Agenda for Jonathan

President Goodluck Jonathan will take the oath of office as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria for the second time on Sunday May 29, 2011, the first being on May 6, 2010 after the death of late President Umaru Yar’adua. This time will however be different-President Jonathan has won the office on his own merit and in his own right and now has the mandate and legitimacy to “transform Nigeria”. When Jonathan became Acting President early last year, I wrote “Memo to Goodluck Jonathan” in which I counseled a limited agenda, centered on electoral reform; power; Niger-Delta and anti-corruption. This time, Jonathan must design a comprehensive programme for impacting all aspects of national life over the next four years.

The president has some immediate priorities even in this time of transition-getting critical legislation enacted into law BEFORE the inauguration, in particular the 2011 appropriation; the sovereign wealth fund; petroleum industry and the freedom of information bills. He must also ensure continued implementation of the power sector road map even through transition. The objective must be to ensure completion of the privatization of ALL PHCN unbundled entities slated for privatization within the next three months! The president must also mandate the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) and National Council on Privatization to complete concessioning of the transmission entity within the same period. Unfortunately given the post-election violence in Northern Nigeria, Jonathan will also have to design an agenda for national reconciliation to heal the deep wounds inflicted by the senseless carnage. It seems to me that he will have to isolate those extremist elements who seem intent on dividing our people, and draw a consensus across the country around moderate positions.

Beyond the immediate, Jonathan’s core objectives in my view should centre around power and infrastructure; human capital and social sector investments; deepening economic reforms and improved fiscal and macroeconomic management; and corruption and national values. In respect of power, I believe the president already has a robust strategy embedded in the power sector road map he launched in 2010. The focus now must be to remove all obstacles to the swift execution of that programme, especially labour and geo-regional obstructions and ensure that by December 2011, Nigeria has a power sector that is private sector-controlled. Beyond privatizing the PHCN entities, a strategy for turning over the ongoing National Integrated Power Projects (NIPP) to the private sector must be designed. The Yar’adua/Jonathan era has seen a lot of budgetary allocation to road infrastructure, but perhaps execution (and value-for-money) has lagged. President Jonathan must now ensure that we see tangible evidence of the budget spend in terms of vast improvements in our national road network.

The government must focus ALL its attention on social sector reforms-education; health; poverty and unemployment. The president seems to have shown some passion for education reform. In line with the trend suggested in the 2011 appropriation, we need to continue to increase investments in education and science and technology to redress the education sector disaster the nation is marching inexorably towards. Clearly we need better educational infrastructure; more emphasis on quality; better trained and motivated teachers; leveraging science and technology; and improved ethics and standards in our educational sector. The government must also seek consensus around reform of the Almajirai educational system in the North. The key health sector challenges in my view are two-fold-sector reform to ensure we have the right structures and institutional mechanisms in place and sustainable financing. The president needs a team of financial, insurance and health sector experts to review the current sub-optimal health insurance system and come up with a comprehensive reform that will ensure universal health coverage in a sustainable framework. It is clear that we have a national emergency as regards poverty and unemployment. The report of the Dangote Committee on Job Creation already provides a “roadmap” for dealing with the jobs issue, but we need a similar “Marshall Plan” for poverty alleviation, social welfare and rural development.

The agenda in respect of economic management must focus on achieving diversification from oil, focusing in my view on agriculture, solid minerals; manufacturing, transportation and tourism. Critical in achieving these are power, security, and policy reforms in these sectors. The problems of Niger-Delta militancy, Boko Haram insurrection and general state of crime and insecurity MUST be laid to rest. We also need a competition and anti-trust law to ensure what we get is a free market, not a free jungle; and continued regulatory and investment climate reforms. In the fiscal side, it would be a giant step forward if the Sovereign Wealth Fund Bill is signed into law to institutionalize better fiscal frameworks. I will also advocate an amendment to the fiscal responsibility act to compel the federal (and states?) government to devote at least seventy percent of budget to capital expenditure by 2015, with the law mandating progression to that minimum on a year-to-year basis. We also need reform of the public services, compliance with procurement regulations; and a true anti-corruption war.

I also hope Jonathan will have time for legal and constitutional reforms to enthrone a true federal system, including devolution of powers to states and local governments; fiscal federalism; independent candidacy and diaspora voting; a fair and accurate census and voters register; reform of the land use act (to modify or remove the consent requirements), and introduction of commercial courts. Finally I believe the president must focus on national values and ethical re-orientation.