First Things First

By now I know your ear drum should be tired of the beating of the word Congratulation, however I'll join the wagon- Congratulations to you sir.

Your victory at the polls is no longer news to Nigerians; it is on the lips of the school children, the market women, the farmers, the transporters and all Nigerians alike. What seem 'disturbing' to all and sundry is: "what would be your first move as a sitting president?"- is it job creation?; security?; economy?; economy?; education?; power?, et al. All of these are important to our national lives and they need rapt attention after 16 years of neglect.

Obviously sir, you can not do it alone; you'll need people to be around you to help in the policy making and implementation. This is where my choice comes in-- before any other thing, Mr President (elect), you have to choose your team. You don't need a bogus team, all you need and we all need is a team that knows what is at stake, what to do, how to do it and the commitment and the discipline to do them.

It is not difficult for anyone to realize the fact that the cost of governance on Nigeria is at its all time high level. Therefore, there is the urgent need for you to trim this down. Need I remind you sir that during your campaign you made a statement as regard this; review their salary and entitlements(official cars, residence, number of aides, etc) among many others. There is no justification whatsoever why we need 50 ministers in the executive council where these 52 ministers boast of over 10 aides, 5 official cars, etc

Nigeria runs one of costliest public governances in the world. In 2002, Nigeria enacted a law called "Salaries and Allowances of Top Public Office Holders Act of 2002"; this law enacted allocated a total of N755.8billion($5Billion) for the servicing of her 17,500 top public office holders annually. Come forward to 2008, this law was revised and there was an increment to the tune of N1.13trillion($7.5Billion). Nigeria to date has 17,500 top Public Office Holders and about 25, 000 political aides.

It is time to also visit the Steve Oronsaye Report: The 800-page report submitted to President Jonathan recommends scrapping of 38 agencies, merger of 52 and conversion of 14 to departments in ministries. In all, it recommended that statutory agencies be reduced from 263 to 161 in order to reduce cost of governance. If the present Government could implement every bit of these recommendations, Nigeria would be much better.

Also, out of the total budgets of N37, 665trillion ($240billion) made by the Federal Government of Nigeria between June 1999 and 2013, N21, 7trillion (about $145billion) was spent on consumption (recurrent expenditures), while only N11.3trillion (about $70 billion) went into production (capital expenditures). The remaining sum of N4.5trillion ($28billion) was used for local and foreign debts servicing. These explain why Nigeria runs one of the costliest public governances on earth to date.

We don't need professional politicians or political technocrats in the executive council; all we need is a patriotic, disciplined, committed, competent and prudent team. This is the time to draw that thick line between partisan appointment and governance. We need competent hands to help achieve and actualise your lofty ideas and our expectations; not on papers but on the street and homes of the common masses.

Consequently, the choice and subsequent appointment of your team should be one that would effect the "true change"-- good roads, security of lives and properties, good jobs, effective transport system, good education, efficient health care system, infrastructure, stable power supply, etc

The history book is never full, never closed-- you have made history, which is the first step that launched us into the new dawn of revival, rehabilitation and rebuilding process. The expectations are high; the road would be rough and demanding but a team with focus can take us beyond these obstacles.

How you will manage the expectations, the hawks in the corridor of power, partisanship and governance is where all focus/attention is channeled towards in the next four years of your administration by history and all on-lookers. History awaits you at the other end; to smile at you or frown at you-- the choice is yours.

I wish you well sir.

Adeola Adebowale-Michaels
CEDEP, Abeokuta.