Tuesday Column By VICTORIA NGOZI IKEANO
vikeano@yahoo.co.uk 08033077519
Should you be one of those that do not keep tab of dates, you would nevertheless be aware that the month of May had arrived. First reminder was the deluge of ‘happy new month’ messages you would have been receiving from the very morning of May. Second is the May Day a.k.a. Workers Day holiday that comes with the first day of this month and the associated celebration (notably, march pasts, speeches, talk shows about the occasion on radio and television stations). However, beyond these is that the month of May 2023 is a significant one for Nigerians; as significant as the month of February, 2023. Like February 2023, May is a month of great expectations for us. We are all expectant, eagerly looking forward to May 29 when a new administration with a new president will take over from outgoing President Muhammadu Buhari who had been on the saddle for eight years; just as people were eager to go cast their votes on February 25, buoyed by the fact the election would usher in a new administration.
In February there was political tension in the land, engendered by competitive nature of the then pending February 25 presidential and national assembly elections, given that at least two of the front runners are political giants. Thus the nation was more or less encompassed in a political war of a sort in particularly February and most Nigerians were eager to get the February 25 polls done and dusted so we could return to some semblance of normality. In this month of May there is also some tension of a different kind though, arising from rumours in some quarters about plans to scuttle the May 29 inauguration by some aggrieved persons who believe the result should have gone some other way. From all indications though, President Buhari is committed to a hitch-free hand over to the President-Elect. I am of the view that the expectant May 29 change of baton will pass off peacefully.
The month of February was peak of the political campaigns; in the weeks leading up to D-Day, February, 25, there was a flurry of activities on the campaign train as the major parties and their flag bearers upped their political strategies for wooing voters. And in this month of May, there is a similar rush of activities at both the Presidential Villa and Government Houses as outgoing governors and the president strive to clear their executive tables for the new sheriffs that would start calling the shots by 12p.m of May 29. President Buhari is due to commission some landmark infrastructural projects this month. Although there are not many new projects in Buhari’s tenure, his administration marked the end of the era of abandoned projects that had been a feature of our previous governments and to wit, a channel for corruption. Each succeeding administration budgetted humongous sums of money for a litany of projects, the contractors were mobilised with huge amounts, they then abandoned these projects and were hardly called to order. The next government starts a new cycle of awarding brand new projects, most contractors abandoning them half way or even at foundation stage, etc, etc. Soon our country became a huge dump site of abandoned projects, littered with white elephant projects which were actually an eyesore. President Buhari stopped this wasteful practice. His administration was more concerned with completing projects started by his predecessor than starting new ones. This is a good legacy by him that is worthy of commendation and emulation. Good enough some state governments are also toeing this path of making it a point of duty to complete projects started but uncompleted by their predecessors. It makes economic sense.
However, there is one project which President Buhari would have liked to be credited with but which his government has been forced to put on hold because of the exigency of time. It is the National Housing and Population Census, which was overdue. The last census was some 17 years ago in 2006 and some states disputed its result. They included Nasarawa state whose total population then was put at a little over three million whereas the state’s Karu local government area that shares border with the federal capital territory (FCT) harbours millions of people, most of them persons that work or do business in Abuja. Experts say a head count ought to be conducted every ten years. So, the next census was due in 2016, a year after President Buhari and his APC assumed office at the centre. Apparently the government had not quite found its footing and so not prepared for it. Apparently too, the outgoing president did not want it to be said that his administration skipped an important national assignment that had been due since 2016. So it fixed it to hold before end of its tenure in 2023.
Some people had expressed fears that having two landmark events, namely, the general elections and the national census same year would be a herculean task. But the National Population Commission (NPC) assured repeatedly that it was up to the task, pointing out that this year’s census would be a digital one, driven by technology so it would be more efficient requiring less number of days to be undertaken. It was originally slated for April and later postponed to this month, May 3 to 6 to be precise. And now it has been rescheduled indefinitely due to exigency of time. In this month of May, all eyes are on inauguration day, May 29. The government is busy with clearing its table, preparing its handover notes and getting everything set for the incoming government. It is a transition month when things are being wound down. The census now devolves on the new government to be sworn in towards end of this May. Although NPC officials say they are set for the census anytime the new administration wishes it in that they have undertaken some 80 percent of the processes required, the new government would certainly want to settle down first before thinking of conducting a national population and housing census. It cannot be this year 2023.
Similarly, the Buhari administration has shelved removal of fuel subsidy that was planned before June, pushing it over to the succeeding administration. The president should have summoned the political will to go through with the removal. Fuel subsidy has to go because there are compelling reasons for its removal. The onus is now on the new administration post May 29 to map out its implementation strategy. It appears the incoming administration to be led by President-Elect Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu already has its work cut out for it.
