Lagos — The PDP presidential candidate, Umar Musa Yar’Adua certainly has a well defined and articulated economic development agenda for Nigeria which he presented during the commissioning of Legacy House, PDP’s campaign head office in Abuja on January 11, 2007. Addressing a world press conference after the commissioning, Umar Yar’Adua had given the world an insight into how he intends to take Nigeria to the next level of development if given the mandate to succeed President Olusegun Obansanjo, who is scheduled to vacate Aso rock villa, May 29, 2007.
The seven point agenda which features energy emergency, security of lives and properties, land reforms and human capital development (compulsory education for children) also includes wealth creation/poverty alleviation and transportation infrastructure revolution.
The speech which was delivered extempore has been widely acknowledged as a treatise on development which expectedly was like sweet music to the ears of the esteemed audience which has been yearning for a paradigm shift in Nigeria ‘s development strategy. And as Goodluck Jonathan, Yar’Adua’s running mate noted in his vote of thanks, even though Yar’Adua spoke without a prepared speech, his deep understanding of the seemingly intractable socio-economic malaise of Nigeria and his passionate articulation of possible solutions are pointers to the quality of Policies and Programmes Nigerians should expect if and when Yar’Adua is voted into office as his erudition at that occasion is comparable only to a conference paper on development presented by renowned economists and Nobel laureates like Joseph Stiglitz, Jeffrey Sachs or World Bank president, Paul Wolfowitz.
But as skeptics would point out, understanding developmental issues and speaking passionately about them may, when taken in isolation, not automatically confer the wisdom and status of acclaimed development he earlier mentioned on the PDP presidential candidate. So what makes Yar’Adua stand out of the crowd?
There are a slew of reasons, chief of which is that for the first time in the chequered history of Nigeria , we are about to elect a university graduate as our president. Yar’Adua holds both a first and second degree in Chemistry. Add to that, the fact that as a young man, Umar Musa Yar’Adua’s elder brother, Shehu Musa Yar’Adua used to lock him up in libraries where he acquainted himself with knowledge and subsequently developed an abiding interest in books and reading, leading to his sojourn in the world of academics as a lecturer. Blend in his administrative experience garnered as a governor in Katsina State in the past seven years, then you can appreciate why Yar’Adua is different from the rest. In fact, apart from Odimegwu Ojukwu, APGA’s presidential candidate and Professor Pat Utomi, presidential candidate of Africa Democractic Congress (ADC) no other candidate in the race can boast of Yar’Adua’s credentials. None has occupied executive leadership position as long as Yar’Adua has, none has superior academic and intellectual credentials and none has publicly enunciated his development agenda in a fundamental manner as Yar’Adua has done.
It is proper at this juncture to take a closer look at Yar’Adua’s seven point agenda.
Energy Emergency. During his pre-primaries campaign, Yar’Adua’s media campaign was anchored on this very critical and fundamental developmental factor which is pivotal to the transition of the Nigerian economy from a consumer nation to a production oriented one.
Yar’adua’s blue print is akin to what China did when she embarked on the construction of Three Gorges dam to boost the energy needed for her industrial take-off, one that has dazzled the world with a consistent average growth rate of 10%.
India, another success story in the Far-East with economic growth rate second only to China , borrowed heavily from the World Bank to establish Independent Power Projects (I.P.P) around the country to attain their current superlative economic prosperity.
Yar’Adua’s government intends to declare a state of emergency in the energy sector so as to be empowered to take extra ordinary measures to reverse the epileptic supply that has been a hindrance to the blossoming of our economic potentials in Nigeria . Imagine for instance, how the unemployment rate will drop, if electricity is guaranteed and foreign investors choose Nigeria as location for factories that will produce goods in the West African sub-region. Consider the enormous savings that would accrue to the real sector where billions of naira is lost yearly in diesel costs. Pause and reflect on how the provision of constant and adequate electricity will make Nigeria the preferred destination for investors interested in anchoring in Nigeria or outsourcing services to Nigeria .
Yar’Adua has promised a revolution in terms of security and safety of lives and property which is readily considered a sine-qua-non for accelerated socio-Economic development. When a participant in the audience sought to know if the plan entails the creation of state police, the presidential candidate pointed out that state police may well be one of the options then asked whether any one has thought of reducing the burden on the Nigerian police as it is currently constituted by introducing private investigator services which will engage in preliminary investigative activities to be turned over to the police for further investigation as it is done in advanced societies? With a plethora of well-trained and able-bodied military personnel prematurely retired from the service as collateral damage from the numerous coups d’etat that dominated our political space in the past thirty years, there will be no shortage of men and women fit enough to establish private investigative firms. Needless to point out that uninterrupted power supply plus adequate security are the magic wand for foreign direct investment (F.D.I)
Land is another economic factor on which Yar’Adua intends to focus his developmental initiatives. According to him, his government will release land into the market. This idea is one whose time has come as many analysts have raised objections to the provision of the 1976 Land Use Decree which confers land ownership on the government. It is a truism that under the control of government land is a wasting asset but thrown into the open market place for market forces to determine value, land use becomes optimized. Imagine the tortuous experience of obtaining certificates of occupancy when land is required as collateral for a bank facility.
It is in recognition of the need to reform land use that the Federal Capital Territory , FCT, embarked on an extensive campaign to enlighten the public about the new approach to land registration and ownership in the FCT which now has a cadestal office in the minister’s office for expedited transaction. With the land use decree renewed under Yar’Adua and land put back into the market place, acquisition of huge parcels of land for mechanized farming and other industrial purpose would prompt industrial revolution. Chile in South America is a good example of a country that embarked on land use reform through minority rights bill thus resulting in Economic prosperity.
Agriculture/food security also occupies a prime position in Yar’Adua’s seven point agenda.
Education: As the Executive Governor of Katsina State , Yar’Adua dramatically increased the level of enrollment of pupil’s into the primary school system by nearly 1000%. His role in the northern states’ decision to address the diminishing admission rate of students into Ahmadu Bello University , Zaria , through the establishment of a School of Basic Studies in Funtua is a testament to Yar’Adua’s commitment to the education sector.
Wealth creation/poverty alleviation. It has been said that knowledge is power. Armed with the requisite skills, unemployment, which is responsible for poverty will be reduced to the barest minimum since there is no society without unemployment.
Yar’Adua will help us see that we need to apply ourselves in Economic ventures by exploiting economic resources endemic in our localities to improve the productive capacity of our country and change our economy from a mono-product to a multiple product basket so that Nigerians can move forward, together.
Transportation which would facilitate the movement of human, financial and material capital is also at the heart of Yar’Adua’s Economic agenda for Nigeria . The present regime has already taken a bold initiative by flagging off the reconstruction of the railway system in Nigeria .
There is no denying the fact that apart from road and perhaps, air transportation, other means of transportation have been neglected and have therefore remained undeveloped in Nigeria . Take for instance, the water ways; it is un-conducive, if not possible to travel by boat from Lagos to Warri much less Calabar or Port Harcourt . Everyday, at their own subsistent level, Ilaje people of Ondo State transport illicit gin and other products such as logs from the creeks to Lagos .
Yar’Adua is not oblivious to the potentials of water transportation which is possible in both the northern and southern parts of the country criss-crossed as they are by many rivers and tributaries. That is not all, the construction of a highway from Lagos , the economic nerve centre of Nigeria through Ondo, Edo, Rivers, Delta, Bayelsa as well as Cross River States will go a long way in opening up the creeks of the Niger Delta which is the bread basket of Nigeria , to the rest of the world.
As Yar’Adua has pointed out in the course of his pre-primaries campaign, he intends to build on the present administration’s reforms package as encapsulated in the NEEDS document which the PDP as a party has adopted. Now that democracy appears to have finally set out sturdy roots in the nation and Nigerians have adopted and assumed ownership of the on-going reforms, the task of putting Nigeria on the fast track to economic growth is already half realized. As president, Umar Musa Yar’adua will see it to a logical conclusion.
Honourable Magnus Onyibe, a development strategist is the Commissioner for Special Duties, Governor’s office, Delta state and member of Yar’Adua Campaign Organisation