THE PUNCH
The spokesman for the Northern Elders Forum, Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, shares his thoughts with OLUWAFEMI JUWE about the high expectations of the North from President Bola Tinubu, among other things
As one of the elders in the North, what’s your assessment of the state of the nation?
In one word, expectant! Yes, expectant, because we expect that President Tinubu will do phenomenally better than Buhari. The immediate past President was a woeful disappointment. He failed the nation. He failed the North. He failed the electorates that trooped out to give him the kind of votes that no other President has ever had. He raised a lot of expectations but left the country a lot worse than he met it. So, we are hoping that if Tinubu continues to be the President after all these judicial processes have been concluded, he would have learnt from President Buhari’s weaknesses and failures to create a government that is radically different from that of President Buhari because this country has to move on. We don’t have another eight years to lose. There’s a very high expectation that we will have good governance, we will have a secure country, and that we will have a compassionate government.
What aspects of governance will you want Tinubu to focus on?
Fighting corruption! Please note that I didn’t say fighting insecurity, but fighting corruption, because corruption is at the root of our insecurity; societal corruption, the corruption of our values as a people, and the corruption of all the agencies that are supposed to be fighting insecurity. If you drastically remove corruption from the processes and operations of the government and from the lives of Nigerians, you can solve the problem of insecurity in a year or two. Insecurity is a problem; so, I will have to list it among the priorities. Addressing poverty is a very serious problem; finding ways to improve inclusion – the elections have polarised the country very dangerously – so, we are in a very terrible situation because our last elections polarised the nation more.
The elections opened up a Pandora’s box that we have never seen in this country. I am hoping that Tinubu will be able to bring in some bright people who will give him some good ideas on how we can de-escalate this. So, inclusiveness should be prioritised. The new administration must find a way to make all parts of the country have a stake in the government.
Then, by all means, we want fresh and new ideas in the management of the economy. The administration should pay very close attention to the impact of liberal economic policies. Poverty levels are very high, and sometimes we tend to think that ideas alone can solve problems, no! You need to pay very close attention to the state in which people live. Not all people are beneficiaries of liberal economies. So, the poor are already really under a lot of poverty. Insecurity has compounded it. And the last thing you want to do is to create a hostile citizenry. So, the President needs to be very careful and to take very informed policies in the management of the economy so that even if he doesn’t radically liberate the poor, he also doesn’t radically impoverish them.
