By Chukwudi Ede

I belong to the school of thought that would like the next President of Nigeria be elected from a new crop of Nigerians, who have not soiled their hands and conscience by participating in any corrupt leadership of the passed administrations.

The President must be a person of timber and caliber, intelligent, mentally and physically capable to pilot the affairs of the nation without any doubt. He must be well informed and knowledgeable in domestic and foreign affairs. He must win the confidence, trust, and royalty of Nigerians through an electoral mandate. He must have participated in an openly contested election that both national and international invigilators must have adjudicated to be fair and free from corruption.

Nobody should ever assume the office of President under a cloud of suspicion and corruption; otherwise, you will spend the rest of your term apologizing for your stupidity and mistakes. This is the caveat, the chances of my becoming the President of Nigeria is one out of 140 millions. However, if elected to be the President, my actions will be swift, productive and result oriented.

During my four-year tenure in office, my government will not play a second fiddle to any foreign government. Our dealings with the rest of the world, be it our friends or enemies, will be based on a simple rule of engagement that says, TREAT US THE WAY YOU WOULD LIKE US TO TREAT YOU. On domestic policy, I shall concentrate my energy and resources dealing with four major problematic areas in Nigeria. These areas will include, but not limited to the following:

1. Fighting bribery and corruption in our government.

2. Providing better infrastructure and amenities (stable electricity, better roads, and good

drinking water).

3. Improving our educational and health systems.

4. Revamping the agricultural sector of the economy.

These areas have either received little attention or totally neglected by the previous administrations. This is not to say that I will ignore other sectors of our economy or problem areas; however, the areas I have enumerated, will receive the highest priorities in my administration.

I shall set a litmus test and establish very strict code of conducts for all the members of my cabinet. No member of my cabinet will be a person of questionable character. Nobody who has been convicted of any fraud or accused of moral turpitude will serve in my administration. They must be experts in the areas they must serve. They must be Nigerians, and the best in their fields. They must not have served in any of the passed administrations.

I shall set-up a watchdog committee that is independent of any political party, but only answerable to the President. Why? So that I will be able to keep rein on their activities should they decide to run amok. I, the President, should also, subject my self to their watchful eyes. Their mandate will be to meter out justice without fear or favor no matter where the axes fall.

Declaration of assets must be mandatory for the President, all governors, politicians and administrators who disburse public funds that will involve millions of naira. You must accomplish this exercise before assuming your office, and this declaration of assets has to be done every year you serve the public. There will be no immunity for the President, politicians, governors, cabinet members, or any civil servant who will commit any fraud or crime while serving in the office.

Fellow Nigerians, I believe that whoever will change the character and quality of our life-style in Nigeria, will have to go back to the drawing board and change the template. You can attest to this belief, from the simple response you will receive, when you ask any Nigerian if ever bribery and corruption would be stamped out in our society. Most people will tell you NEVER! That shows the hopelessness of the situation.

Our so-called leaders, right under our watchful eyes, have violated our nation, since 1960. They looted our wealth with impunity, and not even would allow us to pick-up the crumbs of their loots. Our country needs to reclaim her innocence. As the President, I will re-open investigations into the activities of many of our passed and present leaders and politicians, and will prosecute those corrupt leaders who RAPED our country.

These investigations by my administration will be thorough, civilized and firm. My government will solicit for help from foreign countries where these leaders have hid their loots. If the Nazis are still being hunted all over the world, for the crime against humanity they committed, since after the end of WW2, we have moral obligation to pursue our corrupt leaders, who violated our country by looting our resources and wealth since 1960? As the President, I will sign into law, death by firing squad for those Nigerians convicted of looting our money to the tune of one billion naira. This law will definitely help to deter potential looters. The people who put our country, and all of us, in this wrong path have to be held responsible for it.

Our infrastructures and amenities (electricity, water supply, roads, etc) are very deplorable and need some serious attentions. It does not take a genus to ask questions and find answers why there is stable electric supply in other countries like USA, and UK, but not in Nigeria. Why is it that these countries have constant water supply and good network of roads, and we do not have them in Nigeria? This kind of knowledge is worth copying from these countries. Just drive from Lagos to Benin, Abuja to Lagos, Onitsha to Enugu, and Enugu to Port-Harcourt and experience the death traps we call roads. My administration will give very serious attention to these endemic problems in our country, and finding the solutions will be my priority.

Educated people are well-informed citizens. Our bright and smart minds have to be encouraged if Nigeria is going to compete successfully with other developed countries of the world. Nigerian children, who have shown outstanding academic performance in their fields of study, must be encouraged and rewarded with scholarships to further their education or research in our domestic Universities, higher institutions of learning or foreign institutions. In my administration, our institutions of higher learning will receive adequate funding, and will be well equipped and furnished to pursue research in all fields of study. Such research works will focus mainly on solving most of our domestic problems in Agriculture, Medicine, Engineering, Laws, and Commerce and must be result oriented. My government will emphasis skill-oriented studies, and the students of technical institutions will be encouraged to go into private practices after graduation.

Good health system is paramount to the survivability of any nation. Our present health system is anything but desirable. No wonder why some of our leaders seek foreign medical attentions when they suffer from ordinary headache. Nigeria, with all her wealth, should be able to maintain first class hospitals and provide good health care to her citizens. Our doctors should be the best in Africa and compete with the best doctors in the Western world. My administration will strive hard to make above goals a reality.

Today, our food production is very anemic. In early 1950s and 1960s, Nigeria used to be self sufficient in food production and prides herself in feeding her population and other neighboring countries. Nigeria is now importing most of her staple foodstuff. As President, I shall revamp the agricultural sector of our economy. I will recapture those old good years when Nigeria used to be self sufficient in food production. How am I going to achieve this? I will utilize some of the oil revenue to modernize our system of agriculture, and encourage our small farmers everywhere to produce as much crops as possible from their privately own land. I will subsidize their crop production and pay them for crops produced. All the government owned land would be utilized for food production. Some government land would be leased out to private citizens and companies that will utilize them for food production. There will be no barn on importation of foreign foodstuff like rice, beans, wheat, maize, flour, vegetable oil, meat, poultry, fish, etc, until we start producing and storing these food items. Let the market forces of Demand and Supply determine our next line of action on restricting importation of foreign foodstuff. My administration will grant loans to small farmers to go into agricultural production. They will be encouraged to form co-operative societies and compete with one another for funds. Students who graduated from Schools of Agriculture will be encouraged to go into private practices. The farms that are adaptable to the use of farm machineries and equipment will receive assistance from the government. All hands must be on deck to feed our citizens.

We have to correct the idea that nothing works in Nigeria… Thank God, Nigeria has natural resources to fund these projects and human resources to execute them. The only thing we shall ask of him is to save us. Fellow Nigerians, especially the Villagers, my question is, what will you do if you were the President of Nigeria? You never know who is reading these opinions. It might be the President himself !

GOD SAVE NIGERIA FOR WE ARE ALREADY BLESSED.