I write to you today as a Nigerian living in Diaspora who loves his country and would like to contribute to the debate of moving our country, Nigeria forward.
I want to personally thank you for your emergence as our President whose government is powered by hope and the belief that tomorrow cannot just be different from today, but better. Your government, despite the prevailing challenges, is of service with purpose, and above all to bring about the desired change in our country for good.
Given that I don’t take any important decision in life until I hear from God, I have spent over 7months seeking the face of the Lord regarding the direction of travel for Nigeria for the benefit of its citizens. That coupled with the words of my former Governor during an interview with Channels TV: “Those in leadership do not know everything and we want you (the citizens) to engage with us and make important suggestions to us and we would listen”.
I could recall the celebration of FESTAC ’77 as a little boy who was too young to comprehend what the festival was about. However, the Spirit of the Lord wants the leadership to go back in history and identify where the nation may have gone wrong regarding the hosting of the festival and call a national prayer for God’s forgiveness as Nigeria was and it’s still a God-fearing nation.
Since the festival, the nation has experienced numerous instabilities, culminating in stunting the growth of the nation.
As a country, good governance, key decision making, infrastructural development, social development, mutual co-existence amongst communities and ethnic groups leading to peace and stability in the country, appear to have eluded the nation with no immediate answer. And this is against the backdrop of several military coups in the past.
Over the years, effective decision-making opportunities as it benefits the citizens have been largely missed and this could be linked to the issues mentioned above. Successive governments have implemented policies that were largely inconsistent with the values and ethos of the nation – the fear of God and we all are living with the consequences.
Some of our young people have ventured abroad and perished in the Mediterranean Sea for want of the basics of life which could not be provided at home; while some end up as slaves in other countries of the world.
Furthermore, Nigeria is currently experiencing avoidable social vices such as:
- Endemic stealing in high places where an individual is alleged to have stolen #89,000,000,000 (Eighty-nine Billion Naira) alone without the fear of God in his heart. Recently, we heard about an individual alleged to have about $56,000,000,000 (Fifty-six Billion Dollars) starched in his US account. These are monies that can be used to better the lives of ordinary citizens in the country including our law enforcement officers who are risking their lives daily in different combat zones to keep us all safe.
- The abandonment of thousands of uncompleted projects up and down the country that were meant for the betterment of the people.
- High level stealing in the Ministries, Departments and Agencies across the Federal, States and Local Government levels.
- Human trafficking
- Illegal murders and organ harvesting for diabolical activities.
- Banditry, kidnapping and armed robbery, just to mention a few.
In view of the above issues therefore, the problems the country is facing today may not be unconnected with FESTAC ’77 and before the nation can go forward, this correlation has to be acknowledged and addressed through a call for national prayers by all religious groups. The Spirit of the Lord gave me a passage in the Bible to buttress my discussion; but you can choose the passage from your book of the Law to guide you in your prayers depending on your Faith.
As a Christian, I am being led to share with you 2Chronicles 7:14: “If my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves, pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land”. That is the word of God to us.
Having explored the Spiritual dimension of our problems, the spirit of God has highlighted other key areas to explore:
THE ECONOMY OF THE NATION
I am led to inform you that Nigeria’s problem is very simple if the intentionality is there to solve it. God had given the nation three things which have not been effectively harnessed since Independence. These are the 3 pillars upon which the peace and progress of the nation rest. They are the solutions to Nigeria’s problems. But it will take a man or woman with the fear of God to confront these problems directly. The 3 pillars are sunshine, crude oil and refineries. The economy will not grow until these three things are addressed and properly harnessed.
Sun
By inspiration, the current policy of propping up the national grid nation-wide is unlikely to work. Historically, it has not worked in the past and it’s unlikely to work in the future leading to a continuous waste of our lean resources. The spirit of the Lord directs that the constraint in this sector is beyond your reach and capacity and it is high time you moved into something more sustainable and less likely to be vandalised with massive impact and effect.
The loan from the World Bank that is meant for propping up the national grid could instead be used effectively to provide an alternative and sustainable source of power to individuals and businesses at a very affordable cost. The nation has wasted a lot of money on the national grid with nothing to show for it and it is unlikely to improve anytime soon, the Spirit says.
Your Excellency, you are advised to come up with a new national policy on solar energy by embracing the manufacture of light weight solar panels in Nigeria. Using the available natural source of energy, the sun, which is one of the pivots upon which the economy rests, you are advised to set up 6 assembling plants to assemble light weight solar panels with ultra-low carbon footprint in the 6 geo-political zones in the country.
These panels will be imported initially into the country and assembled in the 6 assembling plants to feed each geo-political zone with assembled solar panels at affordable prices and with help from the Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa, the loan from World bank and other international funders who are willing and eager to support the country to shift from fossil fuel to greener energy with low carbon foot print.
Once the assembling plants have taken off and are supplying their individual regions, you are advised to move on to the next phase which is building a solar panel manufacturing plants to replace the assembling plant in each geo-polical zones in the country. That way, you are sure of transiting from assembling to manufacturing with relative ease.
By inspiration, it is better to have 6hrs of sustained power supply to do business in a day than in a week. There will be incremental growth in the economy all round. No nation can dream of any form of industrial revolution without an effective and stable power supply. Anything short of this is an illusion.
CRUDE OIL – REFINERY – PETROL
The spirit of the Lord directs that the nation will not get anywhere until the refineries are fixed. The social unrest in the country is linked to non-functional refineries. Everything that drives the economy is predicated on petrol. The ordinary man in the street does not have interest in dollars if he/she can travel from A to B cheaply. If the cost of petrol is low, goods will be moved cheaply to different parts of the country with relative affordability.
An ordinary man does not need dollars to buy garri, onion, meat, fish, locally grown rice, beans, yam, pepper, tomatoes, etc. But petrol is required to move these goods to their destinations and for them to be affordable, they must be delivered cheaply. Consequently, the importance of the refineries cannot be over emphasised.
By inspiration, Dangote Refinery is an answered prayer for the nation. People have been praying for God’s intervention in the dispensation of the problems Nigeria is going through and God has answered but no one appears to be listening, the Spirit says. The Dangote Refinery would have become an elephant project, only dreamed of at best, when Covid-19 struck in 2021-2022. But God intervened and rescued the project and brought it to its completion. No man could have completed the project without God’s intervention.
By inspiration, with Dangote Refinery coming on stream, poverty should be a thing of the past in Nigeria because it will produce the main elements that are capable of transforming the economy for the better and, if there’s still hardship in the land with Dangote Refinery that is fully operational, the nation must do a serious soul searching.
If essential goods are widely available and affordable in the country due to lower PMS pump price, the government may reconsider the importation of some essential goods into the country and use the saved FX for other important purposes.
SALARIES
By inspiration of the Spirit of the Lord, if electricity and petrol are not within the reach of an ordinary citizen, even if workers are paid a minimum wage of #400,000 (Four hundred thousand naira) per month, it will be worthless because of the compounding inflationary effect associated with salary increases.
The sum of #62,000 (Sixty-two thousand naira) could be considered a living wage and acceptable if, the government can meet the parameters mentioned above.
A motorcyclist, petty traders, onion sellers, dry cleaners talk of dollars these days because of the cost of travelling and moving goods around. They blame the high cost of food stuff on the exchange rates. However, if the cost of petrol/diesel and renewable energy are taken care of, no one will be talking about dollars apart from importers and exporters.
The ordinary man and woman in the street have nothing to do with dollars. But the discussion in the market by petty traders these days is the link of high costs of condiments to the exchange rate of the dollar. And we do know that is not the case as no one uses dollar to import onions, garri, fresh tomatoes and other locally grown produce.
Still on salaries, the Spirit of the Lord reveals that every sector of the economy agitating for salary settlement should be looked into in order to enable a smooth running of your government and for citizens to take ownership through national orientation.
The citizens orientation programme will be far-fetched at best if people are unhappy and hungry. A hungry person cannot be expected to watch over government infrastructural facilities and not be tempted to steal or destroy part of the facilities for personal gains.
Therefore, the Spirit of the Lord directs, as a matter of urgency, and for your government to succeed and gain popular support, that you temporarily pause some of the major road construction and divert those funds into completing other refineries in the country, and assist Dangote Refinery to start producing optimally, build solar panel assembling plants as mentioned above, and settle all outstanding salary issues with agitating workers.
The banditry and kidnapping that have become the order of the day in some parts of Nigeria, the Spirit says, is largely attributed to many factors which include the frustration of some Nigerians who couldn’t continue with their studies, whose parents borrowed money to pay their school fees but couldn’t complete their education due to unending teachers/lecturers strikes. Equally, some of those who lost their love ones as a result of doctors’ strikes are all out to revenge.
The high cost of doing business in Nigeria has pushed a lot of people into poverty and the loss of their daily bread. Consequently, they have resorted to other means of survival no matter how dangerous it is.
Of what use is it to a hungry man and woman who is living in a country with many “state of the art” highways and railways but are unable to travel due to disgruntled elements on the highways or vandalised rail tracks to meet their daily living?
If workers’ salaries are paid promptly, it will contribute to increased productivity which would boost people’s purchasing power and enhance the economy through increased growth.
CORRUPTION
Corruption is everywhere in the world and in some nations of the world; there are workable measures to check stealing in public institutions.
In the advanced nations, people don’t care about the level of corruption in the public sector because of the available social amenities that make life worth living. For example, in a country with constant light, water, gas, good roads, good and affordable transport network, workable and well equipped hospitals and schools, no one cares about what a politician earns or embezzles because the principles of engaging the citizens through the fear of God has enabled the politicians to consider the welfare of the people first, by paying them a living wage which takes care of most of their needs and all the social amenities are equally working as expected.
When politicians in advanced countries steal, they steal within the context of “live and let’s live”; as against stealing public funds to collapse the economy.
Still on corruption, the Spirit of the Lord directs that it is difficult and time consuming to fight corruption in Nigeria. Our justice system is still evolving and we are not there yet. In view of that, the Spirit of the Lord advises you to adopt proactive measures in fighting theft in public institutions.
You may wish to consider making it mandatory through the National Assembly for all Federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and State Governors to have a functioning website at both State and Local Government Council levels. Their annual budgets as presented to the legislators will be uploaded on the website for accessibility to the public and the EFCC for scrutiny.
All expenditures will be linked to KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS (KPI). For example, if budgetary allocation for road construction is published, it is expected that the name of the road to be tarred, estimated project starts and end dates, and costs are factored in so that the same item will not be repeated in the following year’s budget. That way, it is possible to clearly monitor budget expenditures under both capital and recurrent budget headings.
Currently, it is difficult to know how budgets are expended as they are not transparent enough for public scrutiny and if corruption must be fought, it must be seen to be fought proactively.
The Spirit of the Lord directs you to consider withholding the monthly allocation of any Governor who does not comply with the above-mentioned measures.
The same goes with salaries. Any Governor who doesn’t pay staff salaries, allowances and pensions after collecting the monthly allocation from the federal government should be denied further payments until compliance is established. This is one of the causes of kidnapping and armed robbery in the country – desperation caused by non-payment of salaries.
EDUCATION
The Spirit of the Lord directs that Nigeria can mimic the academic system being practised in the Philippines and India in relation to the training of nurses and doctors. In these two countries, the government does not only increase the quota of nurses and doctors to be trained, but create opportunities for them to be gainfully employed at home or abroad post training.
These countries maintain a policy of training many nurses and doctors and employ them after graduation on good wages, and those who cannot get a job locally are encouraged through legal agencies to travel abroad and work. It helps the parents to recoup their money spent during training, helps the economy of the nation through inflow of much needed FX and reduces unemployment.
Currently, most nurses and doctors in Nigeria cannot get a well-paid job after graduation and given the cost of training doctors and nurses in any Nigerian institution, the salary offered post qualification does not justify the pains and suffering of parents who struggled to pay the fees of these students. Qualified nurses, for example are offered a salary of #20000 a month in a private hospital as government jobs are hard to come by. This leaves the qualified doctors and nurses with no other option other than engage in unapproved professional activities.
Like I said earlier, if professionals are paid living wages, most of them will prefer to stay in Nigeria and work because working in other countries is not as lucrative and easy as it is widely thought. All those who travel abroad to work consider returning home a year later; but the discouraging factor is the poor remuneration at home.
It is one thing to increase the quota of nursing and medical students’ intake yearly, but it’s another thing to pay them good wages if employed, and those who cannot get a job in Nigeria should be allowed to be recruited by recognised agencies to work abroad. It will help the economy greatly. This is an advice from the Lord.
May I once again refer you to the 3 pillars upon which our economy stands: crude oil, refinery and solar power. Adherence to this advice will enable your government to succeed; kidnapping, banditry and armed robbery will be reduced significantly as young people will continue their education uninterrupted; workers will receive living wages and keep their children in schools and university; traders will trade with minimal overheads and make profits.
Vandalism of public infrastructures will drastically reduce as parents and young people will have a reason to protect public properties with a renewed sense of ownership through national orientation and awareness. At the moment, everyone is hungry and angry. Consequently, everything around them is up for grab.
The spirit of the Lord directs that any minister or special adviser who doesn’t support these ideas could reconsider their position in your government as the individual does not wish you and your government well. Rearranging your priorities to favour workers in the country is key to the success of your administration. Other major infrastructural developments can follow afterwards.
It is only someone with the fear of God that can bring about these changes and from your policies so far, you are the one mandated to deliver the nation from the shackles of poverty and pain.
May the Lord grant you the grace to consider these points.
Godswill Udo is the CEO of Foresight Network Initiative (FNI). A think tank and advocacy organisation aimed at promoting good governance through advocacy at the National, State, Local Government levels and the Diaspora.
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