Revisiting the suggestions for President Buhari on technology

“First of all, I would like to say congratulations to the people of Nigeria for the wisdom to elect a savior to deliver Nigeria from the known evils that have permeated through the country for so long. As someone who has lived outside of this country for the better part of his life, I appreciate the potential that Nigeria has, both in natural and human resources. I, like any other black person anywhere, constantly experience a lot of illtreatments, resulting mostly from the perceptions that our people back home are retarded, if not subhuman, as an un-voiced reason to explain why Africans cannot harness their God-given resources, and instead are dying of hunger, diseases, and poor governance. Unfortunately, although President Goodluck Jonathan, an apparently kind-hearted individual, tried his best, the problem of ridding Nigeria of corruption, excessive favoritism, and insecurity was simply too much for him.”

I wrote the paragraph above in this column in Daily Trust four years ago when President Buhari was voted into the office. I am very pleased to be able to use the same paragraph again, four years on.

Overall INEC delivered quite nicely, thanks to the various technologies deployed. The agency should be congratulated for a rather low-fraud election. Yes, there was a delay of one week, but we would rather have that than a botched election. Moreover, the delay potentially affected all candidates to equal proportions.

I am not a politician, and I do not have a favorite political figure besides the late Tafawa Balewa, of course - but I am concerned about the legacy that is inherited by our children and grandchildren. For the past many decades our children have known nothing but corruption, selfishness, and indiscipline of the highest kind on the part of most of our politicians. The country is so corrupt that even pastors, who are supposed to be the purveyors of good virtues, pray fervently for God to “favor” one or another of their internationally known corrupt presidential candidates. Sadly, many regions of the country collectively voted for corruption, with “fake rationales” that include the inability of Buhari to solve, in just four years, all the problems that took decades to create. Honestly, this does not make any sense at all: How can anyone solve Nigeria’s problems in just four years?

In fact, in the presidential election just concluded, it seems that the middle class in Nigeria went to war against the Nigerian people by aggressively promoting candidates that could potentially “take care of them,” so they could have access to fraudulent bounties, the way some of them probably did during the past couple of regimes. They don’t like the discipline that came with the current president and his efforts to keep the country on the right path. This election undoubtedly is a referendum on honesty and discipline versus corruption. Good virtues won.

One important consequence of the results of the recent presidential election is that now the process of really transforming Nigeria has started in earnest. The additional four years should help cement the process. This is victory for the youths.

Obviously, Nigerians are still hurting. One of the criticisms of the present government pertains to the integrity of some of the key people surrounding the president. The president should have the courage to get rid of these people!

Quoting the president-elect, “The new administration will intensify its efforts in Security, Restructuring the Economy, and Fighting Corruption.” These are obviously important issues, and these categories of issues are probably quite loaded in contents. However, there a few, clear and significant, prerequisites for achieving these goals.

For example, there is too much unemployment. Certainly the government (Federal or State) cannot employ everyone. So, how does the government plan to help provide jobs to millions of unemployed or under-employed Nigerians? A clear plan is needed.

I am of the opinion that technology can take a front seat in the efforts to create jobs and wealth for the people. Unlike Nigeria which has a vast amount and variety of natural resources, South Korea does not have any, but thanks to technology, it is one of the most developed countries in the world today. The question concerns how the government will create favorable conditions for tech-based employment. Isn’t facilitating locally-developed technologies a component of plausible solutions?

The trees of success in Information and Communications Technology (ICT), telecom, and online banking that President Obasanjo’s regime strategically planted have taken firm roots, and should be leveraged. Encourage young entrepreneurs, even if it means the government should start giving contracts to SMEs with good ideas on technology. Of course there would be some risks, but there will also be success stories, depending on the expansiveness of the operation. Failures have to be expected and even cherished. We cannot continue to do things the way we have always been doing and expect to have different results.

“The elephant in the room” is obviously power regeneration. Without a reliable power supply, no serious advances in technology can take place, and this too will hurt most efforts to find employment for the youths.