The Advice I Gave Buhari That Would Have Saved Nigeria From Its Current Economic Crisis —Peregrino Brimah

The election results had hardly been announced when I sent then President-elect Muhammadu Buhari “My Shopping List.” It went without saying that Buhari, the winner of the 2015 elections would need to hit the ground running like Ojukwu had hoped – as he said in an interview – of Nigeria’s leaders when Nigeria gained independence. But not only must Buhari run fast, he would also need to introduce drastic and reassuring changes to a divided and desperate Nigeria.

While obviously some of the items listed below may be tough to rapidly set into law/motion, the mere posture of pushing such dynamic changes would have had a great impact on reducing new terror that has contributed to the current recession, maintaining support of the people and inspiring necessary hope while optimally cultivating the positive power of the people, to save Nigeria from its present predicament.

In a rapidly changing world, apart from default/ ‘general governance,’ I am yet to know Buhari’s dream or vision for Nigeria and any essential important changes he has in the planning. In the global, competitive world, Nigeria must be founded. It has never been.

Without more ado, I present to you “My Shopping List” as published in major dailies on April 2nd-3rd of 2015:

Dear General Buhari: Here Is My Shopping List

Dear General,

Since we are lagging decades behind and must start planing like yesterday, here is my shopping list for you to consider as you plan your government.

I want regionalism;

I want state police;

I want capital punishment for stealing and/or with/without, of, or not of, corruption;

I want a nation founding conference;

I want strong pro-African posture;

I want organic farming and prohibition of dangerous and experimental GMO agriculture (Adesiyan’s dangerous legacy);

I want Primary and preventive health over expensive western machines and systems;

I want (pipe-borne) water;

I want the promotion of ecologically friendly research via centers and contests and support among all youth;

I want the aggressive support of farming;

I want the combating of deforestation and desertification;

I want decentralization of government;

I want restoration of the Parliamentary system;

I want shorter terms for elected officials;

I want electronic voting if we will still have voting;

I want direct democracy (refer to Gadaffi’s Green Book) with market women, professors as Jega used, and all other social groups being part of a local and central government via information technology conferencing;

I want an end to colonialist style democracy and return to African methods of selecting Philosophical kings as leaders and not ‘dirty’ politicians;

I want an absolute cut on campaign spending with jail as repudiation;

I want all campaigns to be completely equally sponsored by the government, and only sponsored a fixed amount;

I want equal media slots for all contestants;

No more impunity for politicians unless there is impunity for common thieves and armed robbers;

I want collective and public participatory governance and regular thrash-all conferences, easy thanks to modern IT tools;

Regular constituency re-evaluation of representatives with possibility of abrupt mid-term tenure truncation;

I want Nigeria to be involved in not only national matters but to play a lead role in regional and global issues. To be involved say, in sending troops and aid to combat ISIS, or rescue hurricane victims, etc;

I want investment in eco-friendly natural energy, like the natural pyramids were built to provide by our African brothers in ancient Egypt;

Vernacular spoken in school must no longer be an offence as this is our natural tongue;

I want investment in research into all ancient African natural medicine remedies. I do not like limited MRI and CT scan stuff that cost millions and will only be used by a handful, I prefer naturopathic holistic medicine that can quickly help all. We can be world pioneers in this;

Manufacturing does not have to be priority; especially if we do so by crippling the masses and patronizing the cabal as with the current car import ban crap, we must look at what pays us most as a nation, our natural endowment. It may be tourism, it may be so many things. Not all nations must manufacture, we must see what is economically and competitively advantageous for us;

I want advantage and consideration for small businesses over the cabal;

I want to continue… should I?

—List END—

It is not too late for the Buhari government to take these above raised matters serious while inviting similar suggestions from well-meaning Nigerians.

Several of the fore-listed have directly been implicated in the current collapse of Nigeria, economically, mentally, politically and socially. In some cases the opposite has been done which has led/contributed to the current recession. Of course, to be added to this list in lieu of current matters is the scrapping of the Nigerian Senate and firing of CBN governor, with bankers banished from ever occupying the position.

A year and a half has gone by. The status quo simply does not work, except for the cabal. Buhari can still leave a meaningful legacy if he starts now.

Thanks for reading.

Dr. Peregrino Brimah, @EveryNigerian.

Credit: Dr. Peregrino Brimah; @EveryNigerian