and skill these nearly 20 million out-of-school children.
“We also expect the incoming government to come up with a plan to fund education and to re-invent our public universities so that they can rise to international standards and meet the manpower needs of our industries at home,” the NSIA explained.
While it noted that governments exist to protect lives and property and provide for the welfare of citizens, the Muslim organisation said that the first parameter of evaluation of governments is service delivery.
However, it argued the service delivery capacity of the governments of Nigeria at all levels has been dismal.
“We need an incoming government that will pay immediate and serious attention to this all-important issue. In modern governance, this is usually done by developing what is called ‘Key Performance Indicators’ (KPI) for every ministry and government establishment.
“This is evaluated periodically against pre-determined and established deliverables. One of the greatest challenges to delivering KPIs and government performance is of course corruption.
“Our country has featured on the wrong side of the corruption index and we must make a firm resolve to fight corruption. We want an incoming president who will demonstrate his political will from the quality of people he will appoint and the zero-tolerance he will show for corruption,” it explained.
Another important issue of governance, the group stressed, is inclusion. It noted that it was important for the incoming president to develop a framework for inclusion which should be both scientific and accountable.
“This will promote trust and national cohesion as well as allow the country to focus on the great task of development,” stressed the group.
