From Adetutu Folasade-Koyi, Abuja
As Nigerians bid goodbye to 2021 and welcome a brand new 2022, expectations are high, not only for themselves but also for the political, socio-economic direction of the country.
The preceding year was one like no other.
For one, many had hoped that, in 2021, the myriad of challenges, including banditry, kidnappings, the pummelling of the currency, the naira, and insurgency, among others, would have been resolved by the Federal Government.
Unfortunately, for most Nigerians, 2021 was a year like no other. To some, may the preceding year never happen again, while, to others, it was a time to take stock and move on, regardless of whether hopes and aspirations were met or dashed.
Before 2010, when Boko Haram bestrode the North East, the spectre of insecurity was so alien to Nigerians who watched daily, how insurgents overran some parts of Libya and Iraq. Unfortunately, the nightmare has since enveloped Nigeria that most regions are not spared the horrid tales of insurgents, banditry and kidnappings, while the architecture of landscape has since changed.
In 2022, Nigerians would hope for a respite from gory tales of kidnappings, banditry and insecurity; striking fear and dread into Nigerians. They walked the land like overlords, daring, in some cases, law abiding, hapless citizens to counter them. In most instances, these outlaws dictated the ransom to pay!
In the new year, Nigerians would expect the government at the center to walk its talk on ending insecurity before the next general election.
In April 2019, reports from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) indicated that six Nigerians were convicted by an Abu Dhabi Federal Court of Appeal for funding Boko Haram
They were accused of laundering $782, 000 between 2015 and 2016. Two of the convicts, Surajo Abubakar Muhammad and Saleh Yusuf Adamu were sentenced to life imprisonment; while Ibrahim Ali Alhassan, AbdurRahman Ado Musa, Bashir Ali Yusuf, and Muhammad Ibrahim Isa were handed ten-year imprisonment respectively.
More damning, were charged with funding Boko Haram) by facilitating transfers of money from Dubai to Nigeria for alleged terror operations.
A month later, in May, the Attorney General of the Federation and Justice Minister, Shehu Abubakar Malami, told Nigerians that local investigations had revealed many highly-placed Nigerians and businessmen involved in financing terrorism.
Seven months after and counting, into the new year, no sponsor of Boko Haram has neither been named nor charged to court; to answer for their crimes against humanity.
Naming and prosecuting sponsors of Boko Haram and other forms of insecurity in the land would strike at the very heart of the matter while allowing the perpetrators should be allowed to have their day in the court. Nigerians would also expect insurgency and banditry, especially in the North, be decisively dealt.
For some time now, Nigerians who could afford it have had to jettison road travel. Nigerians would hope that security agencies would help government secure life and property and that they would freely move from one end of the country to the other; without having to resort to prayers and fasting that they would not be victims of kidnappers and bandits roaming the land without restraint.
Government would have to summon the political will to partner with state governments and deal a final crushing blow on Boko Haram and its cohorts this year so that the free movement of people and commerce can rejuvenate the economy.
Innthe last days of 2021, the polity was charged with renewed expectation when the National Assembly included direct primaries in its amendment of the 2010 Electoral Act.
Four times, in the Eighth National Assembly, President Muhammadu Buhari declined to sign the new electoral law for the 2019 general election.
And so, with the Ninth National Assembly, when the electoral law was amended to include direct primaries for elective offices, changes in the Electoral Act (2010) were greeted with mixed feelings.
A section of the polity praised the National Assembly for listening to the people and handing over power of the electoral process to the people.
The euphoria that greeted the novel amendment of direct primaries was dashed when the president, again, declined assent and returned the bill to the National Assembly.
The president explained that, by including direct primaries to select candidates for elections, it was an infringement on the right of political parties to conduct their affairs, among other reasons stated in an official correspondence to the two chambers.
An angry polity, including some federal lawmakers, cried foul and mobilised signatures to secure support to override the president’s veto.
Although the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, have assured that lawmakers would consult among themselves and their constituencies, and, on resumption of legislative duties, decide on the way forward, any contrary action would seem futile.
Why? The legislature cannot decide for political parties how to regulate their affairs, as much as it is settled in law that no outsider can decide for the National Assembly how to regulate its affairs as well.
So, this year, Nigerians wait on the Executive and the National Assembly to resolve the mode of primaries or allow political parties to determine the mode of primaries in choosing candidates for the 2023 general election.
Whichever way the pendulum swings, some would remind the ruling All Progressives Congress that its leader was a product of direct primary in December 2014.
Perhaps, the most nail-biting expectation from Nigerians would be how government resolves the fuel subsidy debacle.
Already, with the enactment and implementation of the Petroleum Industry Act, which came into effect last September, and subsidy is expected to end in June, this year, Nigerians expect social-economic buffers from government as most already dread the time when petrol prices would be left to marketers to determine. Importantly, government is expected to engage the Nigeria Labour Congress on subsidy removal as any shutdown of the economy by Organised Labour, could mean vulnerable Nigerians slipping into poverty.
The most important sector Nigerians would hope to see improvements, after security, would be the economy. In 2021, emerging from a pandemic year in 2020, no thanks to COVID-19, Nigerians had high hopes that the economy would open up opportunities for them.
COVID-19’s impact on the economy meant exports plummeted, companies downsized as most staff worked remotely (from home) and some companies simply left Nigeria for neighbouring countries.
The companies that left said as it was no longer feasible to remain in a country where combined forces of erratic power supply, volatility of foreign exchange rates and poor road networks meant doing business became harder.
Much more than its impact on the economy, government would do well to open up more testing centres and also, more vaccination centres as doing this would help stem community spread of the virus.
The deadline of December 1, 2021, for civil servants to take the vaccine can be revisited and extended, and, if need be, government can enact a vaccine mandate for the country.
Inability to curtail spread of the virus, not with the arrival of the Omicron variant, could affect political party primaries scheduled to hold later this year as it would be inadvisable to allow fully vaccinated citizens commingle with those with scant regard for the safety of others.
Nigerians would also expect government to stem inflation levels with a return to single digit which would, hopefully, lower prices of staple foods and commodities.
A Google search indicated that, as at June 2021, foreign direct investment (FDI) in Nigeria “increased by 4 per cent to $2.4 billion in 2020 from $2.3 billion in the previous year despite the COVID-19 pandemic that plagued global economies.”
This was contained in the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) World investment Report 2021.
Nigerians would want strengthening of the naira even as it was a most weakened currency in the preceding year.
With over 40 million youths unemployed, it is cheery news that the federal government’s plan to continue the Extended Special Public Works in 2022.
The ESPW, creating 774,000 jobs, across all the local government areas in the country would mean that youths, who are the main beneficiaries, would be engaged this year and, perhaps, into 2023.
In 2022, Nigerians desire power supply, stable enough for economic pursuits as well affordable healthcare; and not hospitals being mere consulting clinics. Globally, stable power is the bedrock of development and driver of the economy.
Another critical sector Nigerians would want government, state and federal, to concentrate on are the roads; completion of on-going road projects and rehabilitation of bad roads across state and federal lines.
They would also not want a situation where a citizen in need of healthcare would be turned away for lack of bed space or would have to wait long hours or even have to be barred before seeing a doctor to attend to basic medical emergencies.