I attended a professional event
about three weeks ago and during lunch we were all encouraged to network and
get to know one another, most people in the room were lawyers anyway and we were
all able to get along fine. Until I ran into a politician who is a PDP card
carrying member, not that I belong to any political party neither do I favour
one over the other even though we were having lunch in an APC governed State
because I believe all Nigerian political parties lack ideology and their
members are just in whichever party that best serves their private gains at the
moment, a look at how quick they cross from one platform to the other is proof
of same.
discussions that day, we treated a scenario where one of the parties was
labelled a PDP fixer and Mr. PDP was all too glad to tell me how APC was the
party of fixers and PDP will save Lagos
State from BRF whom he believed was a failure. Now, having lived in Nigeria and
witnessed a PDP led national government I was not going to agree with him.
Moreover, the blind can see and the deaf can hear about the successes of BRF in
Lagos so I was quick to ask my new acquaintance why he felt so strongly.
Lagos State revenue between its party leaders”, but you do not have proof
of how 60% of the money made in Lagos is paid into private accounts I said,
your statement is based on conjecture and rumours, what about the development of
road infrastructure in Lagos I replied.
road is soo bad, you will wonder if we had a government in this state”. “So
you will judge BRF as a failure because one road in Maryland has pot-holes I
said?” At this point, Mr PDP went on and on about how PDP will construct better
roads bla bla bla and right then it occurred to me that as we approach 2015 and
after 54 years of existence, some of our national and local politicians are
completely unaware of what the country needs at this time.
politician who preaches about roads, water and stomach politrics. Who believes
that he can play the same old script used in 1999 elections for Nigerians in
2015 and get away with it. As an expo to any willing public servant contesting for
any political office in the coming elections, here are a list of issues which I
believe are of importance to our Nation in this day and age, you can feel free
to add others to the list;
recognition that Nigeria’s greatest resource is not oil and fertile land but
rather the human capital that is left untapped in our over 150 million people, how
the beautiful minds of our youth and younger generations will be equipped to
take on the challenges that face us as a people.
Nigeria can take its rightful place among the comity of Nations as a global
leader.
jobs can be outsourced from the Western countries into Nigeria, a classic
example of countries which have achieved this are India and Pakistan where their
techies are being employed from countries like the UK and the USA to perform IT
related jobs like building websites to other income generating opportunities.
to promote unity and foster cooperation among the warring factions in the
country.
well thought out plan to tackling terrorism and insurgency.
to mentally, materially and physically empower our security operatives in other
to provide adequate security for the nation.
game plan for uprooting corruption from the hearts and minds of Nigerians.
reformation and enforcement of the rule of law.
policies that support entrepreneurship and wealth creation.
and promoting the Nigerian dream, the ideology that will bind all Nigerians in sincerity
of purpose.
welfare and legal aid.
of youth inclusion when distributing government responsibilities and
portfolios.
I excluded
roads and power generation from the list because we must not allow mediocre
politicians to bamboozle us with what is our right, good roads are our rights
as Nigerians and not a campaign promise which we must thank the politicians
for. If a politician cannot grasp and share how he intends to tackle the above
mentioned issues, then he or she is not equipped to rule a dynamic country like
Nigeria.
free to include any other thing you believe should be on the list and let’s put
these political office seekers to the test. May the best man win.
Onibokun, Esq